1. How quickly ca you find the answers to these questions?

• Do many people find fulfillment at work?

• How do psychologists explain high levels of stress and dissatisfaction at work?

• How does the article define skills?

• How does the writer define motivation?

What makes you tick?

Whether it’s drinking a coffee with your friends, or climbing mountains, finding out what you like doing and what you’re good at is the key to having a job that suits you.

We spent a lot of time doing it, often in the company of relative strangers. Sometimes we do it alone, and sometimes people don’t even like doing it. __(1)___ Ladies and gentlemen we are talking about work.

A recent study showed that 90% of people are unhappy at work. We work hard to earn money, to maintain a certain standard of living, but too many of us rely on adding qualities to our lives outside working hours, partly to compensate for the poor quality of our life at work. __(2)___ For example, one man in his thirties enjoys creating, working with hands and being outdoors. His job, however, involves repetition, strict hours and deadlines, using a computer and working in an office. __(3)___ Net result? Unhappiness at work.

Psychologists talk about the importance of having a good or bad “fit” between you and the job you have. A lot of people have a bad “fit”, but don’t realize it$ they just know they feel stressed and unhappy. One of the keys to finding the right job in the right career is to discover what your main skills and motivations are. ___(4)___

So what are these skills and motivations? Skills are the things you are good at doing, the result of your natural aptitudes and the experience you have gained in putting them to use in your career so far. If you are born with or acquire aptitudes through learning, then you strengthen them through practice. __(5)___ This is why choosing the right career is so important – because it makes life less stressful.

Motivations are often a combination of factors that lead to satisfaction of your desires and appetites. They are the things that inspire you and keep you interested. __(6)___ In short, motivations are the things you like doing, skills are the things you are good at. If you can find a job that uses both, you are on the way to a career you love.

2. Read the article again and choose the best sentence from a-g to fill each of the gaps. Do not use any letter more than once.

A. When you know that, you can confidently identify which jobs in which career will suit you best.

B. Many people are unhappy in their careers and jobs because they are not doing the things they like, in the kind of context they enjoy.

C. Enjoying your work makes the learning experience seem easier, so you actually acquire a greater range of skills faster.

D. They are the answers that you’ll give to questions such as What do I enjoy? What does success mean to me?

E. Once you know what it is, you increase your chance of finding the right job, in the perfect career.

F. The things that really motivate him are not being used in the type of work that he does, and the job demands motivation and skills which he doesn’t have.

G. When we’re not doing it, we’re thinking about it, worrying because we haven’t got it, or worrying because we have got it or hate it.

Follow-up

1. After reading the text about motivation, discuss the following questions with your partner, expressing your point of view, say if you agree or disagree with his/ her opinion. (See Appendix 2 to express agreement, disagreement and personal opinion)

1. What are you personally good at?

2. What can motivate you?

3. Do you think a manager should motivate his stuff to work? If yes, in what way?

4. Is it possible from your point of view to manage skills and motivation?

TEXT 3

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