Why do you work?
Thanks to Debbie Wood for creating the images used in this blog.
Because I have too or I need the money. Sound familiar? It certainly is the starting point to most of my conversations with clients about why they work.
If we all have to why is it important to answer the question?
How many of your fondest memories start with because I had too? How many of your special moments started with I needed the money? It is pretty rare and difficult to have a great experience when we start out with have to or need to. Can you feel the resistance? Don’t you tell me what I need to do, whoever you is.. Who do you think you are telling me what I have to do. You get the idea.
Why you work frames the experiences you are likely to have whilst working.
My first frame for work was that it was a bad thing. So I diminished it’s role in my life and lived for the weekends and my annual leave. It was something of an inconvenience, a barrier to doing what I really wanted to do. It also came with tricky relationships with my bosses, three experiences of redundancy and even a mediation process.
So what might be a more useful or constructive reasons for working?
Did you know that to be a happy healthy human you have to meet some basic needs? Did Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs come to mind for you? Or was that just my first introduction to human needs? Any way work is a wonderful vehicle to meet those needs. If only we are aware of these needs and intentionally take responsibility for meeting these, our needs.
I like Tony Robbins 6 Core Human Needs model.
Certainty
This one makes you feel safe. It is all those routines and habits you hang on to. Get up at the same time, have the same food for breakfast etc.
Variety
This is where the adventure and excitement in your life comes from.
Belonging
There was a time it was a matter of life and death and it still feels better today to belong to a group
Significance
Eventually it is not enough to belong we want to feel special and a valued member of the group.
Growth
If you aren’t growing you are dieing.
Contribution
Once you can meet your own needs it’s time to look beyond yourself and support others.
In this model Tony introduces the idea that all our actions are taken to meet our own needs. We may or may not be aware of our needs. Oh and we might meet them gracefully or disgracefully and constructively or destructively.
Meeting our needs makes for a happy healthy human. Given the time you spend at work it becomes one of the greatest vehicles in your life to meet your needs. Know your needs and meet them at work and you start to find reasons to be grateful for and enjoy your work.
Don’t wait to find out what needs your work is meeting until it is no longer part of your life. Redundancy and retirement are challenging transitions. Feelings of loneliness, isolation, worthlessness, lack of purpose and direction, boredom, fear are all feedback that your needs are no longer being met.
I have observed that the happiest people are connected to and contributing to populations and or causes that are important to them. Why do I work? To make a contribution. Oh and I make sure I do so in a way that work meets my needs. For the first time in my life I am five years into my ‘job’ and loving it! Five years into a job and eighteen years into a commitment to being my best and doing my best work.
Are you aware of your needs and have you taken responsibility for meeting them?
Why do you work?
If you would like to explore these ideas more reach out for a chat, I love this stuf!
