50, 60, 65+ hour weeks, are no joke—especially if you’re on the far end of that spectrum. Burning the candle on both ends comes to mind, and speaking of ‘burning,’ long hours, little sleep, and excessive work only fuels the likely hood of feeling burnt out. BUT, can the burn out phase be prolonged or avoided altogether? You bet. It takes passion. If you’re passionate about what you do, and I mean truly passionate, you may never reach a point where exhaustion overcomes the joy (that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t sleep to test out the theory).
Recently, I had someone ask me if I feel burnt out given the hours that I work. Without skipping a beat, I answered with an emphatic, “No.” I truly enjoy what I do…and not just in a ‘big picture’ kind of way, but in the details of the job—small tasks included. How many people can say, every day, these things:
- I feel challenged
- I learn something new
- I share great dialogue with my colleagues
- I laugh, a lot!
- I build meaningful relationships
- I look forward to walking through the front door
I can. Without hesitation or exaggeration. And that’s just naming a few. I’m passionate about what I do, and it’s taken me a while to find this nice, special niche. Best of all, my passion for my work and all that it entails, continues to grow each day.
If none of those things resonate with you, then you’re likely not passionate about whatever it is that you’re doing. Shame on you! Life is too short for you to feel unhappy and unfulfilled. Get out there! Take risks, take chances, step out of your comfort zone, and find what it is that gets you excited for every day. Find your passion!
So, what exactly is passion? What does it look like, feel like? T.S. Eliot said, “It is obvious that we can no more explain a passion to a person who has never experienced it than we can explain light to the blind.” This holds truth—explaining the associated feelings or reasoning the behaviors to others is tricky. But the passion part, the defining it, that’s easier. It’s doing what you love, and loving what you do, without falter or fail. It brings joy and meaning to your life and to who you are. You feel like you’re part of something bigger, and as if there are no limits to what you can achieve.
If you haven’t found your passion yet, I hope you’re in search of it because once you find it, what you can do with it will surprise even you.
Tara Fox is a Project Specialist at entreQuest and works closely with all eQ team members to provide employees and clients with remarkable experiences.
