“Eh?” you ask. “Joy… and Work?!”
“I can understand ‘Joy of Sex‘ — b/c hey, if if it’s ‘The Pain-in-the-Ass’ of sex, then I must be doing it wrong”. 
No, there really is a way to enjoy your work… regardless if you like it or not.
Let’s consider that the concept of ‘Work’ has 3 main components, so then we can address each separately:
physical– food, shelter, physical exertion
mental– decision, follow-thru
spiritual– creative, esp. creating something new
For a person to be happy, they need to be doing/making each of these, each day:
- you gotta be ‘making a living’, ie putting food in your belly & roof over your head (&/or of your dependents). Also, your body needs to move, to exercise… b/c if it doesn’t, your energy-levels fall, as does your emotional state
- you gotta make one or two decisions each day, & follow-up on them. Simple rote-work, esp. following someone else’s script, isn’t sufficient
- you gotta [feel] like you’re doing something creative, each day. You need to be able to point at something at the end of the day, & say “this is mine”
But the Secret is: NONE of these are mandatory components of your ‘day job’…. B/c as long as you get all three somewhere in your life, then you won’t expect as much from your day-job.
And that makes it easier to focus on what you are getting out of your job, b/c then you won’t be expecting it to provide what it simply can’t. Mark Twain had a quote for this: “The well-organized man is comfortable, even in hell”.
Don’t get me wrong — you can get all 3 in your ‘day job’… but it can be tough sledding to get there, sometimes. So just don’t get too upset at yourself if you don’t.
Instead, find yourself a good hobby, creative or spiritual practice, & do that daily. You’ll be amazed at how stress-free your ‘daily job’ becomes, when you know exactly why you’re doing it, & how much it can provide (& what it won’t).
…And that will put you in a much better space for when you eventually do decide to change jobs, etc. You’ll have a much clearer idea of what you want, what you’re willing to do to get it, & what you’re willing to put-up with along the way.
Because at core, you will already be fulfilled, & so whatever fulfillment the job can provide, will just be icing on the cake.
Tags: management
Being one of the lucky few who love their job I’d like to add that this can be a vicious thing, too. With everything else in my life flying disaster I only live for my job. It’s Saturday and I can’t wait for Monday. Anything going wrong with the job my life is shattered to pieces. So even if your job fulfills you to the deepest core you still have to deal with the rest of your life. Man, how I wish I had a good hobby.
That is very cool you love your job… what about it do you love, if I may ask? I’ve always wanted to “really love” my job, but each time that happened (if at all), I inevitably developed similar vulnerabilities.. which always seem to be somewhat political (ie, power-play, hire/fire, etc.).
Whether it’s bosses threatening, impossible deadlines, or whatever, it just seems too fragile to base my happiness on someone else’s opinion of whether I’m a ‘good employee’ or not.
What I actually love is what I do. Yes, there is managers and team leads who are bitchy, yes there is a high workload, yes there is silly rules and settings, all the surrounding frustration is maybe the same in every job as long as you are an employee. Still, the core of my business is what I try to spend the most time of my work day doing and what I get up for in the morning. It’s deeply satisfying to me to actually spend time doing my job. There is a lot of little successes throughout every day, which I find instantly rewarding. Of course there is another side to it, too, which I find personally very sad, but I gladly accept that. About being good… uh, good one. Of course I try to be as good as can, but I don’t care about evaluation other than what I can tell by my best judgement of the quality of my work. Of course should anybody, boss or not, tell me one day that I had failed and I find I had not seen this coming at all and had misjudged the situation I might totally have to reconsider what I am doing. But so far so good, I’ve only been doing this for a year now.
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