When the passion is gone

Posted on 18/08/2016 by Victoria Linke

Passion is a very important emotion that one must have to live a fulfilled life.  The problem is the majority of people in the world are waking up each day with lack of passion, energy and zest for what they do for a living.  People are going to work, just ‘plodding along’ and continuously watching the clock to get through the day. Is this a way to live? It definitely shouldn’t be!

However, a lot of people don’t have the opportunity or confidence to take a leap into another role or may feel afraid they might fail.  If this is the case, instead of wanting to move to another role, why not bring passion into your current role. By doing this, you will feel a lot better about the work you do and your positive attitude will shine through to others in the workplace.

At my current workplace, we work in a tight-knit team and support each other in finding passion in our roles. See our tips below, how you too can ignite passion into your role:

1)    Ask your manager if you can work on extra projects that are relevant to your role but also align with your passion.  One of our team member’s has a passion for training, so each fortnight she is conducting a training session for the team.  This develops her skills and it benefits the team and the organisation.

2)    Write down 5 key things that you enjoy about your role.  This is a great activity to feel positive and motivated in your role.  Once you have done this, try to focus on these areas regularly in your position.

3)    Learn something new! ‘Learning something new, lights up our brain and engages our senses that can powerfully reignite our passion at work.’  This could be learning about a new program in the office or asking to help out a colleague in their role.  It doesn’t have to be big; it just has to be enough to ignite your passion back into your role.

4)    Ask your manager if you can partake in extra courses that will benefit your learning.  This will show you are proactive and want to develop your skills. It also demonstrates you are determined and interested to take your role to the next level.

5)    Reconnect with your strengths. Think back to why you were employed in the first place and what attracted you to the role you are in?  By reconnecting with your strengths, you will start to build up confidence in yourself as well as acknowledge what you have achieved and where you can grow.

6)    Engage with the team. Team-building activities can help you and the team feel more focused and passionate about their workplace. For example, we have initiated a joint team focus for the year that the team came up with themselves. Allowing staff to create their own goals (in addition to already set ones) will hold the team together and help everyone to support each other. 

7)    Take risks and do put those ideas forward. If you feel those frustrations coming through from outdated processes or systems that don’t work, have a think about what you can do to change things. Putting forward your ideas can be a risk; however it could be the answer to making things work more smoothly and efficiently. Even if your ideas and suggestions are not implemented, having those conversations and getting out of your comfort zone will assist you to feel part of the team and business.

8)    Tell your boss. Sometimes your manager won’t know how you are feeling and therefore won’t be able to support you to feel more passionate about your role. It may not be easy, but having a catch up with your manager about your concerns can make a big difference. They may just have some ideas to help you feel more engaged.

Focusing on bringing more passion into your role, will make you feel motivated and have a sense of achievement.  The overall result of this will be a higher achieving team and a better workplace for everyone.