Value Your Time: Find Your Professional Joy

Because time travel doesn't really exist

I’m only here, writing about the importance of the time we spend living, because for the last 14 years I’ve been battling with a rare, incurable form of stage 4 cancer. Life changing events like a cancer diagnosis have a way of altering your perception of many aspects of your life, and the value of time was at the top of my list. Time is the one thing that works the same for us all - no matter your background, your present or your future, it binds us together. When I began to explore how to enjoy my time left, I was confronted by this ingrained idea that work is kind of a negative experience.

Like many of you, I grew up hearing things like “work isn’t meant to be fun” and seeing depictions of people miserable at work. I kept hearing sentiments like these and I started to think that it sounds a lot like work sucks. As I got a bit older we progressed as a society to promoting the idea of a work-life balance. Now we effectively say that while work still sucks, at least now you get some acknowledgement that trying to separate your job from your life and taking some vacation days is an acceptable practice. This is better, and balance is important, but we are still focused on ensuring you escape from work, rather than on improving your time at work. Unlike me, you don’t have to wait until you’re staring down your own mortality to start living like it - because I did the work already. Building this relationship with time while understanding its value is how I got to a place where I don't view time as wasted and every moment provides an outcome with purpose.

Navigating this paradigm shift exposed the realization that our time here, and our perception of it, can be adjusted in any given moment. This led me to decide that by living two separate lives - one miserable at “work” earning money in order to enjoy the remaining time in my “life” that I spend awake - I wasn't valuing my time equally. With a goal of enjoying more of my time, I asked myself some questions like the ones below and I demanded answers.

• Why are you actively deciding to spend your time making a living doing things that you are not happy doing?

• How can you work to ensure that the valuable time you have to spend is spent on what, who, where and the way you want?

• What happens if I focus on making sure that the people around me, who I care about and who impact the time I spend at work, are living happier work lives alongside me?

“But Scott, it’s just work, how much time are we really talking about?” A significant amount. Data says that the average person will spend at least 33% of their waking hours either at work or thinking about work. Most of my circle is over 40%. Since we already know that we can’t add time, I began focusing on how I could affect that time instead. Starting with those three questions, I set out to find actionable ways to increase the percentage of my life enjoying the work that I was doing.

“Makes sense, what’s the first step to affecting how you spend your work life?” Make a decision. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a corner office or a truck cab, if you’re an influencer or running a checkout counter - decide that you deserve to enjoy the time you spend living. Then accept that work is a part of your life, not a separate life that requires compromising your happiness. I’ve found that as you invest in this neglected time that we so often throw away as “work time”, you end up investing in what and who is around you and your environment will invest back in you. If that environment falls short in providing a return investment, that becomes a barometer for change. I was lucky enough to have this mentality forced upon me by a cancer diagnosis and my challenge to you is this: Start today. Invest yourself in uncovering how to bring your professional life in line with how you want to spend your valuable time. Start learning how to bend your professional circumstances closer to you while encouraging and inspiring others to do the same. Before you click out of this page, I want to help get you started with three simple questions to think about, plus a bonus request.

1. What is one change or variation that would make your daily work life a better experience for you?

2. What is one change or variation that you believe would create a better work experience for a co-worker, former co-worker, friend or family member?

3. Now that you’ve got two ideas, what do you think is holding the answers to those questions back from happening?

4. Would you consider sending your answers and any questions or comments that you have to scott@workhappier.ca? I’d love to hear them.

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Scott works alongside his clients as a micro-mentor, coach and personal career consultant building lasting solutions to all sorts of work problems. He applies his professional expertise to his life experience and the result is that he's always exactly where he wants to be. He'd love to hear your story.