Remember what it feels like to have a crush on someone?
You know, feeling so “in-love” that your stomach does flip-flops, you count the seconds until the next time you can see that person again, and you day-dream about being in their presence.
Wouldn’t it be amazing to have a crush about work?
I mean we spend enough time there, don’t we?
Let’s start with the 24-hour day. You sleep 7-9 hours of it (well, at least you should!). So, we have approximately 16-hours per day at our disposal. If we factor in 2-hours a day for getting ready for work and round-trip commute, plus a conservative 8 hours at work – that brings us to 10 hours of work-related time per day, minimum. Leaving a maximum of 6 non-working hours a day. All of that math to say: on the days that you work, you are spending more time in or around “work” than not.
Imagine if you could have those “crush-like” feelings at work! If work was a place that you couldn’t wait to get back to. If that when work crossed your mind, you were fired up about it – it brought you inspiration, you were excited just thinking about it – you wanted to think about it. Wouldn’t that be ideal?
As far-fetched as you might think that is, I’m living proof that it is possible.
Here are 3 areas where you can aim Cupid’s arrow to get you started on bringing love into your work place and develop a crush on your work life…
- Love what you do.
- Love your colleagues.
- Love your customers.
Love What You Do.
Yes. It is that simple. Love what you do.
What is there about “the what” you do that can you love? Love can exist in your functional area, your industry, or in your role or position. Here are a few thoughts to get you started:
You could love something about your function. For example,
- If you are in sales, you could love …the challenge of the hunt, the complexity of solving customer problems, the thrill of closing the deal, the passion for fulfilling needs, the compassion for offering solutions that makes lives better…
- If you are marketing, you could love …the creativity of designing campaigns, the task of changing marketing’s perception with the sales organization, the nuances of translating research and data into actionable strategies, the quest of sharing success stories and spreading positive news about your products …
- If you are operations, you could love …the opportunities of making the manufacturing workplace safer, the adventure of finding bottlenecks or improving efficiencies, the passion for producing, packaging, or getting products into the hands of customers that make their or others’ lives better…
You could love something about your industry. Do you contribute to saving people’s lives or making them better in some-way? How about bringing wealth, joy, or convenience to people? Do you get to be around things or people that make you better, expose you to current trends or new experiences, do you get sent to amazing places or new destinations, or does the knowledge you gain contribute to your future hopes and dreams?
You could love something about your role or position. Do you get the gift of freedom, autonomy, or independence? Do you get to pour into other people, mentor, or leave a legacy? Do you get to collaborate with people who inspire you or fill your social interaction need?
I trust that you get my point.
There must be something about what you do that you can love? Take time to pause, reflect, and deliberately identify, as well as name, what you love about what you do. At a minimum love what you do because of how “it” contributes to your purpose or your potential.
If after this exercise, you cannot identify at least one, significant thing that you love about what you do …please allow me to open the door for you so that you can right walk out of it. In case you have not realized it yet, life is too short not to be able to experience love from your work.
Love Your Colleagues.
To ensure we are on the same page, I’m talking Agape love here. I’m not talking about romantic love. I am talking the love for another human being as a human being. I just wanted to clarify before we keep going…
There is something to love about everyone. If you can’t find what that “it” is about the people who impact your ability to have love in or about your place of work, then my friend, the problem is you, not them.
Loving your colleagues is your responsibly, not someone else’s. Period.
And why wouldn’t you want that responsibility? Finding and BELIEVING in the love that you have for the people who you spend more working hours with than people in your personal life, is AWESOME! Having a “co-worker crush” on the people whom you work with changes everything.
Love produces internal dialogue like: “I get to work with Kinzer today!” “I have the privilege of pouring into Sarah today!” “I am fired up to learn from Haley today!” “LaRoux is going to make me a better person today!”
There are so many things to love about your colleagues; such as:
- The way they inspire you
- The kinds of questions they ask
- The way they calm you
- The results they produce
- The way they face conflict
- The way they solve problems
- They way others love them
- The way they decorate their cubicle
- The way they run a meeting or presentation
- The fact that they ask how your weekend was or how your kids are doing
- The help they provide to your projects
- The accountability that they give you
- The fact that they go out of their way to make sure you get to your car safely after a long day at the office
- The alternative approaches or thinking they share with you
- The fact that they always brew a fresh pot of coffee after the last cup has been poured
- The fact that they are a human being, just like you, trying live life the best they can despite any circumstances about which you may know nothing
Love Your Customers.
In no particular order and at the risk of missing someone, here I go: Tom. Leanne. Colin. John. Cam. Kevin. Marti. Candice. Greg. Kim. Matt. Tiffany. Tina. Sarah. Annie. Mike. Mikkel. Josh. Anthony. Bern. Pat. Steve. Tara. Kelli. Kelly. Heather. Stan. Jen. Corrine. Jim. Eric. Alphonse. Bob. Allison. Ann. Krista. Andy. Tamra. Debbie. Kevin. Jason. Sue. Amanda. Jeanne. Jeanine. Allison. Joe. Bill. Cece. Beth. Brad. Jose. Brandon. Tommy. Mike. Katie. Carlos. Jennifer. Norma. Michelle. Letitia. Ysabel. Lisa. Al. Paul.
I could go on …and on and on….
I love my clients.
I love them for one, or more, or different, reasons from what I listed above. I also love them for the trust they have in me and my team, their alignment to our core values, how much fun we have working together, their passion for their people, their commitment to becoming greater, and/ or the products or services that they bring to the market.
And to be deeply, truly authentic ….there are many, many people on the list above that I love beyond anything to do with work. I love them as a friend. I cannot believe that I have the blessing to work with clients who now I have the honor of calling a friend. Many of which I consider more a friend now than a client.
So how did I get so lucky?
It wasn’t luck. It was a choice.
If there is nothing to love about a client, I simply won’t work with them.
Risky, yes. Wrong, no.
When you love your customers, your love for your work and your team exponentially grows. When you don’t love your customers, especially if you are customer facing, your love for your work and your people goes down.
Love for your customer is essential to having love in and around your place of work.
At a minimum, love your customers for the simple fact that without them you would not have work or people to love.
In summary, I encourage you to find a crush at work. Love your work. Love your colleagues. Love your customers. Your pick. Start having a crush on at least one of them. Before you know it, you may have several crushes at once.
Not feeling love in any of the three areas? The Riverbend Group, Prepare to Roar, and/or Doreen can help.