How To Thrive In Your Work

How do you thrive in your current job or work?

This is a question on the minds of many fathers. I recently changed jobs and went from a job where I was going through the motions week after week to one I am now excited to go to each day of the week. I will be talking about my journey and how this evolved. 

Here are some points we will be covering.

1. It is not always about the money.

2.  Loving what you do.

3. What is your work environment like?

4. What do you do if you are in a career or job that does not bring you joy?

I would love to hear what you have found that helps you thrive in your career as a father. Please share that with me in the comments below. 

Also, If there is a topic you are interested in me talking about or have questions about, please check out my website at brianjknight.com and contact me there. Or, I would love to connect with you on Facebook, and feel free to join my group, Thriving Fatherhood, where I offer more on how to thrive in fatherhood. 

Transcript

Welcome to the Thriving Fatherhood Podcast, where we are living and working in the trenches to go from surviving to thriving in this mission field called fatherhood. 

My name is Brian Knight. I am a father of three, and married for over eight years now. How are you fathers doing out there? I hope you are having a good week and ready for some great insights on how you can thrive as a busy father in a new job, or your current one for that matter. This is a big topic, so I am not sure I will be able to fit all I want to say in one podcast or there may be a part two. We will see where it goes.

I have mentioned before that I am a registered nurse in my day job and work for the Veteran’s Administration. I recently took a new job as a RN Whole Health Coach where I stepped away from direct patient care for the first time in my eighteen-year career. I guess I really did not step away, but I know longer give patient medications and start IVs on them. I do perform acupuncture, coach them, and teach them directly. It is a lot of fun and getting better as I learn more. 

This has been a big transition for me along with all the other transitions in my life. Welcome to fatherhood and the messy middle you may be thinking! I have a few things I want to share with you that will open up your insights on this transition, and hopefully will benefit you in your own journey.

1.       Don’t chase the money – money will only make you happy for so long. Research shows that giving employees pay raises does not ultimately make them happy employees. There is much more that goes into job satisfaction. Now, don’t get me wrong, money is a factor, I mean we have mouths to feed and a certain lifestyle we want to maintain for our family. I get that, but you do not want to be in a career where you are dreading Monday that pays well. That is not going to work over the long term. 

I will admit that I took a 10K pay cut to take my new job. Why, because I have found through my experience in the last decade that I wanted to help my patients in a different way, and that is what this new job allows me to do. That is more satisfying to me than a temporary 10K pay cut. I believe it is true that if you do what you love the money will follow, eventually. There are a lot of factors at play with that . I believe this position actually puts me in a better position to be promoted at the VA than my previous job did. This job allows me to reach more people and make a bigger impact in a cause that I believe in.

2.       Love what you do – with this new job I believe I am helping my Veterans in a much better way than I was before and this motivates me to learn everything I can about my job and improve my skills. Before, honestly, I just was not motivated to learn more, because I did not believe it really helped my Veterans, at least, not in the long term. Just to clarify, I moved out of acute care nursing where we are doing procedures, surgeries, medications, and into prevention, equipping and empowering my patients through self-care and coaching. I do believe the acute care stuff is needed, but when that is the first thing you do and there is no self-care being done. It is the wrong strategy for long-term health. I will just say this, loving what you do is a way to make your career sustainable and energizing. Before I was just getting through the day to get my paycheck. And, eventually, this will show through. Now, I was not a bad employee, I did what was expected of me and treated everyone with a smile, but I was not excited about what I did. And, you need to be excited about what you do for a living. If you are not currently there, that is ok, but find a way to get there. You do not always have to change careers, jobs, or whatever to get there. You just need to start thinking about how you can leverage your skills and use them to serve God and others in a way that is true to what you feel in your heart. This does evolve and shift over time and with new experiences. Just don’t get stuck or scared about moving into another position. I get it, it is scary to transition. Change is not easy, that is why you need good men in your life to support you and you need to pray often as you are contemplating decisions in your life and need guidance about your next steps. 

3.       Work environment – I will say there was a lot I did not know when I was asked to accept my new job. I knew where I was going to be located, but outside of that, I did not know what my work environment would look like. It has worked out pretty well. Could be better, but you know what I have come to realize the more friendly and engaging I am to others, the more they are like that to me. It is challenging for me to get out and say hi to others intentionally and chat them up. When I say chat them up, I am asking them about them, not telling them about me, unless they ask. Some of the good things about my current work environment is it has great parking, a clean building and I have an office, sort of. It is an exam room, but it works better than a cubicle. Also, there is a great big parking lot to get out and walk around. This helps me to get some exercise early in the morning before work and throughout the day with easy access. Some of the things I do not like is it is still a decent drive and I work five days a week. I am usually gone from shortly after 6am until just before 5pm minimum every day during the week. That is a big portion of my time each week. However, this job does help me to build skills that can be done virtually. This is my plan, but it can be challenging for me to work at home when the kids are around. Also, I get easily distracted, so going to work and being physically present can be good for focusing on your work. It is for me, but I would like to try working virtually at some point. My previous job can not be done virtually, period. 

I will just say that with my new job the time flys. For one I am pretty busy and there is a lot to do. It is fairly autonomous so I have to motivate myself at times to get out and speak with employees and call Vets on the phone. This is new for me and is difficult for me to do all the time since I can be an introvert at times. Personally, I believe these are great skills for me to develop and they are growing me and getting me out of my comfort zone. Also, the people I work with and learn from are upbeat and high performing individuals. You know the saying that a rising tide lifts all boats. I feel having a good team around you will raise your standards. So, consider the people you are working around and associating with.

So, what do you do if you are not in a career or job you love. Well, I would do some self-reflection. Think about what you want out of a career, what is important to you, what would you like to do. Make sure you talk this over with your spouse and a trusted friend. I would say talk to both, because when we start talking about leaving our career or switching jobs that might make the wife nervous especially if she is not working outside the home. So, you want your spouse’s opinion, but make sure you are talking with a mentor, coach, or pastor who can give you a good perspective on what you are planning to do. 

Once you make a decision on what you want to do and find out how to do it. Start taking those first steps towards that new career. My current job, I have been preparing for this intellectually and making connections with others for the past five years. So, when this opportunity came up, I was ready. Let me tell you, in the nursing world there is a lot of high achievers and competition. I knew and felt I was the most qualified candidate at my facility of over twelve hundred nurses. I do not know how many applied, but I heard it was a lot.  And I will end with this, if you want to go for a particular job and you feel you may not be qualified or the most qualified. Apply for it anyways, you never know. They usually put everything they want in the job description, but just because you do not have all the requirements does not mean you will not be the one they select for that position. So, go for it!!

That is what I have for you today; if you feel this show has been valuable to you, I encourage you to share it with one other father who could gain some insight from it and wants more thriving in their lives. 

Also, I would love to hear what you have found that helps you as a father thrive in your career. Please share that with me in the comments below. 

Also, if there is a topic you are interested in me talking about or have questions, please send it to knightbri@gmail.com. You can also check out my website at brianjknight.com and the private Facebook group called Thriving Fatherhood. 

If you would be interested in working with me or having me mentor you on your journey back from surviving to thriving in fatherhood, then send me an email or reach out to me through my website, and we can set up a call to see if I can help you to thrive more in your fatherhood journey. 

Thank you for listening, and until next week, continue thriving in fatherhood.