How to Create Joy and Achievement in the Mundane
Even if we’re living our best life, there are aspects of life that are less than stellar. I doubt many people often parade the trash cans to the curb, whistling while they work. Few truly enjoy setting an alarm every day with a job they may or may not enjoy where they’ll undoubtedly face uncertainty and occasional stressors. Frankly, even as much as I do enjoy the achievement from exercise or duties or jobs I’ve held, there are occurrences in the planning and execution that are not overly joyful. Yet if we can embrace the unique skills we bring to the table and focus on the desire and reason we long for the outcome it can aid us in the midst of the otherwise mundane.
Mary Poppins – practically perfect in every way – even said, “For every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and SNAP – the job’s a game!” While it may not be possible to really doll up that “TPS Report” you’re filling out at your job (see “Office Space”) or to put a positive spin on taking out the trash, tweaking those jobs slightly can revolutionize the day.
Perhaps while you file your reports or manage your pipeline or pay bills, you flip your laptop or phone to a streaming show or music you enjoy. Maybe as you take out the trash, you make it part of a larger outdoor effort and do it while you’re headed out to take a walk. Don’t enjoy mowing the lawn? Use it as an escape to listen to music or use those extra steps you get to win a Fitbit challenge (I do both!). For example, being on the treadmill is not necessarily my favorite thing, but turning off my brain telling me I can stay in bed, getting up and going to the gym and streaming a show I won’t get to watch that day otherwise (1) gives me much needed escape time while the world is largely at rest, (2) puts me in a place where I can come up with often my best ideas to apply to my work day and (3) gives me a sense of accomplishment at the onset of the day. Plus it makes me feel like I can eat whatever I want as the day progresses.
You may also find yourself in a job that you do not feel fully utilizes your skills. You know what? Unless you create the job yourself, the likelihood of it being tailor-made for you or that it uses all of your skills every day is slim; that said, you have applied for or agreed to this role, you are deemed qualified for the role and there is most certainly something unique that you can bring to it to make it your own and to have fun using your talent in. Is there any free reign you have to bring in your own passions to the role and play around with them? Whether you can dabble in something you enjoy as you plan, organize, prospect, create orders, etc. or you split up your day by reading or listening to music on lunch – add some kind of spice to the day that isn’t just about work. You’ll feel a lot more fulfilled.
Perhaps you are in sales but enjoy marketing, and have the ability to either partner with your marketing team or to dabble in some new forms of prospecting and outreach? Maybe you have an office role creating reports or processing paper work and performing data entry – can you innovate? Can you propose new ways to make the tasks more productive? Can you propose ideas to your leadership that will make the process run more smoothly? Ask yourself what would make your role more fulfilling for you or what would make a task feel like less of a chore – it could be as simple as adding tunes or making a competition or test out of it or toying around with things you have a curiosity about that lead to personal and professional growth.
Not every role or task will afford you the latitude to infuse your own flair, but most will. There is much more sense of achievement felt when you can reflect on a task well done (and with some pizzazz at that!). Find the element of fun or your passion you can bring to what would otherwise be mundane areas of your work and life, and you can make them more enjoyable and likely more productive.
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Carson V. Heady has written a book entitled “Birth of a Salesman” and sequels “The Salesman Against the World” and “A Salesman Forever” which take the unique approach of serving as sales/leadership books inside of novels showing proven sales principles designed to birth you into the top producer you were born to be. If you would like to strengthen your sales and leadership skills, go to https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073HN3SXQ
Heady posts for “Consult Carson” serving as the “Dear Abby” of sales and sales leadership. You may post any question that puzzles you regarding sales and sales leadership careers: interviewing, the sales process, advancing and achieving.
Question submissions can be made via LinkedIn to Carson V. Heady, this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carson-V-Heady/125078150858064?ref=hl , Twitter via @cvheady007 or e-mail at cvheady007@yahoo.com or you may post an anonymous comment as a reply to my WordPress blog at the bottom of this page: https://carsonvheady.wordpress.com/the-home-of-birth-of-a-salesman-2010-published-by-world-audience-inc-and-the-salesman-against-the-world-2014/
