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Tips and stories to add value to you and your organisation

Where’s Your Passion?

18 June 2012

Take a look around you. Are you floating dejectedly through life? Or are you finding the passion in your work and enjoying what you do?

‘Passion’ is a much abused word and telling a potential employer that you’re ‘passionate about filing cabinets and have always wanted to work in the archive and retrieval industry’ is probably a total lie. However, people think that by inserting the word ‘passionate’ into a sentence they can fool people into believing they’re committed enough to warrant hiring for a job.

Passion can’t be faked. It means the excitement you feel when you have ‘that’ task to do. It’s about being interested in your profession, taking time to read up on trends and developments and finding yourself smiling when other people are grumbling. I don’t mind if it’s raining today …I have some coaching to do and that joy of doing a job I love always trumps the weather.

Recently a client was struggling to convince his manager that he really did want a big promotion. The client wailed to me ‘why doesn’t anyone believe me – I really want the job’ …and yet although he was saying the right words, his actions seemed to indicate he was indifferent to the opportunity. ‘Saying passion’ isn’t enough …we have to ‘do passion’ as well. Eventually my client realised this, produced a blistering piece of work and in doing so secured his promotion.

You can’t keep a passionate person down. They keep overcoming obstacles, work happily to get the job done, seek out new opportunities and treat everyday as a treat to be savoured, rather than a chore to be endured.

Now, your task is to score yourself on a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high) for the amount of passion you feel towards your current role. Have a look at the result. Are you happy enough with this score? (Mine’s a 9 by the way…rising to a solid 10 on Radio-Rich days).

If it’s a low score then maybe talk to someone and start to make changes in your working life.

If it’s a high score, take a tea-break and feel smug for five minutes. It’s okay to be passionate and enjoy what you do!

A modern career doesn’t have to be complicated and any job can be fulfilling if you can find the passion, so this week go looking for yours! Happy hunting!