Love Your "Boring" Jobs
A professional is someone who loves his job. If you don't love your job, don’t go looking for another one. First, stay where you are and try to find the love.
Loving your job is not that hard to do. The trick is to make it a game. Here’s how it works:
A person who does not feel passionate about his or her work is like an archer with a bow and arrows but no target. No matter how many times the archer draws his bow, he will never feel the fun of hitting his target.
If your job is boring, set targets, face them and fire off your arrows. When you hit your targets you will be happy. When you miss, you will be disappointed and you will want to do better. This is the path to being a true professional.
About the Author
Hiroshi Mikitani is Chairman and CEO of Rakuten, one of the world’s leading e-commerce companies. Mikitani has been referred to as a maverick in his approach and is widely seen as the leader of an emerging, ’New Japan’, one which increasingly turns away from traditional modes of doing business.
Loving your job is not that hard to do. The trick is to make it a game. Here’s how it works:
- Establish goals. What is a game, really, if not the accomplishment of a set of goals? To get the most points. To cross the finish line first. These are game goals. Set your own job goals.
- Come up with innovative ways to achieve them. The more you concentrate and the more you innovate, the more enjoyable your goal-chasing will be come.
A person who does not feel passionate about his or her work is like an archer with a bow and arrows but no target. No matter how many times the archer draws his bow, he will never feel the fun of hitting his target.
If your job is boring, set targets, face them and fire off your arrows. When you hit your targets you will be happy. When you miss, you will be disappointed and you will want to do better. This is the path to being a true professional.
About the Author
Hiroshi Mikitani is Chairman and CEO of Rakuten, one of the world’s leading e-commerce companies. Mikitani has been referred to as a maverick in his approach and is widely seen as the leader of an emerging, ’New Japan’, one which increasingly turns away from traditional modes of doing business.