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?