How to put the fun back into your work

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Published by: Nadia on 18th Nov 2011 | View all blogs by Nadia

OK, so it's not quite the new year, and we're all buzzing with talk of Christmas parties. But surely, fun at work shouldn't just come from getting hammered once a year and indulging in extra-curricular naughties on the photocopier. (Does anyone really do that?)

If the idea of going back to work after Christmas makes you want to do a runner in your reindeer jumper, read on.

If you don’t love what you do, there’s something wrong. Life without passion: it’s a hollow existence. Grey mornings, dull evenings and long boring bits in between – it’s not much fun. Plus, the chances are, if work is dullsville, it’ll impact on the rest of your life. You could become a comfort-eating, telly-watching moaner who’s no fun to be around.

fed up woman

Work is not a prison sentence and if we love our work we’ll be a hell of a lot better at it.

Surely, it would make more sense to work our thing and do something we love, instead of moaning to our friends, moping around and self harming using Dairy Milk.

For some people, passion seems to burn inside them. They’ve always known what they wanted to do with their lives. They have to do as their passion tells them; there’s no other option. It’s a done deal. Well, it’s alright for them, but what about the rest of us? When we were kids we might have passionately wanted to be an astronaut, a professional showjumper, but nowadays that all seems like a lifetime away. Having time and energy to think about our passions is a luxury we can’t afford. We’ve got no clear vision of where we’re going or what we want to do. So how do we go about getting some oomph in our lives?

Here are my top tips for loving what you do:

Passion can be a hard thing to uncover. It can take some people years to work out what’s going to make them leap out of bed in the mornings. But we’re not disheartened - we think the process of finding out what floats your boat is fun. It’s a chance to try new stuff, notice things around us and meet exciting new people. Not a bad way to spend our time, we reckon. One day it’ll hit us, and things will never be the same again.

Get skilled up: So you're good at hoarding old shoes, well, now's the time to gather skills. Bide your time and take the opportunity to learn as many new and useful skills as possible. Go on courses, learn computer programmes or languages, get qualified - by adding to your CV and your braincells, you're getting ready for the right moment to take over the world. You might even find that your employer will pay (just don't tell them you're planning to jump ship!)

Give your job a much needed fun-injection - Find ways of combining the things you love with your job. Start a company magazine, podcast, revamp the canteen, organise work events or outings, plan charity fundraisers etc .

Embrace the side project- you'll be amazed what you can get done during your lunch hour, on the tube and instead of watching TV. We've met some remarkable women (read interviews in our book More To Life Than Shoes: How to Kick-start Your Career and Change Your Life) who've achieved great things whilst working full time - especially Preethi Nair who wrote her bestselling novel on the tube during a long sweaty commute! So, start planning a new business, get started on your blog or do an evening class - embrace the "side hustle."

Get some More To Life Than Shoes action in your life! Get together with girls in your office or in your local area and start a More To Life Than Shoes group to to get your regular fix of new ideas, new friends and new energy and make it happen. Members of MTLTS are bagging their dream jobs, writing books, starting businesses and getting promoted. It's a great way of getting the support, inspiration and encouragement you need to make a change.

Break it down: We’re not saying you need to jack in your job, move country or rent premises, well not right away. Once you know what you want to do, break it into smaller steps, and then just take the first of them. Do some research, apply for courses – these aren’t scary things. Start out small and gradually things will happen.

It is only November, people, so there's plenty of time to get cracking at this before Christmas is actually upon us and we're lost in a haze of mulled wine and bad knitwear.

Good luck!