Dahlia Akhaine

12 Jul, 2020

How passion for work can almost guarantee success

As someone who has experienced both sides of the coin, I understand that loving what you do gives you a heightened sense of joy, fulfillment, and general satisfaction for your work.
Whether you're a solopreneur (work for yourself) or work with a business/ brand, loving your work can almost make all the difference.
And yes, I said almost.

People who love what they do often outperform those who don't

I remember spending hours and hours in the early days of my career just working endlessly because I never felt the strain, never felt under pressure as I had a passion for my work.
Unfortunately, this did not automatically guarantee success for me.
The reason is that passion can get you through the door but cannot keep you in or guarantee your progress to the next door. And the next.

I define passion for work as having immense love, enthusiasm and energy for what you do and a drive that pulls you towards what you do.
But passion is not enough. To ensure success at your place of work, you develop these three traits and build them into your everyday life and habits.

1. Intrinsic motivation: I first learnt about this phrase a couple of years ago while applying for a position at the Interaction Design Foundation. One of their core work cultures was intrinsic motivation. And despite hearing the founders talk about it, I decided to move further and do some research of my own.
Intrinsic - emanating naturally
Motivation - a reason (drive) for acting in a certain way
Simply put, intrinsic motivation is a personal drive to do or achieve something based on your values and internal impulses.

People who can stay in the long run and succeed are people who do not always need external motivation. In seeking out advice or motivation from a mentor or friend, the frequency and consistency make all the difference.
To develop intrinsic motivation, identify the big and small things you love about your work.
Think about the result of what you do.
How do your users or customers respond every time you provide that product or service?
Think about what you do.
The little bits and pieces, step by step, that comes together to make a whole.
As a content creator, I find joy in researching my work. It's like a little bounty hunt where at the end I find gold.

2. Work-life balance: One of the most important constituents that contribute to our success at work is our personal lives. Finding work-life balance is not just about reduced hours at work but the ability to manage one's time such that we can meet up with tasks and activities on both ends.
My first experience with a burnout at work was due to my inability to manage time properly. And because I loved what I did so much, I put in so much time at work without realizing the essential things from which I was taking it out.

To achieve work-life balance, be intentional about your goals.
Write down the things that matter to you, such as attending your children's school plays or showing up early to work. Set up a routine that you follow strictly and be intentional about following through.

3. Intentionality: This brings us to our last point, intentionality.
Intentionality says "I know that I want to become a millionaire so I will not only put my mind into it but also my actions".
To be intentional is to develop a lifestyle of taking deliberate actions towards achieving the goals you want to accomplish.
Don't overthink it, just do it.

In the past, I would beat myself up for doing certain things or making decisions I considered unnecessary. But they were tied to my goals.
The reason I (like most people) do this is that we place society's perception of what "works for us" over ours.
Let's imagine that I want to become a fitness influencer and personal trainer because I have developed practical fitness strategies that work.
To society, it would seem crazy to invest so much money in online advertising and spending 70% - 90% of my time recording and photographing my exercise routines photographs to post online.
But because I know that this meets the goals I have for my life, I am intentional about the exact steps I need to do to make.

Despite being passionate about what we do, we must also be intentional about what we need to do to get where we want to go.
Remember that intentionality is a personal practice, focus on the things that are personal to you.
Don't overthink it, just do it.

Passion for one's work can surely be the driving force we need to set started on the race to success. But we need to learn to love the track and not just focus on the destination.
Be intrinsically motivated to keep going, identify the factors that can and will affect your journey and find a balance. And lastly, be intentional about enjoying every part of the race and crossing the finish line. Share this article if you found it useful.
And mention me (if on Instagram @add.some.zest), I have other valuable content like this for you.

Until next time, thank you for reading.