Personal Standards, Passion and Work
Do you have personal standards? “What do I mean?” you ask. Okay. Do
you weigh yourself daily or weekly? If you do, what is the number
you want to see on the scale? When you shop for clothes, let’s say
jeans, are you happy buying any pair you fit into, or do you have
an expectation of fitting into a certain size?
I suspect that most of us want to see a certain weight on the scale. We also want to fit into clothing of a certain size. Sometimes we meet our expectations or standards, sometimes we do not. Often, if we do not meet our self-imposed expectations for a while, we change our standards. This can be bad or good, depending on whether our standards were realistic to begin with.
It is likely that we do not think about the weight we want to see on the scale or our pants’ size as personal standards, yet they are. We need not call something by its name for it to be what it is. We might name our cat Dog, but in the end it is still a feline.
If you take a personal inventory, I am sure you will find areas of your life in which you maintain standards; maybe not in the area of bodyweight or body size but likely in other areas. I wonder, though, how many of us maintain personal standards when it comes to self-improvement, lifelong education and achievement in the workplace.
How many of us end up with jobs, which we stay in for years if not our entire lives, and stagnate in them. Every morning we head to work, just looking to make it through the day. We come home, only to begin the cycle the next day. Is there passion for what we do? In many cases the answer is no, and therein lies the challenge.
I believe we can develop passion for our work, by doing a couple of things. First, we need to expand our horizons and look at what we do for a living differently. Instead of complaining about the drudgery of work we need to develop creative approaches to instill passion within ourselves. And, of no less importance, we need to have personal standards when it comes to our jobs/careers.
When we have no standards for our performance, we are likely to have no passion as well. Having personal standards gives us goals to strive for. In turn, this can help instill passion in us for what we do.
Image courtesy of [worradmu] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
*Authors note: You might see this column pop up online in a newspaper, under the name Both Sides. I am publishing this column here first at CYInterview.com. For a bunch of years, I have been writing newspaper columns. Since my columns have received a good response on CYInterview, I thought I would share it with you. Hope you enjoy.
You can reach me with your questions and comments at Jay@CYinterview.com Like today’s column? Check back frequently.