Lots of people might say they like their job, but connecting with your work on a deep, soul-satisfying level is something different. For many of us, that kind of fulfillment comes from personal pursuits – a.k.a. the stuff that we do for joy rather than money. It’s okay for a job to be mainly about paying the bills, but is it possible to love your work like you love your hobbies? Some Mediator (INFP) personalities may experiment with self-employment to seek that miracle combination of happiness and income.
Many Mediators take a more conventional employment path, striving to find joy in mainstream organizations doing mainstream things. That can leave plenty of room for deep fulfillment, especially given Mediators’ capacity for creative inspiration and positive bonds with others. But certain elements may make it more or less likely that Mediator personalities will find deep, joyful fulfillment in their work. Let’s explore that.
Critical Work Elements for Mediators
Mediators are among the most receptive personality types – their minds and hearts are always open to what they perceive around them. Consequently, their external working environment can have a huge influence on their happiness. As a Mediator, you probably know what that feels like. Some people can seemingly disconnect their feelings and plow on through the drama, tragedies, and indignities that lurk in the modern working world. But that’s not likely for Mediators (even if you sometimes wish it was).
Very few people of any personality type can prosper emotionally in a negative working environment, but for personalities with a high potential for empathy, like Mediators, some things just hit harder. Your combination of Intuitive and Feeling personality traits means that your emotions tend to be closer to the surface and that your mind feeds on intricate possibilities. Merely hearing about something negative can be enough to trigger your empathy and involve you emotionally. Experiencing something negative for yourself can be much worse.
“So what, right? Everyone knows that you need to be tough to succeed in the ‘real world.’ Stop being so fragile.” Messages like that can be toxic to your working happiness because they seek to excuse things that you know are wrong and instead place the blame on you for sensing them. That’s totally backward logic, yet you might believe it – or even think it yourself. It’s tempting to see yourself as flawed for being empathetic in an arena that prioritizes colder metrics, like many jobs do.
The bottom line is that you must feel respected and valued to be happy. If your work, workplace, coworkers, or management make you feel “less than” on a regular basis, you might put up a jaded shell to survive, but you won’t find authentic inner fulfillment. However, it might not be as hard as you think to find working happiness in the right environment.
Getting What You Need at Work
Mediator personalities are as adaptable and resilient as they are sensitive, and finding an empowering perspective can often be the key to deeper happiness. Truly loving your work doesn’t require that you always be free from conflict or difficulty. Harmony is not necessarily a constant in a positive, healthy work environment or work relationship. Trust, honesty, respect, and kindness can allow for disagreement and diversity to exist without harsh negative feelings.
One way to find happiness in your work environment is by learning to interpret how different personalities express respect and value in different contexts. Some people may offer what they see as helpful criticism because they care about your success. It’s very enlightening to look for the intent behind people’s words (estimating and learning about their personality type can help). Mediators have very keen perceptions, and it’s worth a little digging to uncover whatever positive elements exist around you. When you see them, they’ll make your days brighter.
The flip side of adapting your perceptions is understanding that not everyone can do so as well as you do – or even cares to try. If you want to be understood and create positive circumstances, you might need to speak up. Mediator personalities sometimes stay quiet because they don’t want to upset others, but that’s often a mistake at work. Positive relationships of any kind require communication, so being perceptive, empathetic, and kind is only half the equation.
Consider this: the Prospecting personality trait means that Mediators tend to favor exploring and adapting to circumstances more than shaping them forcefully. Consequently, it doesn’t always occur to Mediators that they should try to change their working environment to suit them rather than the other way around. And, in truth, you may not be able to create all the changes that you want, but using your voice to try to bring about the positivity that you need to truly love your work is worth the attempt.
Conclusion: Staying Open to the Positive
It might not always feel like it when you’re dealing with work stress, but one of Mediators’ primary virtues is hope. Your imagination and sense of curiosity can pull you through difficult aspects of your working life, because you’ll see something better awaiting you. Or you’ll see a way that you can improve your situation, right where you are. Your active mind is rarely content to accept things at face value, which keeps the doors open for positive change.
Hope doesn’t mean that you’re certain about the future, it just means that you’re open to the idea that it’ll be awesome, and that can go a long way. When you choose to express your hopeful ideas to others or take action on your own, you may find that they have surprising power. Hope is energy, and it can fuel your best creativity and productivity, leading you to great success. Most of all, hope means believing in yourself, not because you are infallible, but because you accept failure as part of your growth.
Further Reading
- What does it take for you to achieve career satisfaction? Try our Career Values tool. (Premium resource.)
- Job Interview Tips for Mediators (INFPs)
- Unlikely Leaders: Mediators (INFPs) at the Visionary Helm
- How Introverts Can Create More of an Impact at Work