Have you been constantly pondering about how to get satisfaction from your job? This salient question is as paramount as our well-being, especially with the fact that we live in a fast-paced society where things are rapidly changing.
This has undeniably caused a lot of people to lose their jobs over the past few years, hence, fewer people have got more work load.
Today, employer expectations have also escalated. And as the competition increases, you find yourself struggling to maintain a work-life balance while enhancing your efficiency at your job; it could be quite draining. Only few organizations are intentional with ensuring their workforce enjoy rewarding employee experience.
So, here are a few tips to help you experience satisfaction from your job.
- Celebrate Your Wins
When you complete a project successfully, don’t fail to make a toast to it! Say well done to yourself. That could be a sign of getting satisfaction from your job. Yes, it may sound so conventional, but effective. This will help you to remember what’s significant and put you in a positive frame of mind.
One favourite quote of Elon Musk is “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favour”.
Agreeably, sometimes people get so much done that they tend to easily forget how hard it was for them before to do those things. Look at it this way. You’ve grown. As a result, you can squash some things that are crushing you. So, why not reward yourself in little ways when you get things done? This is an incredible way of deriving satisfaction from your job.
Remember, it could be some new clients you’ve been able to win over for the company or some projects that you were able to finish. It may be something menial or colossal. However, rewards for success tend to inspire us more than the criticism that comes after failure.
Interestingly, folk wisdom has it that “If a child lives with praise, he learns to appreciate”. This applies to adults, too. If you learn to compliment yourself for jobs you do well and tasks you undertake with excellence, you’ll begin to see joy in the growth that comes from the work you put into yourself.
2. Make Friends with Optimistic Colleagues
There’s always two kinds of people in any work space: those that abhor their jobs and those that adore their jobs. There’s an aura of negativity that flows from those that resent where they work and as ‘misery always needs company’ they spread despondency to you. You might want to avoid them if you want to keep getting satisfaction from your job.
Ideally, make friends with those who love to come to work every day and strive to be the best. Association heavily impacts how we view things. Sooner and not later your perspective about your job will change. And you’ll see how amazing your job is. Remember, what you perceive when you look depends on you.
3. Take On Challenging Projects
When you’re given a project that’s challenging and outside of your comfort zone, it can offer you a great opportunity. This can be a wonderful way to expand your skill set and get considerable satisfaction from your job.
Be curious. If a project outside of your comfort zone comes along, it’s always a chance to grow. Don’t shy away from the taxing stuff and expect someone else to do it. Let that someone be you! It will make you study more, learn more and work more; however, it will also make you grow. You generally feel better when you do something that you otherwise didn’t know you could do.
4. Focus On Your Strengths
While it’s awesome to challenge yourself by undertaking herculean tasks, it’s also germane that you focus more on the things you’re good at. There are things that without a doubt come easy for you to do. Focus more on them.
As far as stretching yourself and stepping out of your safe space can go, it can be really draining if you’re always doing things that you’re not yet ‘strong’ in. Do more of the things you’re prominently good at; those things that make your strength shine.
5. Avoid Procrastination
There is truism in the saying that procrastination is the thief of time. This could hamper satisfaction from your jobs. Aliyah had promised to pop in and see her aged professor, Mr. Biyi. He was her first choice lecturer in high school. While her Prof waited to see her, she dragged her feet over and over.
Finally, she rescheduled for the first weekend of August. On the first Monday of August 2020, she got a surprise call from her professor “Your lecturer has gone home”, his widowed wife announced. It was a day Aliyah never wished to relive.
So, don’t push to tomorrow what can be done today. You’ve not really relieved yourself of the responsibility of doing it. You’ll first worry about not doing it and then you would have added to your workload the next day, if not an irreparable damage.
More so, let’s come to terms with the fact that no one likes a messy table. When you keep pushing projects, tasks and events to the future, you increase your anxiety over those things. This way, you not only reduce your joy in doing them, but in also extracting satisfaction.
Imagine waking up and preparing for work only to remember that you had some carryovers from the previous day. Yikes! That could be daunting. So, the secret is handling tasks immediately as they come.
6. Eat Light Lunches
Who doesn’t like the sound of this? There’s such a term as ‘hangry’ and it’s a state of anger induced by hunger. It’s of essence you realise that your ‘gut’ controls how you feel almost as much as your brain does. And when you’re starving, you start feeling irritable.
In the same vein, when you eat heavy lunches, you become weak and demoralised if not neutralised. While your body struggles to digest the heavy food you’ve ingested into your body, your mind will have difficulty concentrating.
It’s imperative that you have lunch, but more importantly for those meals to be light. The goal is to snack on something light enough to combat hunger and make you feel comfortable. It is not heavy enough to make you feel full.
7. Develop A Healthy Relationship With Your Boss
Developing a cordial relationship with the person you directly report to is not only crucial to your growth at your workplace but also to your peace of mind during work hours. No one says be best friends with your boss. Rather establish great communication skills and ensure to build trust. It can be very productive for you individually and for the organisation collectively.
Unarguably, your boss has the knowledge you need to succeed. He or she cannot do his task or accomplish his desires without your help. So, he/she shares a vital interdependence with you.
If you do not accomplish your work, your superior will by no means shine for their typical responsibilities. This could make them come at you over any gimcrack mistake. Notwithstanding, with a good relationship, corrections are made without friction. Then this way, you will gain satisfaction.
Conclusion
Indeed, there’s no easy way to be satisfied with your job. It takes wits, grit and intentionality. You have to first decide that you would be satisfied and love what you do, then take the necessary steps to see that you manifest your desires.
