Hello

Who were you befor the exhausted became normal?

Who have you already been?

Can you remember a version of yourself who laughed more easily?

Someone who became interested in things?

Someone who had ideas?

Someone who enjoyed completing something—not merely because it was finally over, but because doing it felt satisfying?

Perhaps that person is not gone.

Perhaps that part of you has simply had very little room lately.

There is something I would like you to try while you continue reading..

And while your conscious mind continues reading these words, perhaps another part of you can remember an experience of being deeply engaged in something.

It may have happened at work.

Or perhaps not.

Maybe you were cooking.

Building something.

Talking with someone.

Driving somewhere beautiful.

Fixing a problem.

Helping somebody.

Painting.

Gardening.

Teaching.

Learning.

Laughing.

Remember what it was like when you did not have to order yourself to be interested.

Interest simply happened.

That matters.

Because perhaps motivation isn’t something you have lost.

Perhaps your motivation has become selective.

Maybe the more interesting question is:

What still wakes something up inside you?

LET’S FOLLOW THAT

Amy Wrzesniewski and Jane Dutton gave a name to something people had apparently been doing intuitively for a very long time: job crafting.

People do not always perform similar jobs identically. They can sometimes alter aspects of what they do, whom they interact with, and how they understand the meaning of their work (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001).

But I don’t want to turn that into a lecture.

I want to know about your experience.

Think of a recent working day that was somehow less bad.

Maybe even good.

What was happening?

Who was there?

What were you doing?

What was different about you?

Perhaps you were solving rather than administrating.

Perhaps nobody interrupted you for an hour.

Perhaps you were teaching someone.

Perhaps you were working alongside somebody you like.

Perhaps you were creating something instead of reacting to things.

Whatever your answer is, don’t dismiss it because it seems small.

Small differences contain information.

So stay with that better day for another moment.

What did that day allow you to be?

Creative?

Useful?

Connected?

Competent?

Kind?

Independent?

Playful?

Curious?

Calm?

And what does that tell you about what you may need more of?

Imagine your job knows only one version of you.

Perhaps it knows the responsible you.

The one who solves everybody else’s problem.

The one who says:

But perhaps your workplace hasn’t met the curious you.

The mentoring you.

The creative you.

The funny you.

The strategic you.

The person who loves learning.

The person who enjoys making things better.

So here is something I would love you to wonder about:

Which part of you would you like your working life to meet again?

That question takes us very close to what job-crafting researchers call task crafting.

 

Perhaps there is something you already do well that could occupy slightly more space.

Could you mentor someone?

Could you redesign something inefficient?

Could you volunteer for a project that interests you?

Could you use your ability with people more?

Could you write, teach, organize, analyze, build, connect, troubleshoot, or create?

You deserve to experience more of yourself while you are there.

AND WHAT ABOUT THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU?

Who at work seems to bring you back to yourself?

Maybe there is someone with whom you can laugh.

Someone who makes you think.

Someone whose presence leaves you with more energy rather than less.

Stay with that person for a moment.

What do they seem to see in you?

What version of you appears when you’re with them?

Job crafting can also involve reshaping the relational boundaries of work—changing aspects of whom we interact with and the quality or purpose of those interactions (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001).

So perhaps this week you don’t need another productivity strategy.

Maybe you need one good conversation.

Coffee with someone from another department.

Lunch with the colleague who makes you laugh.

Ten minutes helping someone newer than you.

Calling the person whose ideas energize you.

Human beings can sometimes become exhausted not only because they are doing too much, but because they are doing too much without enough nourishing connection

Because burnout can turn an entire life into performance.

Finish this.

Achieve that.

Answer this.

Improve yourself.

Optimize your sleep.

Exercise correctly.

Relax efficiently.

Even recovery becomes another assignment.

So for a moment, let’s remove the goal.

What feels good to you that doesn’t need to accomplish anything?

Warm water on your skin?

Music in the car?

Walking somewhere with no destination?

Coffee when nobody is rushing you?

Cooking slowly?

Laughter?

Sunlight?

Suppose that tonight something shifts.

Not everything.

Your company remains your company.

Your boss remains your boss.

Your responsibilities have not magically vanished.

But somehow, while you sleep, the part of you that has been trying so hard begins to understand:

“I don’t have to carry everything in exactly the same way.”

And morning comes.

You don’t yet know anything has changed.

What would be the first tiny sign?

Would you reach for your phone differently?

Would your breathing feel different?

Would you choose different clothes?

Would you play music?

Imagine arriving at work.

What would the people who know you best notice?

 

And imagine reaching the end of that day.

What would make you think:

“Yes. More days like this.”

Stay there for a moment.

Because what you have just described isn’t my prescription for your life.

It came from you.

There is something beautiful in the early job-crafting research.

Workers performing similar formal roles sometimes understood and enacted those roles very differently. Wrzesniewski and Dutton used examples including hospital cleaners who expanded the relational and cognitive boundaries of their work, seeing themselves as contributing to patients and the functioning of the hospital rather than understanding their work only as a list of cleaning tasks (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001).

So I wonder:

Who receives the consequence of you doing your job well?

Maybe a customer feels understood.

A patient feels safe.

A building functions.

A colleague goes home earlier.

A family receives an answer.

A mistake doesn’t happen.

Someone learns.

I would like you to remember somebody.

You.

Remember yourself at a time when you handled something you once weren’t sure you could handle.

Maybe you changed countries.

Started over.

Raised somebody.

Loved somebody.

Studied something difficult.

Built a career.

Learned another language.

Walked into a room frightened and did what needed to be done anyway.

You’ve met difficult days before.

What did that version of you know?

What quality did they possess?

And how did they learn it?

Maybe courage.

Humour.

Patience.

Adaptability.

Persistence.

Faith in tomorrow.

Resourcefulness.

Perhaps someone loved you through that period.

Perhaps you learned to love yourself through it.

Whatever it was…

Where is that quality now?

Maybe it isn’t gone.

Maybe it’s tired too.

Perhaps it needs an invitation.

Come back when you’re ready. 

Maybe you can simply notice:

What gives me life?

What am I already doing that I would like to continue?

What have I stopped allowing myself to want?

What would I love to notice happening instead?

You can let yourself become curious about it.

And over the coming days, perhaps you’ll begin noticing small things you might previously have overlooked.

A conversation that energizes you.

A task you unexpectedly enjoy.

An invitation you want to accept.

Someone you want to know better.

A forgotten ability.

A moment of pleasure.

A little more sunlight.

And when those moments appear, I hope you don’t dismiss them.

Because they may be telling you something important about the life you want.

Not the life your exhaustion says you must accept.

Your life.

And whatever comes next, I hope there is room in it not only for what you can accomplish…

but for what you can enjoy,

who you can love,

who can love you,

what can fascinate you,

what can restore you,

 

Aygul Tatlici

References:

Franklin, C., Zhang, A., Froerer, A., & Johnson, S. (2017). Solution focused brief therapy: A systematic review and meta-summary of process research. Journal of Marital & Family Therapy, 43(1), 16–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/jmft.12193

Masters, W. H., & Johnson, V. E. (1970). Human sexual inadequacy. Little, Brown.

Rudolph, C. W., Katz, I. M., Lavigne, K. N., & Zacher, H. (2017). Job crafting: A meta-analysis of relationships with individual differences, job characteristics, and work outcomes. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 102, 112–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2017.05.008

Wrzesniewski, A., & Dutton, J. E. (2001). Crafting a job: Revisioning employees as active crafters of their work. Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 179–201. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2001.4378011

Wrzesniewski, A., McCauley, C., Rozin, P., & Schwartz, B. (1997). Jobs, careers, and callings: People’s relations to their work. Journal of Research in Personality, 31(1), 21–33. https://doi.org/10.1006/jrpe.1997.2162