Career Advice

If You Enjoy Your Job It’s Because You’re Good At It, Not The Other Way Around

A lot of people think that the reason they're good at their job is because they enjoy it.

But that's usually not the truth, the reason you enjoy your job is because you're good at it.

I used to love playing Fifa, because I was good at it and would often win. Then I had kids, had little time to play Fifa and got rubbish at it, I stopped enjoying it.

You see, mastery of a skill usually means you enjoy utilising that skill. Nobody enjoys doing something they're terrible at.

Think about it, you do a job well and you get rewarded, via praise, money or other benefits. And those rewards, they only lead to make you enjoy it even more.

None of those rewards or enjoyment would come if you were bad at your job.

Now that's not to say that if you're good at your job then you must enjoy it. There are a lot of people who are great at their job but hate it. But that's usually because of the environment where they're doing the job rather than the actual job itself.

So why does any of this matter?

Most people when trying to figure out a career change or even starting out in their career focus on thinking about what they enjoy doing. And that's where a lot of folk struggle in trying to figure out what they enjoy.

Focus on what you're good at, because there's a pretty good chance you'll enjoy it. What parts of your job are you great at? Is it solving problems, is it networking, is it analysing massive datasets? Which parts of your job are you not so great at?

Find a career or job that has more of the stuff you're great at and you'll probably find it much more enjoyable.

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