How to Build Job Satisfaction
By Billy Arcement—The Candid Cajun
Copyright 2021
Life is too short to work at a job that brings daily dissatisfaction. It doesn’t matter what type of work you do. You owe it to yourself to find satisfaction with your work. If you are unhappy on the job, that unhappiness will spread to all part of your life. Unhappy workers make unhappy spouses, parents, and friends. Here are tips on how you can make your job a more satisfying experience and remove stress, unhappiness, and frustration from your job environment forever.
Take pride in your work—Whether you dig ditches or run a billion dollar corporation, give every action the best you have to offer. Don’t accept second-rate performance. Doing your best is a prideful act. Knowing you’ve done your best is a prideful feeling. So, be proud!
Bring enthusiasm to your work—Your thinking controls your attitude. Since you have total control of your thought process, you control your attitudes. Now I know some of you are saying, “Billy, I just can’t be enthusiastic about this boring job.” Let me challenge you to change your attitude and act enthusiastically, no matter how bad you feel. By acting enthusiastically, you will soon feel enthusiastic. By feeling enthusiastic, you will be enthusiastic. By being enthusiastic, you will begin to view your job differently. Don’t dismiss this idea without trying it first. A warning—this may change your life.
Look beyond the routine parts of your job—Exam your daily activities to see if you can come up with ways to make the activities more fun, exciting, and rewarding. Be creative. Think hard. You will surprise yourself with the number of possibilities that you surface with just a little creative thinking. Can you add more to what you do? What can you do that no one else is doing? What is needed that is not now being done? Can I do these activities? Answering these questions will open an endless array of opportunities to grow and build job satisfaction.
Become the expert in your field—Earl Nightingale first stimulated me to think about this possibility. He said that by studying our job for one hour a day while making permanent notes, in a five-year period we could become an expert in that discipline. Strong concentration in a specialty niche is a great way to build your expertise. Commit to this process and you open multiple opportunities for advancement on your job. You will also build enthusiasm for the subject matter because the more you learn about a subject, the higher your interest becomes. It’s a self-feeding process that can bring outstanding results to your career possibilities.
Always be professional—Acting professionally means you will always work at the highest standards. You cooperate with peers. You avail yourself to those who need your expertise. You do things right the first time. Professionals enjoy their work. Amateurs find excuses to be unprofessional and complain about how boring and unchallenging a job they have.
Avoid self-limitations—Our thinking can sometimes limit our possibilities. Don’t box yourself into a lesser posture because of your own self-limiting thoughts. We have far more abilities than we give ourselves credit for having and we seldom challenge ourselves to stretch beyond the routine. Working with pride, enthusiasm and a high degree of expertise automatically breaks the bondage of self-limitations. What limits are holding you back? What limitations are building dissatisfaction with your work?
Build a library of information—One needs to have resources available in times of need. Invest in books, tapes, and videos about your job. Attend seminars. Network with others in your field. Write personal notes and implement key ideas learned from these resources. All contribute to building your expertise and job satisfaction.
Look in your own pastures first—Cows are always trying to eat the grass on the other side of the fence. They, like us, often think that the grass is greener in the other pasture. We ignore the opportunities under our feet and tend to look in distant places for satisfaction. By implementing the ideas previously discussed, we make our own pastures green and reduce the need for looking over the fence.
B.C. Forbes said it best. He said, “Look upon your work as the lever by which you can rise in the world. To get the best and most out of life, put the best and most of yourself into it. Eventually, each of use gets the reward we merit.”