Enjoy your job by making it worthwhile.

Some people only get jobs to get a salary. They are not really about doing anything worthwhile. Many of us spend years working in jobs in which we have no genuine interest. Money-motivated people are idiots. If you only ever do things which you really want to do, you will usually become extremely good at doing them. I am probably almost a robot. I am happy about what I did in my working life. I had one job, which had an overbearing boss. If he was alive today and offered that job, I would pay to do it again. My boss never knew the workings of what I did. It was really funny when on one day after I had been there for ten years, he came and watched me work. He was horrified and said 'I know what I don't want to know' and he fled. But he came back later and thanked me. Between the two of us, we actually achieved.
He was a specialist in the physical properties and heat treatment of steel, and I created the automated chemical analysis system.

Find a job you like and you'll never work a day in your life. The best excavator operator I ever knew told me thar. He was 75 at that point and still ran equipment every day.

Some things are really funny. The other day I was talking about one of my bosses, on another topic on this forum, and said 'He was a bachelor and thought he could argue'. I was not joking. I was married when I was 23, and was studying part-time while working in a full time job until I was 29. By the time I was with him, I was in my 40s. He was about 60.
One of the subjects I studied was thermodynamics. Many students had failed it at other colleges, and came to where I studied, because we had an excellent lecturer. He was about 65 years of age and had probably been married for about 40 years. There was a girl in the class who had a go at him. I really admired the quiet way he answered her every argument and invited her to continue. Being married teaches us a lot. I think single guys often really suffer.

Not everyone is fortunate enough to fall into something ( work ) that is a joy let alone one that has blissful remuneration and of course joy indeed to those who find themselves in such a way fortunate.

Some years back one of the senior executives of “ International Paint “ gave me an interesting piece of advice / perspective by saying

“ if there is no perk to a job the job isn’t worth having and if there is no perk you must create your own “

Of course the need to create your own perk becomes the drive to change one’s job where a perk is built in, whatever form it takes.

Saved me a few times from getting bogged down when the ideal job changed by virtue of “ progress “ real or otherwise.

When I was a baby WW2 was in progress. In movie theatres we watched guy in Spitfires shooting at each other. When I got older, I discovered motorcycles were the next best thing. It has shaped my thinking. I have only ever applied for jobs in places which suit my interests. When you learn maths, physics and chemistry at school, they can be quite boring. But when you are developing a motorcycle to go faster they become useful. My loves are classic racing motorcycles, music and chemistry. They all have facets which are useful in developing motorcycles. I became qualified as an industrial chemist by studying while working in a government laboratory. As soon as I qualified, I immediately got a job in the Government Aircraft Factory running a laboratory which developed and controlled materials and processes. After a couple of years, I moved on to me next job - where I set up a laboratory developing steel and controlling processes for making guns and rocket motors. The reason I went there was they had a computer. My offsider and I taught ourselves to programme it. I used to play a musical instrument - computer programming uses the same part of the brain.
When I built my T250 Suzuki racer, I used the computer to print a table of the port heights in relation to degrees of crankshaft rotation. It worked extremely well.
I get enjoyment out of some very funny things. When a big rocket motor is fired and you are near it, it is a pants-filling experience. I loved firing a 5 inch naval gun. My last permanent job was running about 5 laboratories in an explosives factory. I sort of retired in 1989, and worked in private organisations- mainly in management jobs related to engineering.
If I had stayed in the aircraft factory, I would have continued studying part-time and moved into aircraft engineering. I think flying a Spitfire during WW2 would have been the ultimate.
Some people are afraid of dying. My main fear is of dying without having achieved. When you are dead you probably do not know it, so it is only ever other people who die. What you leave behind is important.
Never worry about thing which you cannot change.

In the Ordnance Factory Maribyrnong and other government factories, the best products were always 'foreigner's'. I did not realise until just before I left there, I could have had a billet crank made for my 850 motor - legit. Nobody ever talked much to anyone from other sections of the factory.

I’d be tempted to check out something like the wiring or systems technician roles. Hands-on work like that is right up my alley.I got into locksmithing a while back, and honestly, it’s been a solid move. It’s not just fixing locks like I thought—it’s making keys, working on safes, even figuring out security systems. What’s cool is you can work for yourself or join a company, so there’s plenty of options.

I fix classic cars for a living, it's very enjoyable, every job is different and a challenge, I'm currently working on a 1969 Lamborghini Miura and a 1926 Bentley 3 Litre. The job requires, common sense, skill and research, but it is very rewarding as it not only entails repair work, but it is also preserving our motoring heritage and in some cases social history.

I got into locksmithing a while back, and honestly, it’s been a solid move. It’s not just fixing locks like I thought—it’s making keys, working on safes, even figuring out security systems. What’s cool is you can work for yourself or join a company, so there’s plenty of options.
If you’re curious about it, I found this program at https://www.howtobecomealocksmith.org/ that helped me get the basics down in a couple of months. It’s got hands-on stuff and teaches you a bit of everything. Definitely worth checking out if you’re into learning a trade that’s always needed.

The friend who taught me how to build racing Triumph 650 motors was a lift mechanic and a ham radio person. He was excellent with electronics. I don't know how he became educated. He went to a private school , but he was the sort of person who would fight at the drop of a hat. His father had come back from New Guinea with bullets in him and died when my mate was 8 years old.
I would be afraid to ride up and down on the top of a lift. But it is a job which trains people Whenever I changed jobs, it was always to go somewhere more interesting. I never worried about money.

I suggest it is important in life to do things which you enjoy. When your work is not enjoyable, you are wasting your valuable time. I am currently bringing-up 3 little girls. I teach them how to think, and I encourage them to work as a team. I have told them to always remember the things they like doing in school, and keep them in mind when they start looking for jobs. I usually looked for jobs doing things which were associated with my interests. There is a thing which Americans do in some of their TV shows. They build a system out of characters which is a house of cards, then get some idiot to collapse it. The automated system for chemical analysis of steel which I created, was like that. When my boss finally saw what it did, he was horrified and ran away - however he came back later and thanked me. What used to take one person two weeks on the bench the hard way, I did in 24 seconds.

Interesting topic in this thread, some of which I find familiar. I spent 7 years in a boarding school (not that dissimilar to the school in the film “If”) and hated every minute of it. What it did teach me was to do my own thing and ignore everyone else. I was also privileged in that my father was able to get me a Technologist Apprenticeship at WHL where I carried on doing my own thing. Team player? never heard of that. My first job there after the apprenticeship was in the Development dept and that I liked because I could learn all about the materials that went into helicopters. I could also do my job with little effort so could spend a lot of time learning everything else that interested me. I spent months working on a new theory of “light speed instantaneity”. Very enjoyable but all but the few who new me well thought I didn’t do any work because they never saw me doing what they thought of as work. That could never last so when I came across an old notice about Norton (my favourite motorcycle company) looking for an Aircraft Engineer, I made that my No.1 priority and the rest is history.
I should have changed jobs sooner and friends had often said I was wasting my time at WHL and they were all correct. After leaving WHL I only did jobs that I enjoyed doing and was allowed to do in my own way. It was when I enjoyed my work that I, without being asked, looked for ways of improving the work methods and that benefited everyone else as well. “A job is what you make it” - does that sound familiar?. That is what I consider to be a team player.
Incidentally, I don’t even have a Degree as formal education never worked well for me. For over half my working life most of the skills I have needed I taught myself, including thermodynamics - it was my favourite subject in College (HND) but I dropped it as I found it too easy and took up another subject that I hadn’t done anything on before.
One thing I recommend is to learn something new every day.
Trumpet? What Trumpet.

Team — there is no “ i “ in team

There is no F in bonus ( f’ing )

All the more reason to enjoy your job !

I once told my boss “ team my arse “ !!

He didn’t like it but had to suck it up ( he new my productivity would slump in a team )

The last 'permanent' job I had in defence factories was leading a group of 5 laboratories with about 32 staff in an explosives factory. It was a bit boring. However one of my predecessors had always issued a 'laboratory notice' whenever he fixed a problem, and always kept a copy. I took the copies and indexed them and extended them into what was probably the first laboratory manual in Australia. It probably did not change much in the laboratories which I managed. But my opposite number from another factory decided he also wanted to manage that way, so I gave him a copy of the manual. He introduced it to his team at a meeting, and began to train using it. The kids all looked bored until he said 'now we are going to have a test'. At the next meeting, they all turned-up with their pads and pens.
After I left there, I brought a private engineering company through to ISO9000 certification, and set up their computer system.