When You Can’t Do What You Love, Make It Fun Anyway

Not every job is a dream—but that doesn’t mean it has to be a drag. Sometimes, joy isn’t in what you do… it’s in how you do it.

What do you like to do? Everyone I know would like to be able to have a job where they were doing what they really enjoy doing. I know some people who are doing that. I think they’re in the minority. I think most people are neutral some days. Their jobs are good and some days their job suck. That sounds like life. And then this is the group where this job sucks but it’s all I can do and I need to eat..We always can’t do what we like to do. Sometimes, and maybe most of the time, we do what we have to do. It may be a reason why we look forward to our vacations. It gives us a chance to get away from doing what we really don’t enjoy doing. We get a chance to escape at least temporarily. It’s also a reason why we like to watch certain types of movies or TV shows and escape vicariously through the characters. An important question we can ask ourselves is, “What can I do to make my job more enjoyable?” I think every job can be made more enjoyable. My dad’s second job was being.a bartender. If there were a professional sport where you had to silde a beer down the length of the bar and hiave it stop in front of the person who ordered the beer, my dad was an all-star. He’d brag about how he’d bet some non-believer he could slide a beer down the bar with the accuracy of a neurosurgeon. How can you add some fun to your job?

3 Questions to Dive Deeper:

1. What’s one small thing you could change today to make your job more enjoyable?
2. Are there parts of your work where you can express creativity, humor, or mastery?
3. What can you learn from people like your dad who brought pride and fun to even a second job?