Our society frequently promotes the idea of following one’s true passion or calling. Rightly so. I routinely encourage my clients towards it and have written a lot about it as well (Are you following your calling, Discovering your calling). Pursuing your calling is an important contributor towards experiencing deeper happiness and fulfilment.

However, it’s not always possible for everyone to follow their calling. Firstly, you may struggle to find that one dominant theme that you are passionate enough to commit your professional life to. Besides, you maybe deterred by your perceived chances of success in that path. Equally, you maybe concerned about its financial viability.

If you find yourself in such a stalemate, don’t be disheartened. You can still find happiness and meaning in your work. Here are three approaches how.

Try loving what you do

1. Examine your attitude

Talking to our domestic helper the other day, I figured that her real dream is to run a food stall back in her village in Indonesia. While the dream remains on hold, she brings a highly positive attitude towards her current job. She believes work is worship and finds joy in making others happy.

Your attitude towards what you do can often be more important than what you do. If you bring the right values towards your work, you would find the work rewarding. If you are diligent, organised, collaborative, thoughtful and open-minded, you would likely enjoy whatever you engage in. Alternately, if you don’t have the right attitude towards work, even pursuing your calling may not be a satisfying experience.

2. Amplify what you enjoy

I am sure there are aspects of your work that you greatly enjoy and find exciting. Maybe it’s meeting people from diverse backgrounds, helping your team members succeed or working on innovative projects. Identify what you most enjoy about your work and consider ways to expand the time you spend on those activities.

Getting busy with varied expectations at work, it’s easy to become disconnected with the parts that actually make you happy. Bringing them into your conscious awareness, you can pay greater attention to those aspects of your work. You can volunteer to get more involved in such activities or projects or even consider moving to departments that are devoted to those areas. If you are self-employed, you can consider outsourcing or partnering with skilled people in areas that you least enjoy.

Separately, if there’s something you truly love doing and your professional set up is not conducive for it, consider pursuing it outside of work. This way, you would not only be able to keep an important passion alive, but also by satisfying that inner need, you might be better placed to build a more positive relationship with your day job.

3. Feed your soul

Likewise you can also search for aspects of the work that are most meaningful and fulfilling to you. To enrich this exercise, I suggest starting with an articulation of your higher purpose in life. Whatever that special reason you are on this planet for, pursuit of which would make your life truly meaningful. As I have described in my book, such purpose statements are likely to include aspects that you may want to work on within yourself (like learning to be more courageous, trusting, collaborative, kinder, less judgmental, mindful) as well as the actions that take you beyond yourself (like helping others, serving society).

You can then assess ways to better live this purpose in your professional life. Irrespective of your type of work, you are sure to have innumerable opportunities to do the self-work and grow as a person. Similarly, you can review how you can translate your aspiration to help others in your workplace – whether it’s through inspiring your team members, promoting ideas to protect the environment or supporting new products that solve a social need.

Having a positive relationship with your work, expanding activities that are more enjoyable, and being intentional about living your purpose at work can nourish your heart, mind and soul – adding to your sense of happiness and fulfilment!