You may be in a situation where you just can’t make a change with your career. There are seasons in our lives and this may not be the right season for you to overhaul your career.
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This can happen for a variety of reasons. Perhaps you are dealing with a health issue, your finances are in crisis mode, or you’ve had a major life change like having a baby or a death in the family.
For some reason you just don’t think it would be wise to make a change right now. So you feel stuck in a job you don’t love.
What now?
If you’re absolutely convinced it would make your life worse to leave your current job there is one thing you can do.
Decide to love the opportunity.*
You may not love making that call, creating that report, or serving that customer but you can love the opportunity of what doing those things might lead to later.
You may say, but I’m in a dead end job at a retail store. How can I love that opportunity?
You don’t have to love your retail job, but if it’s the beginning of gaining marketable skills and learning new ways to provide quality customer service then you can approach it in a different way.
You can decide to be grateful for the opportunity and you’re going to do the job so well you won’t be doing it long.
Question: What has helped you persevere during difficult times in your career?
*This blog post has been inspired and borrowed in some parts from Jim Rohn.
8 Responses to “What To Do When You Don’t Love Your Job”
Adam,
Your right. For some of us, it’s just not the right time to change jobs. Loving the opportunity really goes back to changing the way we think about the job. If we decide to dwell on the aspects of the job that make us miserable, we will stay miserable. If we decide to make the best of our current state of affairs, we open ourselves up to the possibility of actually seeing aspects of our job that we can enjoy if we let ourselves think that way.
Henry Ford’s quote can be applied here, “Whether you think you can (love the opportunity or other aspects of your job) or think you can’t (love the opportunity or other aspects of your job), you’re right.”
Yes, Joe sometimes we can change our thinking to identify the positive aspects of our current situation. Typically, no situation is completely bad or completely good. We get to choose what we focus on.
I liked the story Zig Ziglar gives of the woman who told him how much she hated her job. He told her instead of talking about how much she hated her job to sit down and make a list of things she liked about her job. After she wrote her list she had over 20 things she liked about her job. Making a list similar to this have helped me persevere during difficult times in my job.
I remember that story Bernard. I liked how he reminded her that she was getting paid and could eat. Sometimes we forget about the basics when we’re deeply unhappy with our situation. We don’t have to stay where we are but hopefully we can avoid some misery in the meantime.
It’s all in the perspective. I found gratitude for having a job I needed at the time, appreciating all I was learning and enjoying some of the wonderful people I got to meet, work with and interact with made it much better than it would’ve been if I’d just focused on how much I would’ve rather been doing something else.
Yes, absolutely Ann. Shifting our thinking to what we’re grateful for can change how we view our current circumstances. We don’t have to stay where we are forever, but gratitude can help us get through the difficult times.
One thing that has helped me persevere through a difficult job was focusing on the customers and building relationships with them. It was crazy how easy it could be to chat it up with a customer and see their loyalty grow. That was a great feeling in what seemed like a dead-end job.
What a great point Joe. Yes, focusing on the people who are being served can make a job much more meaningful. I’m glad that was helpful for you.