Career Check-Up: Do You Love The Work That You Do?

February 14th, Valentine's Day, marks a time when we celebrate love by sending messages or gifts to our spouses, friends, family, or children to remind them how much we care. Valentine's Day is not the only time to do this, but it does provide a reminder to ensure that we are showing our loved ones the affection they deserve all year round.

Additionally, February 14th is also a good time to mark your calendar as an annual “Career Check-up” to make sure that you love your work or are on the path to doing what you love. Having this heart-to-heart check-in may seem easy to do, but it is not. Why? Because, throughout our careers, we will stumble upon positions we do not love before we discover what motivates us to get out of bed.

The various positions we have in our career help us to learn about ourselves as a person. For instance, we learn more about our strengths, weaknesses, and even our passion. That is why I think there are several reasons why you should love what you do. In my blog, I speak on this. Check out one of my Employment Growth Series titled “ The Secret to Happiness is the Acceptance of Yourself: Have you Discovered your Career Passion.”

However, for this blog article, I do not plan to list all of the reasons you should love the work you do, even though I love listicles. Instead, I want to include questions that can get you started. Hopefully, as you reflect on them, you will use this as an annual “Career Check-up” on February 14th to make sure that you are loving the work that you do still or are at least working your way to a position that you will love:

Career Check-Up Assessment

What is my current role?
What are three things I like and dislike about my position?
Is this role my dream job? If not, what is it?
Will this role help me to get to my dream position? If not, what are some areas I can develop in the next year so that it can get there?
What do I love to do?
What do I think is my purpose in my life?

Allowing yourself to self-reflect can provide you a glimpse into your current career to determine if you are happy in the work that you are doing and are finding purpose.

Now, I understand that life circumstances may cause us to be in a position that we NEED to work, and being happy or passionate about what we do becomes secondary. In these situations, you can still create a plan to determine how to move past having a career because you NEED one to one you love.

This Valentine’s day and beyond, continue to check in with yourself to ensure that you are happy. We have one life to live and a service to give. Make certain it is your purpose. Use today, and every day, to make sure you are doing what you love or working your way to it.

Happy Valentine’s Day!