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Why Do You Work? (apart from the money)

Guest post by: Peter Nicholls

Article Overview: Your reasons for working tell you much about what drives you as a person. These reasons go much deeper than the need to make money to pay the bills. They don’t just drive your work, they drive your life. They get you out of bed each morning with the feeling you have a purpose in life and a contribution to make, irrespective of any payment you might receive. The article includes a short exercise to help you find your own answers. These answers are vital for sustaining your daily energy, resilience and enthusiasm to ensure you keep enjoying living life to the last drop!.

Why Do You Work? (apart from the money)

If you enjoy your work, an examination of why you work can tell you a lot about what drives you as a person, what fulfills you. Even if you don’t really enjoy your current job, there is some important information here you need to think about.

The driving forces behind your desire to work are much deeper than just being able to make money. Perhaps they are reasons you don’t much think about until you are faced with the prospect of not working – for example losing a job, having a job-threatening injury, or when you start to see life as more than simply going to work each day, putting life first and work second.

Reasons expressed by clients of mine include:

• A sense of belonging
• Acknowledgement by others of your abilities
• Being part of something bigger than you
• Being supportive beyond your own needs
• Challenges
• Commitment to a purpose
• Decision making / Autonomy
• Dignity
• Identity - being able to answer the question, ‘what do you do?”
• Impact on others
• Learning and professional development
• Maintaining connection / interaction with like-minded other people
• Making a contribution to others
• Meeting a valued need
• Never want to feel useless
• Opportunity to be creative
• Performance feedback
• Professional and social friendships
• Self esteem, self belief, self confidence
• Social recognition / status in business and in society
• Structuring your life
• Thrill of the chase
• Valuing your personal abilities and skills

Have a close look at this list and then build your own personal list.

Now here’s the cruncher…the reasons you choose do not just drive your work, they drive your life. They give you your reason for getting up each morning, to make a worthwhile contribution in your world. Whether or not you get paid for doing them is incidental to the value they give to your life, your self esteem and your sense of identity.

Work life harmony is a lot about maintaining a constantly-energizing mix of interests that give you these benefits...

• at work and
• as discretionary leisure interests - something you enjoy doing simply for the sense of pleasure it gives you and which you can fit into your overall lifestyle.

This mix also prepares you beautifully for the eventual transition to the other great reason for developing your list…the fact that one day you won’t be working full-time, or perhaps not working at all. Life after work is not like long-service leave and it could go on for almost as many years as your working career.

Whether you\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'re working or not, this exercise is vital for sustaining your daily energy, resilience and enthusiasm and to ensure you keep enjoying living life to the last drop!

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Article Tags: drive, energy, life, purpose, resilience, work



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Try wikipedia.com for more information - That depends what type of business you are involved in. Maybe if you share that, we can help you a little better. I work mostly in the Work at Home industry so my advice would only be along those lines.
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