Success and surpassing yourself can only be accomplished through passion

My mother always told me: Find a job that makes you happy. If you like your work, everything else will follow! At 45, I can say that this still rings true for me. In an ideal world, all our work should be motivated by our passion.

Are you young, still in school, and don’t know what kind of job you want? My advice is, go with something that you are passionate about. Forget the salary, forget the social status, and don’t focus on what your parents or other people might think of your future job. Do it for yourself.

A salary is necessary but not as important as the pleasure, the positive mental health benefits, and the feeling of achieving goals and surpassing your own expectations. So many of my friends have decent jobs at large companies and make a good salary, but at the end of the day are not happy, hate their job, and detest their work environment. For some of them, it has led to poor mental health and depression.

If the thought of going into the office on Monday morning makes you nauseated, generates additional stress, and makes you dream of Friday afternoon, it’s not a good sign. Being happy and having a high quality of life are worth much more to me than an extra $10,000 or $20,000 a year. In fact, these positive feelings are priceless!

If you have a passion for a particular field, it’s easier to enjoy yourself at work. As a result, the extra effort you have to put in to prove yourself and climb the ladder within your company will feel more like a hobby that gives you a sense of purpose and accomplishment.

Many employees think about and seek solutions to complex problems outside of working hours. They learn new technologies in their spare time, or they code/design/edit videos for fun in order to be more efficient and expand their knowledge base. But why are they doing this? What drives these people to spend their time on something that isn’t immediately lucrative? I believe the answer is (again): passion.

Just because there isn’t an immediate remuneration at the end of the day doesn’t mean these people won’t be rewarded. In most cases, it’s precisely this type of employee who is the first to volunteer when an exceptional situation requiring extra effort occurs. It’s this type of employee who agrees to stay an hour or two after work to help a client in trouble, who agrees to help out one evening or on weekends to make sure everything is working properly… And guess what? They do it with pleasure!

Believe me, this kind of gesture rarely goes unnoticed by employers. As a result, your passion for your job will be rewarded.

Find your passion, then find your job! 🙂
Eric