Your career needs constant love and attention to keep the flame alive.

Is your career your most time-consuming relationship? Perhaps it’s time to take stock this Valentine’s Day. If you’ve been feeling less than enamoured by it recently, why not put in some extra work and fall in love again?

Often, your point of view is the difference between loving and hating your job. Early on a new job is thrilling. Colleagues are welcoming, excited by your appearance. Every meeting is fresh and bursting with ideas. Bosses are supportive and you’re brimming with effervescence at the opportunities ahead of you.  A few years, or even months, reality sets in and the positives can be more difficult to notice.  It’s only natural. We’ve all laughed over our partner’s (initially) adorable habits in the first few weeks of a relationship, only to have that same habit frustrate us beyond reasoning later on. 

The reality is that nothing’s changed, apart from your perspective. And the saying goes… it’s easier to change yourself than to change someone else.

No relationship should be neglected, especially the one you’ll spend a third of your life invested in.

Here’s our top tips to keep that flame alive or reignite it’s dimming glow: 

1. Take pride and make an effort
 
Relationships usually start with ‘best foot forward’. Making an effort to be your best self – in appearance and behaviour because first impressions count. Work is no different. 

We’ve seen it many times. A person starts the first day of their job looking and feeling their absolute best. Within months the effort diminishes and with it, so does their own sense of pride. Sound familiar?

According to the Scientific American, what you wear can influence your thinking and even out your heart rate.   Formal outfits give rise to feelings of power, leading to higher abstract thinking and better negotiation skills.  This isn’t to say you must dress formally, because many organisations today encourage the most comfortable you. It’s not necessarily about what you wear, but HOW you wear it. Whether you’re jeans and Converse or ‘suited and booted’, is your appearance as stellar as it was in the honeymoon phase?

It’s a simple step to take but dressing as if it’s your first day on the job could reinstall that sense of pride you had when you first started. 

Action: At least once this week, spend an extra 10 minutes getting ready for work. Pretend it’s your first day on the job and dress for the job you want! 

2. Make regular lunch dates

Lunch is not a luxury. Enjoying an hour of your work day to go outside, get some fresh air and take a moment for yourself might seem like standard practice for most. It’s not. More than a third of UK employees never leave their workplace during the working day. Increasing pressures of work and how lunch breaks may be perceived seem to be the main reasons many workers don’t take a lunch break. 

The benefits of taking a full lunch break are worth it. It increases productivity by replenishing cognitive stock. Fact. Simply, although you’re spending less time at your desk, you’ll get more done. It’s also good for your mental wellbeing. Taking a break is essential in helping you to de-stress and re-charge for the rest of the working day. 

Action: At least once this week, take a full hour lunch break. Go for a walk, go to the gym, sit in a café and eat slowly, or read a book over your sandwich in the canteen. 

3. Don’t lose yourself in this relationship

Find your ideal work/life balance. Of course, your work life should be important, but it shouldn’t be the only thing in your life. If you’re cancelling plans or missing out on the things and the people you love, your ‘balance’ is out of whack. It’s time to tip the scales back in favour of you. A lack of work-life balance can leave you feeling resentful, burnt out and unmotivated. 

Having a fun and fulfilling life outside of work will make even the most stressful days seem worth it.  

Action: This week, do something outside of work that you enjoy enough to completely forget about work.

4. Pop the champagne and celebrate

Celebrating a promotion is standard. Why do we reserve celebration only for the ‘milestones? Along your career journey, you have so many opportunities to celebrate success. Yet, it’s common to compare ourselves to other’s Instagram-worthy successes and we then forget about the small stuff.  It’s the small victories along the way that push us towards true success, so they really should be celebrated too. 

You’ve successfully implemented an upgrade at work. What do you do? Say well done to the team members and move on to the next project? Take a breath. Recognise the achievement. 

Start celebrating every victory, regardless of the gravity. Add an agenda item to each weekly meeting where everyone has the opportunity to talk about their own success that week. Sometimes we just need a little reminder that we’re on the right track and that every success takes effort, which deserves recognition. 

Action: Find a way to celebrate success at work this week, no matter how small. 

5. Communication is key

Just like any relationship, communication is imperative. You wouldn’t expect your partner to know your favourite scent without you ever telling them right. Your career is no different. 

If you’re feeling like you don’t know what’s expected of you, you need to spend time with your manager to outline your plan.  Get clarity about your career, your responsibilities and your objectives. 

Any time you have conflicting demands, start a dialogue outlining the issues as well as possible solutions. Clarity enables understanding. 

Action: Set a meeting with your manager to discuss your role, objectives and future prospects.
 

6. Love your to-do list

Quite often when we start a new job, we’re good at writing out our monthly, weekly and daily plans. We have goals and we work hard towards them. Within a few months the workload has increased, the objectives become fuzzy and it can seem overwhelming.  

Go back to basics. Get clarity on what your goals are in the short term and the long term. Start using a to-do list, focus on your tasks and tick them off as you go. Combining this very basic action with rewarding the victories will ensure that sense of achievement and pride is felt daily. 

Also, it’s worth pointing out that there is a big difference between being busy and being productive. Work productively and you’ll see the results. 

Action: On Monday, create your weekly plan and at the end of each day, get a sense of what you’ve managed to get done and what will need to be the focus for the following day. 

This Valentine’s Day take stock of your relationship with your career and decide if you’re willing to commit to making it work. If the honeymoon period is well and truly over and you just can’t find the spark, contact us at RED to find out how we can support you in finding that next perfect career partner for you.