90,000 hours.

That is the figure that represents the time that you are likely to spend working across your lifetime.

It’s a huge number.  We can divide it a number of ways to see what it equates to in days and weeks, months and years.  Irrespective of how you divide it, it’s still a huge number. 

The impact of this number is also huge.  Given that it is such a significant proportion of your life, are you loving what you do?  Really loving it?  Heart and soul loving it?  Should this even be expected?  How dare you be so entitled that you should even expect to love work that much.  Who do you think you are?  And why would you have such great expectations about work?  It’s work after all.

It is work, and I have that expectation about it.

I expect that I will love what I do every day.  My work brings me joy, excitement and energy.   When I’m working, I’m in the zone.  I give and I take from my work.  It is a source of great achievement, comfort and love. 

Will I love it this intensely every day?  Unlikely.  In fact, I know that sometimes I don’t.  Sometimes I don’t like it.    Some days it brings frustration, and disappointment and it zaps my energy.    Does this change how much I love it?  No.  I accept that with all the joy that it brings, it will also bring disappointment at times.  I accept that at times, my work will not be exciting, but in fact boring.  I accept that whilst my work gives me energy, sometimes it will zap me of energy.

I expect that I will love my work most of the time.  I intend to love my work most of the time.  If I stop loving it consistently, I know it’s time to change paths.

I will spend approximately 90,000 hours of my days on this planet working.   I intend to love every single second of it.

Rita Cincotta writes, mentors, and speaks on individual and team performance, leadership development, resilience and new ways of working. She works with organisations to develop human centred solutions that help people and businesses to thrive.