Love Work More – a side project

It’s now just over five years since I moved back to the UK from Colorado. I enjoy doing consultancy work more than I ever thought I would – I thought I would miss the “team” aspect more, but I have been lucky in working with clients who I feel a genuine partnership with.

Did you realise that as professionals, we spend around 50% of our entire waking adult lives working – doing it, commuting to it, thinking about it, talking about it? Similarly, research shows that around 50% of us are not engaged in what we do.

It makes sense that we should feel motivated, inspired, excited and energised about spending half of our waking lives doing this thing. I’m curious as to how many professionals feel this about their work – if you were to score yourself out of 7, which side of the 50% would you fall into?

7 = I love my working life, I am pursuing my passionate purpose, energised, excited and loving the way I earn my living. Right career, right job, right organisation and right opportunities.

1 = I hate my working life, I feel disheartened, under-valued, I am drained by the work I do and feel disconnected emotionally and intellectually. Wrong career, wrong job, wrong organisation and no opportunities. (Not that there is a quick fix, but of all the happiness books out there, I thought this one, by Stanford science director Emma Seppala, was excellent).

2 – 6 = somewhere between the two extremes

Few of us of course would accept less than a 7 in most things we do or are involved in.

While my personal life experiences make me appreciate the shortness of life perhaps more than others of my age, I have always had a passion for supporting people, leaders and teams to achieve more than they thought was possible.

It was this shared passion for creating fulfilling working lives that turned a typically staid initial conversation over pastries, into an animated discussion, when I met Richard Ferguson at an IoD event three years ago. We have often talked about and shared our ideas ever since that first meeting, until finally deciding to bring our offerings together as a side project to our consulting work. Our collaboration aims to help over 1000 people over the next 10 years; to guide people to love their working lives more, coaching, facilitating and educating whilst establishing a community of people who Love Work More.

Scott Dinsmore, before he died, had a similar aspiration and with his wife, who continues his work, encouraged people to Live Your Legend – his excellent 17 minute TED talk may just give you some additional food for thought.

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