Let Your Job Set You Free!
“ Freedom is realizing you have a choice”-T.F.Hodge
For many people freedom is having leisure time when they come home from work or are on holiday. It permits them to do spend time with their loved ones and to do the things they enjoy most. This is essential and very true.
But to me freedom means also choosing the meaning and purpose I want to give to my life. And to live these values each day a little bit better than the day before.
My work as a Lean Performance Improvement consultant helps me to cultivate an important meaning and purpose . The biggest satisfaction I get actually from helping others at finding that meaning and purpose in their work.
Luckily my work is full of meaningful moments. This is so because the Lean methodology creates a win-win situation between the goal of the company to become more productive and the need of self-realization of the people.
Intrinsic Motivation
“People are born with intrinsic motivation, self-esteem, dignity, curiosity to learn, joy in learning.”- W.Edwards Deming
All persons want to have a choice in life so that they can pursue their dreams. But what does this desire for freedom and self-realization really mean?
Psychologists have found out that we all share the following 3 needs:
- Autonomy: to feel we have a choice and we are the source of our actions
- Relatedness: to have meaningful relations and a sense of purpose
- Competence: to grow and learn every day, and to feel we can cope with everything that happens to us.
People that have fulfilled these 3 psychological needs, or are at least very much aware of them, have a strong purpose. They find it easier to live each day in the direction they want to go.
A person that experiences autonomy, relatedness and competence has an intrinsic motivation, a driver from within that pushes him or her forward to overcome difficulties and pursue dreams.
Strengthening our intrinsic motivation starts by having a clear goal so that we can adjust your trajectory when we are deviated, and by setting up the environment that makes us succeed.
Finding Intrinsic Motivation In Your Job
“Pleasure in the job puts perfection at work.”- Aristotle
A person that wants a life with meaning and purpose cannot leave his or her job out of the equation. The impact of the time spent at the work environment is just too much. We are one and the same person in and outside of our job.
Our job is an opportunity to develop our self-awareness and to create an identity as a proactive person. To become someone eager to develop his or her autonomy, relatedness and competence also at work.
But there is a problem. The vast majority of the companies do not understand the true nature of human motivation. As a consequence there is no clear alignment between people’s needs and the objectives of the company.
Other companies are aware of these needs but they cannot “walk the talk”. They are just not capable of constructing an environment that stimulates true employee engagement.
7 Steps to unleash the force of your intrinsic motivation
“Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty”- Frank Hubert
What can we do if there is a gap between our desires and the current content and environment of our job?
First of all we should be not put all the blame at our company. This would just be a way to escape from our personal responsibility. Most likely we also have within ourselves a dysfunctional belief system and some suppressed emotions that need to be transformed if we want to become fully empowered.
After having responsiblized ourselves, we are ready develop a vision and upgrade our mindset so that we take the best advantage of all available and future opportunities.
The following 7 steps have helped me in many occasions to find my “True North”:
1.Look for your deep purpose
I invite you to take a step back and go to a special or quiet place. Think of a few moments when you were particularly energized and engaged in your work. What do these moments have in common?
Why were they meaningful to you? What was the deeper purpose you wanted to live in these moments?
The answers to these questions help to define what you are looking for and what person you want to become.
2. Envision your ideal job and work environment
Start from your purpose and permit yourself to dream and write down a description and aspects of your ideal job.
If you find this difficult, think of a situation when you were in contact with someone you truly admired and you felt a profound desire to act as that person. What exactly is it that your desired so much?
3. Define the life you need to live and the skills to develop
In this phase you become captive of your desires. In order to find your liberty through your ideal work, you will have to connect to new types of people and absolutely dedicate a lot of time to your growth.
Take the responsibility to develop your skills. Nowadays MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) permit you to learn just about anything, at 0 cost and from your home.
4. Define what you can do right now
It is important to start acting immediately because any action, even if it is small, is a first step in the right direction.
Try to perform your job in a way that provides you more meaning and purpose. You can do this within your team and with the persons on which you can have an influence. Your colleagues and boss will see the difference and appreciate your effort.
Put yourself in a learning state. Do this by dedicating every day at least 2 hours to your education and development. Think about reducing your television and social media time, even your working hours if necessary.
5. Keep a journal
A daily journal and a weekly plan/check sheet are essential to make goals happen. It provides profound inspiration and helps to clarify what we really want in our life and job.
With journalling we can monitor daily process and evaluate the lessons learnt so that we remain on track and continue to improve.
6. Communicate your plan
It is true that most companies are not so good at actively promoting intrinsic motivation. But this does not mean that they don’t appreciate this trait in their personnel.
Ss soon as you feel a change in yourself, it is a good idea to talk with your boss or human resources about your plan in a realistic way. Tell them how you see yourself in one or five years time, and ask if they can help to practice and develop your skills.
7. Prepare yourself for a marathon, not a sprint
Feeling freedom and give meaning and purpose to your life and your career is a long, maybe even a never ending journey.
Stephen Covey says that private victory proceeds public victory. Private victories are taking on new habits and radically changing something about yourself or your circumstances.
Public victories take time and you will encounter road blocks. So you need to approach your goals like you’re training for a marathon, not a sprint.
Conclusion
“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.”- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Life is full of good opportunities to grow as a person and as a professional. Finding and acting upon these opportunities is a responsibility we cannot delegate to others.
You need trust to empower and continue to re-challenge yourself. As Benjamin Hardy says, the only way to acquire self-trust is to do what you say you are going to do.
Do you want to find out more?
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