A recent Gallup poll found that 70 percent of American workers are disengaged from their jobs. Of the 100 million people who hold jobs in America, the survey found that 30 million are actively engaged, 50 million are not engaged and 20 million are actively disengaged.
The consequences are many, but Gallup estimates that actively disengaged employees cost the U.S. as much as $550 billion in economic activity each year. The public also suffers immensely as this disengagement will undoubtedly rub off on poor customer service and issues of quality control.
Here's my critical thinking question to disengaged employees: why don't you get out of that job you hate so much and do something you love?
It doesn't seem to matter what industry, profession, occupation, or sport champions choose - the criteria for selection is almost always enjoyment. Champions tend to choose their fields based on pure enjoyment of the activity. Some people say that champions don't pick their field, the field picks them.
Most people think that world-class employees enjoy their work because they are successful, but actually the best performers are successful because they enjoy their work. As a result, they put their heart and soul into the activity, so much so that they surpass their competitors.
College students of yesterday were often told to study business or computers, or law or medicine, because of the great financial potential. This single idea has probably created more average performers than any other. The progressive mindset of the 21st century is to study what you enjoy studying and put your heart and soul into it. The great ones know that money doesn't come from an occupation; it comes from solving people's problems.
The best performers do so much extra study and work that they become experts, and often becomes wealthy as a result. Professional performers not only see enjoying what they do as a philosophy, they see it as their single most greatest asset and entry to world-class success.
The average person finds a job or career they can tolerate and sticks with it for years while dreaming of retirement. In recent years people have held multiple jobs with different companies and even changed occupations, but the mindset of the masses hasn't changed. As this Gallup poll proves, the majority of people drag themselves to a job they don't like while simultaneously worrying about getting fired.
They don't do this because they're stupid. They do it because the need the money and they've been trained in school and conditioned by society to live in a linear thinking world that equates earning money with physical or mental effort.
Look at some of the wealthiest people, for example. They have retrained themselves to operate in a non-linear consciousness where anything is possible. The greatest example of this non-linear concept is the idea that passion is the real secret of getting rich. It's a cause and effect relationship between effort and passion, but while most people see passion as the effect, the great ones see it as the cause. In other words, the average person goes to work every day and hopes to find passion in his efforts. The rich go to work every day feeling passion for what they do, and their passion fuels their efforts.
This is not a semantic argument; it's a personal philosophy and strategy that serves as the foundation for every great fortune ever earned. There's been an attempt to bring this mindset to the masses by espousing the world-class philosophy of 'do what you love and the money will follow.' The sad truth is only a small percentage of the population will ever adopt this policy. Years of fear and scarcity programming and daily reinforcement of a lack and limitation mentality will prevent most people from ever entering the world of the wealthy.
The first world-class belief about wealth you must adopt is that it's possible to do what you love and get rich doing it. Once this belief is established, anything is possible because you're now cognitively cohabiting with the wealthy in a state of consciousness that masses don't even know exists.
The bottom line: if you're disengaged from your job, only you can change your current situation. The man on the white horse isn't going to come riding in singing "here I come to save the day." Start by identifying your natural talents, abilities and interests; develop them; and use them to solve problems that people are willing to pay you for. It's the way self-made millionaires do it, and it's a much better alternative to being miserable for the rest of your life.