How to recapture enjoyment through job (previously a hobby)

[Relvin]

Hi everyone,

I won't mention what I do for work because I feel it would sidetrack the discussion (do not worry it is not illegal).

When this was just a hobby for me I really enjoyed it (was new experience for me at the time). When it became my source of income it slowly degenerated into a task in my mind and lost the enjoyment factor to a large degree.

Anyone know of any ways to reprogram my brain so that I WANT to put more hours into my job instead of feeling that I NEED to put more hours in? I have a lot of freedom and I can basicly work as many hours as I want to. I have written out goals that are very motivating but I still seem to struggle putting in a substantial number of hours in per week.

One adjustment I have recently made is to take it a day at a time, instead of a week at a time. Meaning, if I have a bad day productively it does not mess up my whole week (once I realize I can not reach my weekly goals in the past I began to often shut down for the week). This way I can start fresh each day.

Another attitude adjustment I have made is to try to enjoy the work and improve myself as much as possible through study (goal towards being the best I can be). Lately it seems I had just become content with how good I was but now I feel that improving will motivate me to work more hours.

Additionaly, the job takes a good amount of focus and I think I was too much of a perfectionist in the past, which lead me to procrastinate a great deal. I have begun to realize that to do well I do not need to be perfect. I continue to procrastinate (probably my biggest problem). Often the most difficult part for me is just getting started.

A helfpful adjustment I made recently is not to allow small failures I might have to bring me down. In contrast, I am trying to learn from my mistakes and am accepting that mistakes are a part of the job. My new mindset is just to do my best and improve as much as I can.

Financialy, I am doing well for the hours I put in, but I would like to recapture my passion and be able to put many more hours into my work.

Sorry the format of this post is pretty scattered but I would appreciate any input and tips that any of you might have!!

[Relvin]

I did not want to make the original post to long, but I felt like some more info might be helpful.

In my life, it seems that I have often been content with coasting, and as a result I feel like I have always underachieved. It is pretty dissapointing to me, but lately due to some books I have read I feel like I can change myself. Which is the process I am currently going through. While I was in school, I always did things last minute. I was always able to maintain a good GPA in jr high, high school, and college doing this. High school probably 3.85 GPA and College maybe 3.2. I never felt compelled to push myself and strive for a really high GPA. I think the main reason was that I did not find interest in the material I was learning. I have always had difficulty finding a professional passion in my life (a career that I geniunly enjoy). However, lately I have begun to find some pleasure in the concept of really making something of myself and achieving to the best of my ability.

So I am trying to improve myself both personaly and professionaly, it just seems that my old ingrained habits professionaly are difficult to shrug off. I think I am gradualy improving my self image and now feel that I truly can achieve great things in my life. Maybe I just need to keep at it and build on my successes. I am trying to use 30 day challenges to improve my sleeping habits (used to get up very late every day). Also, I have been working out 6 times a week for about a month now.

I guess I think I am probably on the right track, but was just wondering if anyone had more specific suggestions and tips to tackling the original question that I posed in the header of this thread so that I do not have to rediscover the wheel myself .....

[Jim11]

Get a part-time job at a fast food restaurant or telemarketing and work there for 1 full weekend. This will give you some perspective. I did this.... it was well worth it. It improved my outlook on my actual job a great deal.

Maybe you need specific reasons to work more hours. Things meaningful to you

For example, if you're working 35 hours now, you could decide to work an extra 5 specifically to:
- Donate the proceeds to charity
- Buy a new car
- Invest in mutual funds and invest in your future
- Buy your mother a nice gift.

Whatever works for you.

[Tayrak]

When you do something as a hobby you can do it anytime you want, there are no schedules to keep, no deadlines to meet, and no one is grading you on it. It's absolutly free. It's something you enjoy doing and you decide I'll make a living at this. It's a good idea, but now you don't have a hobby anymore, you have a job. Now you have to put out a certain amount of effort, even if you don't feel like it. See now it isn't free anymore. So was it something you did because it was fun and thought I could have fun forever, awesome. Or was it something you did because it truly moved you and you were passionate about it? If it's the latter then you can keep doing it no matter what happens or how hard it gets. If it was just fun, you can see the problem when the fun stops.
I'd get myself another hobby, you need some down time, something that is simply fun preferably something that is different from your job.
Then I would set myself a schedule, if you go to work each day that's how life would be. Working for yourself isn't much different. You'll hit spots where it isn't fun, see these times as challenges and not something you hate to do. Think back on how much fun you had doing it before and where it became a chore. At times you can change a few things to get back to where you were when you started. Set some challenges for yourself, if you meet them give yourself a reward. Oh and pat yourself on the back, you already achieved more than most people, you work for yourself-and it's actually making money for you and at something you like to do. Congrats!

[CoolStuff]

^ How can you keep something? That has happened to me with web design/programming, music (now I'm in music class, it's forcing me to learn the stuff I want to learn, but for some reason I'm fighting it and fighting the homework).

It also happened with guitar. I got into guitar on my own, never was paid for it, eventually I didn't enjoy going to lessons as much as I did, and I recently stopped after two years. I haven't picked up the guitar since, but I still play keyboard and write songs, I also pick up the guitar all the time when I'm somewhere else. Even in my dad's room I like to pick up the guitar and just play. But for some reason I don't do it, even though I have my guitar sitting right in my room! That's a common problem I have actually, it's really weird.

When I was younger, I was going from pokemon, to yoyo, to chess. **** I started a trend at school each time (though not so much with chess). LOL.

[Ilya]

Welcome to the forums Relvin! That's a deep and interesting question you are asking. I've been in the situation you are describing. Pretty early in life I became interested in videogames and quickly went from playing them, to trying to figure out how to make them better. I was teaching myself and eventually I've got a job in the leading video game development company in the country. It was the dream job for me. But after just some time, I started to feel the same symptoms as you. The job was fun, but it was not as much fun as when I was doing it on my own.
I've spent some time analyzing this situation and thinking what can be done. Tayrak has started us in the right direction, but I've got something to add.

When we start doing something as a job two major things happen. First - we become part of the system and second - our motivation changes from internal to external.

I'll explain each one in turn. When we become part of any system - a company at work, a freelancer-customer relationship, anything, we start to experience systemic effects. For example, there will a be a bottleneck in the system. It may be you or it may be someone else. The thing is, the system (and everybody on it) will not be able to go faster then the slowest part of the system.

Internal vs. external motivation is best illustrated with a story that i've met in more then one PD book. It's about the kids that were playing and screaming in front of one man's house. He was annoyed, but smart. So he offered the kids a job. He would pay them, say a dollar each per day for good noise in front of his house. Obviously, the chaos immediately ensued. He did the same the next day and the day after. Then he said to kids, that he is short of money and can pay them only 50 cents. The kids took the money, but their screaming was much less enthusiastic. Then the man "went bankrupt" and said that he can't pay the kids anymore, but they are welcome to continue screaming for free. The kids suggested that he finds some other fools to scream for him for free and went playing to another place.

Note that for kids it is very natural to play and to scream. And they do it without any purpose other than to have fun. But when they learn that there might be some other reason, they fall into this trap and start to measure their performance against the external feedback. No feedback, no action.

The adults are also prone to this illusion and this often happens at work. The first moment we make a decision that this amount of money is good enough for what I do - we are captured. The same is for receiving boss's encouragement, yearly bonus, perks and so on.

Both these things are not bad on their own. But both of them lead to the situation, when we are acting outside of our "flow zone". When we are on our own, we tend to pick challenges that are optimal for us. We overcome them, learn from them and then take the next challenge. At work, the challenges that are offered to us are either too easy. And even if we over deliver it will be a waste, because the result of our performance will be too much for the weakest part of the system to deal with. On the other hand, to impress others, we often, have to take on challenges that are too hard for us.

In both cases, we are acting in suboptimal way - either bored to death doing easy stuff or stressed from failing the difficult stuff.
It is very rare when the company management is wise and skilled enough to match every member's skill level and provide them with the optimal working environment. As far I know two companies in IT are known for that - Microsoft and Google. Google's rule that the employees should spend a certain percentage of their work time on their own pet projects is one of the good ways to keep fun in the job.

And that is the way, I've kept fun in my jobs for years. I would do my boring assignment and then would work on something that is interesting for me. Sometimes it could be used later in the job context. Sometimes it could not. Obviously, this takes an understanding boss, but I would advise anyone from getting a job, where there are no understanding bosses.

[Relvin]

thank you very much for all of the responses so far, I am going to analyze them more closely later

[CoolStuff]

Ilya, as I mentioned I'm taking a music class. The homework was a big burden for me, and I know it's helping me learn new things, like writing and reading music. I still did side projects, but that just made it worse because I didn't want to work on homework, just my projects. I know it has a little to do with always wanting to do something you're comfortable with, but I think it was a little more than that.

Relvin sorry to take over your thread, hopefully we can both benefit from the answers.

[justfiverules]

Relvin,

Ilya's reply is worth several readings - it's that good IMHO!

Two suggestions for (partially) rekindling the vocational light in a job that once shone brightly:

1- Teach others who want to learn using an official or unofficial intern program.
Imparting knowledge and experience can be a real buzz.

2- Outsource the tasks you don't want to do anymore. Easier said than done - especially in a boss-worker environment. But worth a shot, if it can be shown to benefit the company/boss/department.
Alas, some folks won't do this for fear of making themselves expendable.

[Ilya]

Originally Posted by CoolStuff

Ilya, as I mentioned I'm taking a music class....

Relvin sorry to take over your thread, hopefully we can both benefit from the answers.

I'm sorry CoolStuff, I'm not sure I'm following Are you giving an example in support of my ideas or against them? Maybe I'm missing the context of your music classes... If you want me to comment, help me to understand Maybe I'm just too tired at the moment.

[Ilya]

Originally Posted by justfiverules

Relvin,

Ilya's reply is worth several readings - it's that good IMHO!

Thanks justfiverules. But I hoped my writing is a clear enough to work in one go. Just kidding.

1- Teach others who want to learn using an official or unofficial intern program.
Imparting knowledge and experience can be a real buzz.

Thanks for reminding me that. At the lower points of boredom I've always volunteered for teaching projects. I've read lectured on trade conferences, taught a class on game design in Moscow State University and so on. Definitely put some joy back in.

2- Outsource the tasks you don't want to do anymore. Easier said than done - especially in a boss-worker environment. But worth a shot, if it can be shown to benefit the company/boss/department.
Alas, some folks won't do this for fear of making themselves expendable.

Also great one. But I'd have to say that in corporate environment the best way is to show that you are too good to be doing the boring stuff. Get promoted. Also easier said then done. And unfortunately, management is also boring for the reasons I've outlined before. The manager is rarely the bottleneck.

[Dan.Linehan]

Originally Posted by Jim11

Get a part-time job at a fast food restaurant or telemarketing and work there for 1 full weekend. This will give you some perspective. I did this.... it was well worth it. It improved my outlook on my actual job a great deal.

Maybe you need specific reasons to work more hours. Things meaningful to you

For example, if you're working 35 hours now, you could decide to work an extra 5 specifically to:
- Donate the proceeds to charity
- Buy a new car
- Invest in mutual funds and invest in your future
- Buy your mother a nice gift.

Whatever works for you.

Jim, I think this is all great advice. Except buying a new car. But a used car instead.

When I don't like my job I think, well, I could still be mopping floors. Or changing fryer oil. Or installing ductwork. Or refinancing mortgages, bleh!!!

[CoolStuff]

Originally Posted by Ilya

I'm sorry CoolStuff, I'm not sure I'm following Are you giving an example in support of my ideas or against them? Maybe I'm missing the context of your music classes... If you want me to comment, help me to understand Maybe I'm just too tired at the moment.

Well I love music, and I do different things involving music. That includes writing songs, but I have never completely written out every single note in perfect rhythm like I did this time. It was an assigment to write a composition, and it was a huge burden each time. I never wanted to do it, I just kinda forced myself to do it. I never enjoyed myself too much while doing it (even though I found an easy way to get the music written).

In the middle of composing for the assignment, I ended up writing a completely different song. So my creative juices werent low or anything, I just didnt wanna do the assignment for some reason. It's just something about assignments. LOL

[Ilya]

Originally Posted by CoolStuff

It was an assigment to write a composition, and it was a huge burden each time.

What you are describing is the typical symptoms of being out of flow state. You were assigned something that you've never done before. It is hard. You are likely to do it in a suboptimal way. And it is frustrating. You have to find the way to make it easier. And, unfortunately, the most efficient way is to practice. Practice more, not less. For example write a few compositions for yourself. Take some songs, you've already written and write them down perfectly, but unassigned. Say, write three of them, or ten. Your mind will have no other choice but to provide you with the efficient way to do it. You are lucky in that your joy depends on learnable skill, not on other people.

[CoolStuff]

Originally Posted by Ilya

What you are describing is the typical symptoms of being out of flow state. You were assigned something that you've never done before. It is hard. You are likely to do it in a suboptimal way. And it is frustrating. You have to find the way to make it easier. And, unfortunately, the most efficient way is to practice. Practice more, not less. For example write a few compositions for yourself. Take some songs, you've already written and write them down perfectly, but unassigned. Say, write three of them, or ten. Your mind will have no other choice but to provide you with the efficient way to do it. You are lucky in that your joy depends on learnable skill, not on other people.

Thanks for the great idea. Yes I am lucky for that. What joy depends on other people? Don't you think you can always improve yourself?

[Ilya]

Originally Posted by CoolStuff

Thanks for the great idea. Yes I am lucky for that. What joy depends on other people? Don't you think you can always improve yourself?

You're welcome, but don't thank me. I've just described that little thing called learning.

As for the sources of joy... It varies. The flow state is a great source of joy and if you can strike the right balance it can make almost any occupation joyful.
But some people let themselves believe that their joy depends on something that other people do, say or, god forbid, think. So to make themselves happy they have to make other people behave, express themselves or think in a certain way. Happens a lot in marriage, but not exclusively.

And, yes I believe that I can always improve myself. And other people too.

[Relvin]

What has really helped me lately (I am starting to enjoy my work again) is LIVING IN THE MOMENT. This is something I never conciously did in the past. Focus in my job = greater success for the hours I put into it, it also helps me improve. Also, my self image is really improving lately with my new focuse on personal development. I am no longer putting limitations on what I can accomplish or how succesful I can become .... this is also motivating.

Also, with my newly found interest in self development, I have made the realization that my job is a GREAT tool for developing self discipline for obvious reasons. I can choose how many hours per week to work, if I don't want to work at all in a week I do not have to. Over the past year and a half I had slowly begun working less and less and was not getting up until maybe 10/11am .... kind of emberrasing. The last week or so I have been getting up before 9am every day. Today I got up just after 8 I find myself being more productive getting my work done earlier and having time off later in the day. I can take that time off at the end of the day in good consiounce (sp?) knowing I put forth an effort that I can be proud of and I worked on improving my habits.

[Relvin]

Originally Posted by CoolStuff

I just didnt wanna do the assignment for some reason. It's just something about assignments. LOL

Yeah, I think it puts you in a mental state of having to do something as opposed to the more desirable wanting to do it. This is the same thing that happened to me. I am beginning to shift my thought process and geniunly wanting to do my work as of the last few days. Try to really live in the moment in these cases and see if it helps you. Do not worry about anything else in your life while you are working on this and see what happens ....

[Relvin]

Thank you Ilya for that lengthy post you made about internal v extrenal motivation and becoming part of the system. I actualy work completely solo, do not really on anyone else, but I now do realize that some system bottle necks were effecfting my job. I believe those did demotivate me to some degree, though there are good ways for me to navigate those with some creativity that I am now employing.

I also found your discussion of internal v external motivation to be very helpful. The story about the kids and the money directly applies to me. As I mentioned, I previously did my hobby for free (almost free) and did it because I enjoyed it. Once it became a job, midway through something occurred which lowered the amount of money I was making (situation completely out of my control). As a result, the hours I had to put in suddenly became more difficult ... not suprising but your story really puts the situation in perspective for me. I retooled maybe 2 months ago and am finding new sources of income that give me even more potential then I originaly had, and I must admit it has given me extra motivation.

[Ilya]

You are welcome Relvin. I'm glad the situation is turning for the better. Yeah, you are right, the system effects are usually there, even if we work solo.
Didn't expect the story about the kids to apply so perfectly though.