Before I hammer increased skills into people, to sell more and function better in their job setting. There is another issue to be settled.  Techniques will help you have more technical proficiency in a given work or sales position. That is true.  But it takes something more, to be truly gratified in your work.

     Who will really do their best job; if they do not gain satisfaction out of their work? The answer is No one!…. It is like asking someone to climb Mount Everest when they don’t like the mountains. It’s not going to work out.

     So what is my advice on how to get more satisfaction out of your work? – – – If you asked yourself that question with me just now; you just took the first and most important step, of the solution.

     Step Numero Uno; absolutely critical to enjoying your work; is to take honest steps to look at and examine the prospect of your work, with curiosity, intensity and scrutiny. An honest appraisal most often precludes work-place happiness.

     To achieve more happiness in the job setting, it is paramount to Ask a lot of questions. And not just ask questions of potential employers or providers of work related possibilities . To find vocational happiness; you must First, ask yourself important questions to explore your values and learn what really matters to you. Why did you engage in your current career path? What was it that attracted you to it in the first place? What does it take for you to have a sense of fulfillment? What do you enjoy doing in the professional domain? What would it take for you to be satisfied about your job situation?

     The answer may be where you are at or it may be found in making a move. But it is unlikely that you will find the happiness in your work-setting anywhere; until you have a solid idea about what you are looking for and what you hope to attain to be happy. You must ask yourself these tough questions and come up with really satisfying answers to find work-place fulfillment.  

     Fulfillment is most often found where we are at. And then grows into something more, somewhere else because we outgrow the situation, we mastered.  If we run from problems in our current station: We will most time find them in different faces and different places, only bigger than before.
—–So that is why step number one is to honestly ask the question. What can I do to find more satisfaction in my work? Most times our answers are inside us. And our greatest solutions come from our own hunches and instincts, especially about our work.
—–Are you asking yourself these questions? Are you writing down your ideas. Are you developing them as you work on them? It’s like eating a steak. You chew up the meat and spit out the bone. What works, you keep. What does not, you discard.  

     A specific way to work on this work, question and answer campaign is to start a daily professional journal? You can keep it online or in a notebook. But the point is to record what you like and what you don’t. What you are good at and what you are not. To do your own assessment of what your professional experience is teaching you.

     Sometimes the task of literally writing things down with a pen solidifies the concepts. Review these thought developments and keep them permanently, where you can refer to them.

     Start today. Ask yourself the question of how to get more satisfaction out of your work. Write down your initial thoughts. Review them briefly and daily. Do this for 90 days. You will find that your thinking develops. This recourse will help you improve your thoughts about your workplace. It is only possible to hit our targets, when we have identified what they are. This process will help you identify, refine and focus on professional targets.

     In this journal, Begin to make a serious inquiry into what satisfies you as a person? What can you appreciate more about your work by looking at it differently? What can you actively do differently in your workplace, to change the way you feel about it?  Find someone constructive to bounce these ideas off of. Don’t go to the pity party corner of the room with this workplace evaluation. Go to active people (even twitter friends) who you expect might be successful in their own appreciation and satisfaction in their work.

But you say, you don’t know my job. It’s not possible to have a better attitude about it…. All I can say is that if you are a swimmer who is mountain climbing; it wont work. If you are mountain climber who is swimming; that wont work either. – – – Sometimes, what we are doing, just is not a fit for our skill-set or personality. If that is the case, quit trying to put a square peg into a round hole and find something that better “fits” your talents, abilities and interests.”

     However, most times it is not a job re-positioning that we need. If we do not address the difficulties that hold us back and haunt us in our current situation. We are not likely to overcome them in a new situation. It’s a funny picture of the cow over-looking his own grassy meadow, trying to reach the single blade of grass on the other side of the fence. Still, while it may be a funny picture; it is a sad reality, all too often. People never find fulfillment, because they are always looking for it somewhere else.

The hardest step is most often the first step. Let your reading of this BEAM be step one that results in your attaining more meaning and fulfillment in your work. Ask yourself the question and create a 90-day log with the development of your answers.

     Keep your reason for doing this in sight.  You are doing this assessment: To sense that you are growing in your work. To really be deepening and developing in your life’s professional pursuit.  This is a crucial task. You will never feel you have found your place in life, until you find your place in your work. Since you will spend most of your conscious life at work. Shouldn’t you try to make sure that what you do with it is something meaningful and that you enjoy?

     To gain this high calling. To really be about your destiny. To really sense that you are doing what you are supposed to do with your life can seem overwhelming. That’s OK. What if a Baby tried to walk before it crawled? No, growth does not happen that way. To accomplish your ideal goals, take one bite out of the elephant at a time. Take Baby steps  …Rome wasn’t built-in a day. Rash action is seldom the correct action. The prescribed work-place journal and evaluation process, I have mentioned can help you experience greater joy and fulfillment in your career. But it will only work, if you will do it. Like a lot of things. It works, if you work it.

     If you do feel that a career move is in order; after solidly assessing your where you are compared with where you want to go.  Then Step Numero Dos is to take Do-able action steps.  Seek out the advice of others who are already successful in the field you’re looking into.  Believe in yourself and trust your God-given instincts and ability to succeed.      Belief must precede accomplishment. Goal setting, earnest planning and deep desire must be present and joined with action; to make your new path a reality.

     Utilize a vision board or other means to keep your dreams in front of you. In any fight, remembering your why can make the what, easier to do. With a clear sense of mission in mind continually. It is now time to define a plan of action. This can seem daunting and intimidating, when where we want to wind up is a good distance from where we are at.

My Vision Board from a couple of years ago. It is different today and continues to change.

       The way to take the fear out of this daring task is to treat it like training for any contest. For every time a batter is at bat, he has practiced many times int the batting cage. For every time a football player carries the ball in a game, he has practiced many times on the field, without the opponent present. – Break the task of the move you are going to make into manageable steps. Identify them. Write them down. Execute them. Change them as needed. And stay on the course.

      I can see potential in many of my new karate students. It can seem to them like they will never learn and progress but I know as there teacher, that if they stick with it; they possess the raw talent, skill and ability to be good martial artists. Growing into new dimensions in our career is like this. We must not let the greatness of the task, stop us from doing the training necessary to get there.

     Should you stay in your own station of work? Should you remain where you are but change the way you look at it and perform it? Should you transfer? Should you move? Tough questions. But then again you have already begun by reading this article. You have just taken your first step. Now, Just follow through. You can do it!

Tim speaking to a group.