How To Love Your Job Again

A big part of being able to do your best work ever is actually enjoying the work that you do.

Sounds simple right?

But unfortunately, that simple principle isn’t reality for the vast majority of people working today. According to the Gallup organization, only about 20 percent of adults report being highly engaged in their job. In the United States, the number rises slightly to about 30 percent. But that is still 7 out of 10 people who are missing out on an essential element of a positive working life.

And for many of this unsatisfied majority, the easiest solution seems to be quitting and trying again at another job. But there’s a lot more methods to attempt before going that route.

In this article, we’ll outline how to love your job again through four proven methods you’ll want to try before you try working somewhere else.

Connect To Customers

The first way to love your job again is to connect with customers. Often the most boring and least enjoyable jobs are ones that seem pointless. They lack what psychologist call task significance-perceiving your work as impacting other people within or outside the organization. Most often, this means customers, the logical end users of the product or service your organization offers. But sometimes, it means internal customers, the people you hand your work off to so they can do the next step in the service of the end user.

Regardless of whether they’re external or internal customers, you’ll want to try to rearrange parts of your job to put you in contact with them more often. You could add tasks that put you in touch with them more often or spend more time with them during the tasks that are already part of your job. And as you do, make sure to savor (and save) every thank you or every story you hear of how your work made a difference. Put it in a folder in your email inbox for any time you need a quick jolt of inspiration and task significance.

Claim More Control

The second way to love your job again is to claim more control over the tasks that are assigned to you. It’s been known for decades that autonomy is a powerful determinant of whether or not people feel intrinsically motivated by their work. And it’s…