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I do it mostly for my mental wellness. I am retired so I do this to get me out of the house during the day instead of sitting around doing nothing but battling my depression and anxiety.
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A concept that has helped us immensely in our lives is the idea of ‘ikigai.’ It’s a Japanese concept that touches on a person’s reason for being. Ikigai focuses on finding balance between four things: what you love, what the world needs, what you’re good at, and what you can be paid for.
If any of the four aspects are lacking in your life, you may not feel as fulfilled as you could be. Doing what you love and what you’re good at for very little money will be chronically frustrating. Meanwhile, doing what the world needs and what pays well even if you hate every moment of it will leave you burned out and looking to jump ship. It’s only when the four elements are at play that you can talk about ikigai, which stands above your passion, mission, profession, and vocation.
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That’s not to say that if you’re passionate enough you’ll have no issues whatsoever in your career. Challenges are unavoidable at work. But what matters is your willingness to see things through as you look for solutions. Our intrinsic motivation for what we do is as important as extrinsic factors (like money and status).
Job satisfaction, according to Indeed, depends on a handful of factors. For one, the work itself has to serve some greater purpose. It has to fire up the employees with a grand vision of some sort. But that means very little if the compensation is poor, there are no growth opportunities, and the workplace culture is toxic.
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Employees also highly value quality managers whom they can trust and respect, and who embrace communication instead of shying away from it.
On top of that, if you want to motivate your staff to go above and beyond the call of duty, you have to be willing to give them some autonomy and flexibility. If you’re micromanaging every tiny aspect of their day-to-day operations, you’re only pushing them away. Companies that truly want to support their workers will look for ways to help them grow their professional and personal skills, instead of trying to min-max their output until they inevitably burn out and quit.
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How (dis)satisfied are you at your current jobs, dear Pandas? What would you do if you won the lottery? Ideally, what kind of work would you like to do if money wasn't even an issue? We're really curious to hear your thoughts about these questions, so if you have a moment, share yours in the comments.
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