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- From a Job to a 'Calling'
Work is an essential part of our existence as it provides us with the means to meet our basic needs for survival.
However, what happens when our work doesn't bring us joy or fulfillment?
Quality of life
Overall happiness
Performance in (and out of) the workplace
All suffer drastically.
We may find ourselves feeling drained and unfulfilled, lacking motivation and struggling to find a sense of purpose in our daily lives.
The stress and dissatisfaction that comes from a job we don't enjoy can seep into our personal lives, leaving us feeling disconnected and unfulfilled.
The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it keep looking. Don’t settle.
Society has led us to believe that happiness is a state reached only by achieving more:
Accolades
Higher statues
Money in the bank
However, some individuals who seem to have it all still feel empty inside.
Perhaps we are not looking in the right places.
There is a scientifically proven method to reaching higher job satisfaction, increased productivity and an overall boost in well-being!
Spoiler alert - it does not take becoming the next self made tech start up multi-millionaire.
Focusing on strengths is the surest way to greater job satisfaction, team performance and organizational excellence.
Our aim is to identify our strengths so that we can leverage them to enhance our workplace performance outputs, resulting in an increase in overall wellbeing.
Thanks to Martin Seligman, PHD and his discoveries in the field of positive psychology, we now have a better understanding of how we can achieve this.
Character strengths = a desire, a disposition to act, or a feeling that involves the exercise of judgment that leads to a recognizable human excellence or instance of human flourishing.
Goal was:
let’s find all the virtues that fit within these set of features, rank them and measure them in people.
These are the 24 character strengths they found.
Scientific Proof This Stuff Actually Works
Conducted a workplace survey over 1,000 workers about:
Character strengths
Job satisfaction
Productivity
Positive Affect
Their findings: higher use of strengths at work = higher productivity and job satisfaction due to increased positive emotions.
Set out to answer this question:
What makes people think of their job as “a calling”? Part of our identity that gives it meaning.
Tested the number of signature strengths workers used throughout the day.
Findings: as use of signature strengths goes up so too does positive affect with 4/7 being the sweet spot.
Therefore using our signature strengths can turn a job into a calling.
Ready to take action?
We have some character strengths that matter most to us and that we show most strongly.
These are called our signature strengths.
Signature strengths = those character strengths that are most essential to who we are.
Find out what yours are here: https://www.viacharacter.org/
If we are able to:
Identify these in people
Put those strengths into action
Then these are the spots were you will do best - because you show the highest virtue and will be able to flourish the most!
You will experience increased meaning within these activities of your job/career.
So much so that feelings associated with those of a ‘calling’ my arise.
To test this in our own lives we can take Martin Seligman’s advice and “use one of your top strengths in a new and different way everyday for one week”.
To conclude
Take the VA character strength quiz for free. https://www.viacharacter.org/
Receive your unique signature strengths test results.
Familiarize yourself them and think of ways they can be used.
Use one of your top strengths in a new and different way everyday for one week.
Tip for best results: use multiple signature strengths. 4 is the sweet spot!