Managing Work-Life Balance – How Important Is It To Do Something You Love?
Work is an integral part of our daily lives. We spend most of our conscious hours with our work. The balance between work and life is determined by the amount of time we provide to each on a regular basis. However, there is another aspect of how we feel when we are spending time with our work that determines our experience. This experience may be very much based on our interpretation of the work that we do.
This leads us to a very important question, how important is it to do something that we love?
There are a few aspects that might help us throw some light on this area.
Doing something we love is basically doing the work that we want to do, feel like doing the work, are motivated to do the work and feel happy and satisfied after doing the work.
Looking at it from a work-life balance perspective, our experience during the time we spend with our work is majorly influenced by whether we love what we do or not. The concept of loving what we do is determined by how we interpret or what light we look at our work in. We can develop a liking for what work we do over a period of time by thinking about it differently, however, when we do something that we already love, certain key components get activated in our thought process.
One of the components that get activated here is motivation. Motivation can be defined as the state that allows an individual to initiate, guide and maintain goal-directed behaviour. Motivation can be internal as well as external. There are three particular behaviours that are a part of motivation, mainly:
When we love what we do, we are more likely to be determined to initiate the task. As the task is something that we perceive in a likable light, the chances of being able to do the task consistently over a period of time, increase.
Although the amount of energy that we may exert in doing the task may be more, it may not get perceived as more by us as the experience of doing the task may seem enjoyable to us. This may further allow us to put in more effort and energy to do the work.
Another component that is present and that may remain present throughout is the emotion of happiness. Happiness is an emotion which most of us have experienced in our lifetime. It is a state of mind in which an individual experiences a feeling of contentment and a feeling of wellbeing. This feeling of wellbeing is subjective and very much dependent on how we think about the situation.
When we do something that we love, we end up thinking differently about that work, than how we would think about it; if we were just compelled to do that work. This thought process may help us perceive the work more like an activity we like indulging in, rather than a task that we need to complete thus promoting consistency and keeping us motivated to indulge in it. The overall experience of indulging in the work may thus lead to a feeling of happiness, contentment and subjective wellbeing.
A psychological phenomenon may be experienced by most people from time to time while doing the work that they love. This phenomenon is known as Flow, a state of mind in which an individual is completely immersed in their task with an absolute focus on what they are doing and at times may lose track of time and space. The work may be challenging enough and may require a mental or physical effort but the goal or task is at the same time achievable and attainable. The complete involvement is a result of having an enjoyable experience while doing the work. The experience of the state of flow aides the process of motivation and enhances the feeling of contentment.
Doing what we love also helps to derive purpose in what we do, which may aid the process of keeping us motivated.
Further looking at the components discussed from a work-life balance perspective, when we experience contentment in our work, the chances of that content feeling overflowing in our life increases. This may result in overall experience of satiation and contentment.
To conclude, loving the work we do is dependent on how we perceive the work and although this perception is something that we are able to change, doing the work that we love helps us enhance our experience in that work and may allow us to take this feeling of contentment along with us in other aspects of our life.
