Some people say that liking what you do is a luxury. They say that having that knot in your stomach on Sunday night as you face the week ahead is, after all, why it’s called “work”.

But many of my podcast guests disagree. They believe that liking what you do is a legitimate career goal. After all, you spend a significant part of your waking life at work. Why shouldn’t you enjoy the work you do? 

They argue that liking what you do may actually be the thing that makes your successful. Lauren Rikleen, guest on Episode 27,  went so far as to say that liking what you do is a critical element of career success. “It’s very hard to succeed when you are not engaged by your work”, she says.

Feeling energized by your work and feeling excited about the challenges that you face makes you a more committed and engaged worker. This engagement leads to being more productive and achieving better results. When you are doing work that you enjoy, you bring positive energy into the workplace, which benefits not only you but your colleagues as well.  

Do you like what you do?  If you can’t answer that question with an unequivocal yes, can you tweak your job to make it more enjoyable?  

Can you change what Morra Aarons-Mele, guest on Episode 42, calls the “place, space, and pace” of your work? Can you have a meeting-free morning once a week so that you can focus on big picture projects, or do a Zoom meeting instead of getting on a plane for a 30-minute client meeting.  Can you invest in making a new friend at work?  Shasta Nelson, guest on Episode 16, cites research that shows if you have one person at work that you would say is a good friend, you are seven times more likely to be engaged in your job. Can you negotiate with your boss to do more work that draws on your strengths and that you find rewarding?  A study by the Mayo Clinic found that physicians who spend just 20 percent of their time doing “work they find most meaningful” are at a dramatically lower risk for burnout.

What can you do to increase how much you like your work?  It could make all the difference in how successful you are.