{"id":122194,"date":"2021-08-11T13:04:52","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T17:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=122194"},"modified":"2024-02-09T11:55:38","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T16:55:38","slug":"3-lessons-i-learned-on-the-way-to-finding-passion-again-in-my-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/3-lessons-i-learned-on-the-way-to-finding-passion-again-in-my-career\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Lessons I Learned On the Way to Finding Passion Again in My Career"},"content":{"rendered":"
The summer has come and gone.<\/p>\n
2021 is flying by, even though it seems like the year had just begun. As the world is still uncertain on virtually every topic you could think of, I find myself clinging to the things I still love to do.<\/p>\n
One of those things is my career as a police officer, despite the challenges the profession faces. I have found that being passionate about my career has helped me redouble my efforts to being the best I can be at it.<\/p>\n
I have seen others lose that passion and leave the field altogether. Seeing this happen at multiple police departments across the U.S made me ask myself a question: How many of us are working at a job where we have grown passionless<\/em>? Any job, any career, any profession \u2014 how many of us have stopped caring?<\/p>\n I\u2019ve heard many different reasons for this conveyed in a way where it is completely emotion based. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard the same things too.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just not happy anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t challenge me any longer.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere will come a point in your<\/em> career where you will ask yourself the same question \u2014 am I happy with my job?\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n As I hear these sentiments, I find it heartbreaking. A person gets into a career to do something they love or to make a difference in a particular field. Hear me folks and mark my words; There will come a point in your<\/em> career where you will ask yourself the same question \u2014 am I happy with my job?<\/strong> We\u2019ve all been there and if you haven\u2019t reached that point yet, trust me\u2026you will.<\/p>\n As some of you shake your heads in agreement reading this, I want to ask you another<\/em> question. How do we relight that spark in that passionless career? How do we get that love back for what we do?<\/p>\n I\u2019ll be honest, it\u2019s a multi-layered question that will be different for so many people. We all come from different walks of life and no two people are the same. I too, have asked myself that question and I almost quit law enforcement because of it.<\/p>\n Yes, as much as I have written about positivity, love, overcoming fears and doubts, I had stopped loving what I signed up to do at the end of 2011. Some of the same complaints I\u2019ve listed here were being voiced by me at one time. Yet, here I am nearly nine years later\u2026still doing the job<\/em>.<\/p>\n How did I do it? I realized my issues were never about the job \u2014 my issues were with me<\/strong>. Let me outline three things I realized about myself and hopefully, my journey can help someone else struggling with similar questions.<\/p>\n First, I realized I was allowing other people to dictate what I should be feeling instead of listening to myself on the matter. Being swayed by others made me eventually conclude a lot of my sentiment wasn\u2019t even my own. This was the first lesson I learned in regaining passion: make sure your complaints are truly your own \u2014 e<\/strong>specially if you work with a toxic co-worker. Listening to them vent and bemoan the work can drag you into a negative headspace. This is where your positivity comes in. Distance yourself from individuals who are constantly negative and complaining. You may find yourself changing your attitude when you do.<\/p>\n Second, change your perspective in the job<\/strong>. For me, this was when I was selected to become a detective at my agency and it seriously changed my professional life. All the questions I had previously asked myself in reference to passion were answered. My love for what I did and my work ethic were rekindled by simply changing the lens with which I viewed everything. Sometimes, that\u2019s all it takes, as it makes you answer your doubts directly.<\/p>\n Third, and this was the hardest lesson for me to learn, your job is not responsible for your happiness.<\/strong> The sooner you discover this, the faster you are able to reacquire your passion for it.<\/p>\n I realized that putting that kind of pressure on the job or on co-workers will always result in disappointment. Coming to work with a positive attitude and a can-do spirit was on me to do. By putting effort into being the best employee I could be, my happiness derived from the incredible results I achieved.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, passion and happiness are subjective, but you <\/em>determine these things. You are the key to regaining your career\u2019s passion again.<\/p>\n For all of those out there struggling with these questions, search inward<\/em>. Start with you<\/em> first, and rekindling that passion for your job will follow.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Matthew Scott \u201907 \u201911MS<\/em><\/strong> is a sergeant with the UCF Police Department. He can be reached at Matthew.Scott@ucf.edu.<\/em><\/p>\n The<\/em>\u00a0UCF Forum<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is a weekly series of opinion columns from faculty, staff and students who serve on a panel for a year. A new column is posted each Wednesday on\u00a0<\/em>UCF Today<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and then broadcast on WUCF-FM (89.9) between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Sunday. Columns are archived in the campus library\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>STARS<\/em><\/a>\u00a0collection and as\u00a0<\/em>W女仆AV podcasts<\/em>. Opinions expressed are those of the columnists, and are not necessarily shared by the 女仆AV.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Instead of searching for external solutions, you are more likely to find the answer by looking inward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":122197,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[7882,4911,4936],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-122194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions","tag-ucf-forum","tag-ucf-police-department","tag-ucfpd"],"yoast_head":"\n