What the Brain Research Says: Why Should I Do It?

What the Brain Research Says: Why Should I Do It?

Not counting the time a person spends sleeping, which should be approximately eight hours a night, 63 percent of a person’s available time is spent working. This is a large chunk of a person’s life. If that much time is devoted to anything, it needs to be something that the person loves. How can one tell if they truly enjoy their work? Noam Lightstone (2021), founder of Light Way of Thinking and best-selling author, has written twenty self-help books to improve people’s lives in all aspects and enable them to conquer anxiety and depression. Lightstone (2021) provides the following ten signs to look for that indicate you are enjoying what you do. 1. You enter a state of flow where time flies by and you lose yourself. When a person is in a flow state, the only thing that matters is what they are doing at the time while other worries and tasks appear to slip away. 2. You feel fulfilled because you are doing something that is of value. You become grateful that, regardless of the job, you can help and serve others. 3. You get up in the morning with excitement about your day. Although there may be days when you feel off, you should not continuously dread having to go to work. 4. You work side by side with coworkers and superiors with whom you can accomplish great things. You love that you get to work and struggle to make something you truly believe in reality. 5. You are not complaining. If you are, it may mean that you need to be more thankful for what you have, or it can mean that you need to find a different job that would be more to your liking. 6. Even if you must struggle, you don’t mind! The ultimate goal of producing something worthwhile is worth the challenge. 7. Talking about what you do energizes you. When asked, “What do you do?” you want everyone else to know the answer, and you will tell them in detail. 8. Work is more than just work or a means to an end. It is an extension of you and your personality. 9. You are always interested in learning more about the job. It may even involve things for which you are not directly responsible. 10. You feel tired at the end of a challenging day. It is because you produced something valuable and feel accomplished and satisfied doing it.

Speaker, author, and life coach Curt Rosengren (2011) lists the positive effects of loving your job.

• You have more energy. When doing work you love, you are energized which, in turn, enables you to do more work. When work is not enjoyable, energy is dissipated, which leaves you feeling depleted and drained. • You have more confidence. When doing work that is not enjoyable, the work does not come naturally. When doing work you love, the work comes more naturally and you feel more secure about what you’re doing.

Lissa Rankin (Live Your Legend, 2020), a mind-body medicine physician and New York Times bestselling author, spent more than twelve years seeing patients as part of her clinical practice. Out of frustration, she abandoned her practice realizing that her work with patients was not really helping them. She sought to determine why some patients were experiencing miraculous recoveries from illnesses that seemed incurable while others remained sick, even with the best medical care. After perusing journals from reputable institutions like Johns Hopkins and Stanford, she found something remarkable. While diet and exercise were important, of more importance to long life are other elements, such as spending time with close friends, having a healthy marriage, laughter, and doing work that excites and fulfills you (Live Your Legend, 2021). So finding a passion for your purpose is not only good for your mental health; it is also good for your physical health.

Be aware, however, that finding a balance is critical. In Japan, there is a word, karoshi, that means “death by overwork” (Karoshi, n.d.). Karoshi usually affects people who are relatively young but overworking in a less-than-desirable work environment. Officials estimate that approximately ten thousand cases of karoshi occur annually. The deaths appear to be caused by the stress-induced physiological changes of a fight-or-flight repetitive response. The impact on the body results in high blood pressure, increased heart rate, and an overstressed cardiovascular system (Live Your Legend, 2021).

A study of the U.S. workplace finds that one in five Americans comes to work when ill or injured, with one-third failing to use accumulated vacation time, which has actually been proven to predispose to an early death (Gump & Matthews, 2000).

One study in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine examined twelve thousand men over a nine-year period and found that those who chose not to take annual vacation had a 21 percent higher risk of dying regardless of the cause and were 32 percent more likely to die from a heart attack (Gump & Matthews, 2000).

Following are specific action steps to help you regain your passion for what you do. Determine which steps are most applicable for you. It may be that a change in