How to Be Passionate About Your Work

If you want to do good work, it helps to be passionate about your work. There are a few ways to make it easier to be passionate about your work, even if they’re very basic ideas. First, get a good night’s sleep. Second, hydrate by drinking a big glass of water the minute you get up. Third, get a little exercise before you start working. Fourth, don’t let your Inner Critic complain about your work and recognize that billions of people would trade places with you in a heartbeat (this is gratitude, and it’s very helpful to maintaining a positive attitude).

All of the things in the paragraph above will help you be more passionate about your work, but none of them are as important as this one: Make your work better.

The reason you are not passionate about your work is because you are not passionate about your work. If you do anything believing it is a chore, that it is boring, and that you’d rather be doing something else, your work will reflect your beliefs, your attitude, and your state. When you don’t appreciate your work, you will not do it with passion or enthusiasm.

This single question can change how you feel about your work: How do you make it better?

How do you improve the outcome you are responsible for producing? If you were to change what you are doing or how you are doing it to produce a radically better result, what would you have to change?

If you were to do something new, something that was going to delight your clients, your customers, or your peers, what would you need to differently? What could you do that would provide a surprise, a smile, a sense of joy? What might cause people to talk about your work?

If you were to do work that was show-stopping and exceptional, how could it be boring? If you were to do more than check a box and bring your passionate engagement to your work, how different would your work feel?

There are certain rewards for doing your work. There are different rewards for doing your work well. And then there are the rewards that accrue only to those who bring their best selves to their work, making it something exceptional by doing it with passion.

You can be passionate about your work when you decide to make it better.