Scott H Young

Do you hate your job? With popular books like The 4-Hour Workweek and It’s Called Work for a Reason, you probably aren’t alone. Most people will tell you the problem is the job. They say you need to find something your passionate about. The problem isn’t you, it’s the job.

But sometimes it is you. Your distaste for work might come from something other than a job description. In order to love work, you need to change how you deal with it.

Work is a Relationship

When a relationship goes bad, part of the problem might be that it just wasn’t a good match. You weren’t right for each other.

But part of the problem might be how you handle relationships. Jealousy, nagging or commitment issues aren’t usually desirable, no matter what your personality type is. Finding a match is important. But unless you have a healthy attitude and ability to handle relationships, they will never work.

Your relationship with work is the same. Finding the right match, or your passion, is critical. But without getting the right attitude and behaviors towards your work, you’ll always hate it.

Hate From Force

Many people report to hate their jobs, even though they actually feel happier when working. In the book Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi showed research that suggested most people’s leisure time feels empty and boring. At work they are engaged and rate themselves as feeling content. But when asked what they would rather be doing, they want to relax.

Isn’t this insanity? That we’re driven to do what makes us feel worse, and are completely unaware of it?

I believe the reason is because of force. Leisure is optional, work is necessary. Because you choose to relax, that makes you feel happier about it than the work you are forced to do. This is why many people enjoy hobbies but hate work. Both can be equally engaging and challenging, but only one is a choice.

Work is a Choice

How do you remove this unnecessary hate of work. Realize that work is a choice.

Some work might be necessary to buy food and shelter. But unless you are nearing extreme poverty, your income probably covers that several times over. Tuition, clothes, travel, entertainment and cars are all luxuries. Don’t mistake them for the necessities.

If you regard work as a choice, two things happen:

• You become more aware of your actual level of passion for the job.
• Any passions you do have can be expressed.

If work is only a choice, you might realize that you absolutely hate your job. As a result, your goal should be to start looking for a new job immediately, even if you need to take a cut in pay.

But what you might realize is that the chains of necessity are depriving you of taking any enjoyment out of a job you might like. If you have the power to choose, then you can appreciate work more. I know many people that got into a career they enjoyed, but feeling forced to work slowly twisted any joy they got from it until they were left with hate.

Building a Work Ethic

Beyond just your attitudes, you need to take a look at how you approach work. If any pressure or difficulty makes you want to jump on a plane to Hawaii, then even a great job will make you miserable. Without a strong work ethic, you can’t get the intrinsic benefits work can offer.

A strong work ethic means you can get satisfaction from working hard and you’ve disciplined yourself to overcome initial frustrations. This work ethic takes practice and skill. Relationships with people won’t work if you lose your temper with the first fight. Similarly, your relationship with work can’t function if you don’t have a work ethic to get you over the hard parts.

I love to write. Although I get paid to do it, I would keep doing it even if it paid me nothing and I was broke.

However, it can usually take ten to fifteen minutes of thinking and tweaking before I settle upon an idea to write about. Sometimes I can write off articles immediately without stopping and other times I can sit at my computer for half an hour, playing with ideas without finding a topic and angle I like.

During these difficult periods, the immediate urge is to give up. But I’ve learned if I can push through momentary creative blocks, the work can be incredibly satisfying. Once you build up a pace, you feel as if nothing can slow you down.

Work can give difficulties in little blocks like these, or major blocks with a manager who can’t meet results with his employees or a programmer who doesn’t know where to start a project. Building a work ethic means you can push through these frustration barriers and actually enjoy the work you do.

Changing the Role of Work

I don’t want to suggest you should stick with a job you hate. I’d never suggest you hang on to a toxic relationship, and the same is true here. But don’t just look for a match. Consider your behaviors and attitudes towards work. Unless you change your perceptions of work and build a work ethic to move through barriers, any job will be painful.

Focus is essential to getting work done. If you can’t engineer a productive flow to your work, everything crawls to the finish. Tasks become a sluggish crawl to the finish that is both inefficient and almost painful to work through. Any writer that has felt writers block or a programmer stuck on a difficult problem can probably relate from experience.

Focus is also critical for quality. One of the most popular downloads on this site is a free e-book on holistic learning. What I haven’t mentioned is that I wrote the entire e-book in one sitting. The 10,000+ word document I finished in a five hour marathon session of writing. This was all possible because I engineered a state of flow.

Flow - The Key to Happy and Productive Work

Athletes often describe it as “being in the zone” the sensation where self and time disappear and 100% concentration is devoted to the game. Flow, as described in Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s bestselling book of the same title, is also one of the most enjoyable experiences.

Getting into this state isn’t always easy. But I’ve found it isn’t strictly the result of creative genius. With practice you can engineer these states and use flow to your advantage. Here are some suggestions I’ve found helpful:

1. Eliminate Distractions - This may sound obvious, but it is easily forgotten. How often do you supplement boring activities with additional stimulus? Television, music, radio or IM in the background of your tasks. The problem is that although these distractions may help pass the time, they are destructive when trying to engineer a creative flow.
2. Accelerate Slowly - No car can go from 0-100 mph in 2 seconds. Why do you expect your mind to work the same way. Flow implies a certain cognitive motion. I believe this is an apt metaphor. I often spend the first fifteen minutes of an article messing around with the first paragraph and subject. After I build up speed I can write almost as fast as I can type.
3. Switch Gears During Roadblocks - It is hard to build up speed when you keep crashing into roadblocks. The best suggestion I have is to build some tools to smooth them out. Work out problems on paper instead of just your head so you won’t break the flow when you encounter a tough problem.
4. Carve Clear Rules and Goals - Rules and goals form the highway for your cognitive drive. Imprecise goals are like twists and turns in the highway, forcing you to slow down. Poorly defined rules and standards are like gravel on the highway, preventing you from reaching top speeds. Figure out exactly where you want to end up and what needs to be done to get there before you put your mind into drive.
5. Master Your Tools - Know the ins and outs of your vehicle before you start driving. If you use computer based software, schedule out some time to learn minor features that might help you overcome mundane tasks later. If you use physical tools, practice various techniques and motions so you will need less experimenting when you start.
6. Environmental Controls - Modify your environment so it fits your ideal of a productive workspace. If your office doesn’t feel right, make some changes until it suits your image of a productive area.
7. Dissect Your Stop Signs - Everyone has mental stop signs that keep them from a creative focus. This could be insecurity with your topic, lack of experience, fear or distaste. When you consistently have trouble getting to a peak flow, examine what might be stopping you. When you dissect these stop signs, often you can find detours around them.
8. Your Body is an Engine - Don’t draw a firm line between body and mind. If your body is unhealthy, fatigued or toxic, that will influence your brain. Exercising regularly and eating a healthy diet is a must. It is easy to scoff at such a suggestion as being non-essential — until you try it. I was amazed at what a difference a little care for the body can do.
9. Avoid Carrots and Sticks - You aren’t a donkey. Don’t expect external rewards to create intrinsic motivation. You are better of redesigning your environment and your tasks to suit your mind, then try and trick your subconscious to behave.
10. Timebox - Give yourself a deadline. A deadline is the creative equivalent to getting out and pushing your car when it stalls. It won’t help you when you reach top speeds, but it can help you when you are stuck. Timeboxing is the practice of giving yourself a set amount of time to work (say 60-90 minutes) after which you will take a break. This nukes procrastination and pushes you into gear.
11. Patience - It’s a virtue, remember? Moving slowly is uncomfortable. But you need to accept that instant creative acceleration is almost impossible to produce. The first fifteen minutes of writing for me are often frustrating and painful. The last fifteen are effortless. Be patient and you can slowly slip into flow.