Getting ready to go to work every day isn’t always the easiest thing to contemplate, but as you drag yourself out from under those warm covers, there should hopefully be a few positive thoughts about the day ahead. No matter what the circumstances of your life, no matter how stretched your finances or fraught your relationships, there are many ways in which you can turn your day around as you walk through those office doors.
Why do you have a smile on your face when you are getting ready for work?
You’ll learn something about yourself. No single day is the same as the day before. You will be making hundreds of (mini) decisions, and you will constantly be receiving the feedback on the decisions that you made yesterday or last week. Analysing what worked and what you would change in the future is a key part of being engaged at work – if you care, then you can genuinely become a more efficient operator and a more responsive colleague. Take those learnings and get ready to do things differently.
Your loved ones are depending on you. There is no higher motivation that having a family at home, a partner to live your dreams with or someone that you are considering spending the rest of your life with. You want to be their “rock”, and it is an inescapable fact of life that money will help a great deal in securing that. You might not have your dream job just yet, but when that cash drops into your account at the end of the month, there is no better feeling than when you are providing for those you love.
You’ll have an opportunity to help someone. As with many things in life, you have so many more opportunities to grow when you give rather than when you take. Being generous with your time and sharing your experience with others is one of the most rewarding parts of being in a team, and you can be certain that others will be more than happy to share their expertise with you when it is required. Sitting with your head down at your desk all day might ensure that you get your work done quickly, but if you don’t make a difference to anyone else, they won’t make a difference to you.
Being in it together makes you stronger. Enjoying the good times and enduring the bad times is one of the unique aspects of work. Once you have worked at the same place for a couple of years, you will have experienced a variety of situations with your colleagues, and you can learn together as you continue on the journey. Many people see their work colleagues as their second family, and I very much believe that we are shaped not only by our relatives and friends, but also by those people with whom we spend our working day.
You’re making a unique difference. Why would we get out of bed at all if we thought that we weren’t going to leave our mark on the world? You may not be sure which decisions will work out and which ones will fizzle out, but you can be sure that your impact will be felt. You don’t have to reinvent to wheel – just a positive comment in a tough meeting can sometimes be enough to influence minds.
I go to work for all of these five reasons. Do you have any other ones?