It cannot be denied that our work plays a vital role in our lives. Consequently,  no matter the decent we in most of the western countries face because of the debt crisis, it is worth laying the foundation for making our work as creative and rewarding as possible.

Ian McDermott and Wendy Jago in their book ‘The NLP Coach’ invite us to elaborate on the place that work has in our lives and ponder over the following questions:

-What do you enjoy most about work?
– Is it a means to pay the rent or the mortgage?
– Is it a way to fund hobbies that are important to you?
– Is it a challenge that excites you?
– Is it a means of self realization and self expression?
– How do you rate work in relation to other things in life?
– What do you need more of or less of?
– Can you discover the areas of match and mismatch between you and your job?

Over time, work can be more or less rewarding. The awareness of the areas of match might enable us to appreciate our jobs more, while any area of mismatch can allow us to stop blaming ourselves or the job itself, and prompt us to affect a change.

In order to pinpoint where our jobs does, or doesn’t fit us, and make the appropriate changes Ian McDermott and Wendy Jago suggest our working out the answers to the below listed powerful questions:

– In relation to the environment of your job, what kind of facilities suite you?
– What changes can you make to your work environment in order for it to be more inspiring?
–  What specific details would make the difference?
– Are there any things you enjoy doing but are you unable to do in your current job?
– Do you have to adapt your behavior in ways that make you feel uncomfortable?
– Do you feel comfortable with the role you have to play?
– Are you able to play to your strengths and do what you’re good at?
– Are you able to develop new skills as a part of the job?
– Who knows about the skills you have? What secret skills have you got and how could you make more use of them? How could you make them more visible?
-What qualities, values and beliefs does this job embody?
-Is it in alignment with your own beliefs and values?
-Do you feel your skills are valued and acknowledged?
-Do you feel able to say what is important to you in this environment or do you have to sanitize what you say?
-How does your job relate to your sense of direction in life?
-If you want to move to the next stage of your career ladder and move to a position which involves a higher salary but more responsibility, is this the right ladder for you to climb?

‘‘People take jobs for all kinds of reasons, and stay in them for reasons both negative and positive. Taking stock from time to time of what your job means to you, and how it relates to your sense of direction in life, is one useful way to own your work experience (McDermott & Jago, pp. 323)’’.

Should you need to work towards developing a greater awareness and affecting a change in relation to your job, I would be honored to support you.

I would like to thank Ian McDermott and Wendy Jago for inspiring me to write the above post.