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For example, it may be they are trying to do well as an engineer when they are more gifted at sales.

Or they think they might be a good accountant when they are more talented in teaching others.

Other times people believe they can do well in any job regardless of the skills required to excel in that job. As long as the job is a “promotion” they want the job.

The problem is we try to make ourselves good at something God did not design us to do well. Part of this is the value we place on certain types of work or certain skills. We would rather be a mediocre attorney than an exceptional plumber.

This can come from family pressure, societal pressure, or a host of other influences that shape our thinking about the value of certain types of work.

The key to overcoming this sort of thinking is to focus on the special skills, talents, and abilities you have rather than trying to shoe horn ourselves into a particular role.

Work that is out of alignment with your best skills and abilities will eventually be unfulfilling and you’ll never experience the level of success in a job you otherwise would have.

This quote attributed to Albert Einstein sums up what will happen:

“Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it’ll spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein

We certainly don’t want that, so take some time to inventory what you do well – maybe better than anyone you know.

Ask yourself what special skills and natural abilities has God given you? What desires keep coming up in your heart of hearts? Do you find yourself most attracted to working with people, things, or data? Do you like to create something new or use an established method to solve a problem?

It can be difficulty to view our career choices without the filter of our family, culture, religion, or philosophical viewpoints.

But what if no one was watching? What if you could be a florist and no one cared? What if you could sell your drawings on ebay and no one would think you’re crazy?

What possibilities would that open up for your work and your life?

Question: Imagine you wake up tomorrow and you were doing work that was an absolute perfect fit with your best skills and abilities. What would be the first thing you notice that’s different for you?

In high school Gary was always in the auto shop classroom and never in the library. He was that guy.

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However, when the time came he thought he needed to go to college in order to get a good job.

He went through college hating every minute of it, wishing he could spend more time refurbishing the 1969 Chevy pickup waiting in the garage at home.

After graduating from college with a low GPA and a headache, Gary went looking for a job.

With no real direction, Gary took the first job he could get because he knew somebody who worked there and they got him the job.

Gary was pretty miserable most days. Working in a cubicle, sitting in front of a computer screen, and doing work that he was not designed to do well.

The trouble was Gary couldn’t see a way out. He thought he was on a career path for life and there were no exit doors.

Sound familiar?

Unfortunately, this is an all too common way to choose the type of work we do.

For those who don’t like what they do I’ve noticed three typical factors in how they chose their work.

• They chose work that just pays the bills and didn’t think about whether or not they liked it.  
• They chose work they thought they might be good at or other people told them they were good at doing. 
• They chose work based on the kinds of work models and industries they were exposed to and were easily available to them (i.e. corporate employee, government, manufacturing, agricultural, self-employment, etc.) 

The problem is we often choose a career based on short term needs and overlook our ability to be intentional about our careers. Trust me, I know supporting ourselves and/or a family are absolutely important needs – short term or not.

However, when it’s time to make decisions about the type of work we want, we have the pressure of short term needs combined with the lack of personal insight needed to be intentional about our career.

Like Gary, we can feel stuck in a job or career path with no hope of something better. So what do we do?

If you’re in this situation I encourage you to look at your current work as a stepping stone to something greater.

The work you hate now could be planting a seed that will blossom into enjoyable work in the future.

Take this time to look inward at who you are and pay attention to what you’ve learned about yourself with your current work situation.

You may have only discovered what you don’t like, but that is part of the process of finding your passion and ultimately finding work you love.

Gary’s now working toward moving into a career he will love. He’s grown a lot and he is more sure of what he wants to do every day. And yes you guessed it, he’ll be working with cars.

Question: How do you think most people choose their careers?

[box type=”shadow”] If You Feel Like Gary Try This Exercise: 

Write down ten things you’ve learned about yourself as a result of doing the work you’re doing now? Then go through your career history and do this for each job you’ve held.

• What types of activities energized you?
• Which activities drained you?
• What is something you’re really proud of accomplishing in your work thus far?
• Was there a time when you failed in your work? What lessons did you learn from that? [/box]

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I know that may sound like a really strange question.

You might be thinking, what do you mean by “supposed to be doing?”

Most discussions about what you want to do in your career don’t revolve around this question.

Here’s what I mean.

If you ask a friend what they were supposed to be when they grew up you’ll likely get a response like:

“I was supposed to go to medical school and become a doctor.”

“My mother wanted me to be a full time stay at home mom.”

“I was supposed to go into the plumbing business with my Dad.”

“My parents didn’t care what I did as long as I made a lot of money.”

“I was supposed to get my MBA and climb the corporate ladder.”

In her book “I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was” Barbara Sher says this is an interesting question,

“Because even if you can’t figure out what you want to be doing, you probably know exactly what you’re supposed to be doing.”

The problem is we often have trouble figuring out the type of work we want to do because we’re trying to please the person who told us what we were supposed to be doing.

We are all influenced for better or worse by so many external factors.

We are each part of a family, neighborhood, community, and culture who influence us.

All of those influencers have an impact on how we shape our decisions when it comes to our careers.

Often we can’t even pinpoint who we’re trying to please, we just know there was an expectation of us to do something that fit within the mold of what it means to work where you come from.

Now let me say that not all influencers are bad. In fact, most of the people in your life were probably well intentioned. They truly wanted what was best for you.

However, their guidance likely was targeted toward things that worked for them or they thought would have been better for them.

Maybe a parent or influential adult had done well in a corporate position and they knew you could do the same even though you hate staring at a computer screen all day. Or perhaps they always wanted to be a jazz pianist but never ventured into that area so they put you in piano lessons even though your hands felt like potatoes pounding on the keys.

The key to enjoying your work is to be able to know yourself well enough to know what makes your heart sing.

Unfortunately most of the people around us aren’t tuned in to listening to us or paying attention to what we do well. I mean can you blame them? It’s hard enough to figure it out ourselves let alone for someone else.

It’s not their fault and it’s not your fault. There’s no one to blame here. It’s just the way it is.

However, it’s absolutely essential that you figure out if what you’re doing now is in alignment with who you are.

Does it bring out the best of your personality?

Does it allow you to use your greatest talents and skills?

Does it connect with what you value and what you’re passionate about?

If it doesn’t, then I’m afraid you’ve got some work to do.

But don’t be afraid of hard work. Be afraid of working at something and succeeding in something that means nothing to you. That would be the greatest travesty of all.

Question: So tell me, what were you supposed to be doing with your career?

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(Note:Some of the links in the post are affiliate links)

Ultimately, choosing a career direction comes down to one thing.

Photo Credit: hobvias sudoneighm

What do you want to do?

That’s it.

You can take all the personality assessments in the world, go through tons of exercises, and work with coaches.

However, when all is said and done you have to make a choice and move toward a goal.

You may say, “but I still don’t know what I want to do”.

That may be, however, my hunch is you actually have some ideas but you’re talking yourself out of them.

These are what Howard Figlar calls your “yes, buts”.

Yes, I’d really like to do X but you see I can’t because…

The challenge is your “yes, buts” may be very legitamate.

You may have some major obstacles in your path to doing what you love to do.

Yet at some point, you need to take your “yes, buts” out, dust them off, look at them, set them on the shelf, and make a decision to find solutions to overcome them..

Sometimes your “yes, buts” have been so scary you never wanted to look at them.

I would encourage you to not only look at them but examine them to their fullest extent.

Feel the fear.

Then start doing two things.

1) Get more information on your problem. Let’s say you want to be a dentist but you don’t know how you’ll feed your family while you spend years in dental school and not go into a mountain of debt. You’re not the first person to ever face this dilemma. Find a dentist who had the same problem but overcame it. They are out there. It may take some work, but you’ll find someone you can talk to and ask how they did it. This goes for pretty much every type of career and situation you can think of.

2) Create solutions and implement them. In the previous example you may have found someone who was in the exact same position you are in now. You may discover there are certain dental schools where you can go part-time while you work or schools that offer financial assistance. Maybe you’ll need to move to a cheaper place to live for a time. Maybe you’ll decide to save up for dental school and go in 5 years. I don’t know.

It really boils down to asking yourself how bad you want something, what creative solutions will help you get there, and what cost are you willing to pay?

Nobody said this would be easy.

But you can do this.

We live in a wonderful nation. Full of freedom and opportunities.

The solutions are there if you look hard enough.

Use your creativity and your enthusiasm for a new career in this process.

Can you see it?

You’ll get there and you’ll love it.

Question: Have you ever found a solution to an obstacle in your life you never thought you’d figure out?

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You hate your job but right now it’s the only thing standing between you and the homeless shelter downtown.

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You park your car, turn off the ignition and you begin to feel the zest for life being slowly drained from your inner being. Like bathwater after you pull the plug from the drain.

Sound familiar?

I hope not. However, I’m afraid it’s an all too common occurrence.

Fortunately, there are some things you can do to help yourself get through the day.

Here are six ways to survive your work day when you hate your job:

1. Know you’re not alone. The majority of American workers don’t like their jobs. According to a recent Gallup poll seventy-one percent of workers are disengaged with their jobs (HR translation: disengaged = hate their jobs). Seventy-one percent! This means when you get together with nine of your friends the odds are six of them hate their jobs too. For some reason it helps to know this.

2. Go outside. If your work environment allows you to take a break outside, do it. Something about being outside helps to calm us down. Take a walk down the street and back. If you already work outside, well, I’m not sure. Maybe go inside. The point is to change your environment even if it is only for a moment.

3. Have a friend at work. Research and polls have found those who have at least one friend at work will find their work more interesting. I must admit I’m lousy at this but I’ve seen it in action. I also think women are better at this than men (in my experience). Those who have a friend or friends at work have a built in support system every time they go to work.

4. Schedule some quiet time. I once coached a client who found he could change his attitude toward his job by scheduling times to get out of his cube. This client would take his laptop and go to the cafeteria to work and would avoid the constant interruptions associated with cube life. If you don’t have the luxury of leaving your workspace you may have to get creative. Put up caution tape around your work area, hang a sign on your back that says, “Do I look like a people person to you?” I don’t know, but do something to give yourself some much needed quiet time at work.

5. Focus on the future. This is the key to everything mentioned above. None of this will ultimately solve the root of your problem. It’s only a band aid. If you truly hate your job then you must start searching for another job or become self-employed. You can survive your workday if you know it’s only a matter of time until you’re on your way somewhere else.

6. Fake it. It does you no good to mope around co-workers. Unless they are your friend, they don’t care. They probably feel the same way. Your boss doesn’t want to see your sad face either. You’re not a victim. Remember, you make a choice every day to go to work or not. You are in control of your attitude. Smile, you’ll be surprised how it will help you survive your workday.

Now when you get to work you will at least have a plan. You may still hate your job, but you’re in control (at least a little more). Remember, this is only temporary. You’re working toward getting a new job or a new career you enjoy.

Question: What other tips do you have for surviving the day in a job you hate?

(Leave your comment below.)

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You went to school, got a job with a good company, and set yourself on a career path your parents would be proud of.

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Or maybe you just took the first job you could find because those student loans were coming due.

Either way, you took a job and now you hate it.

You wonder how this happened. How did you end up doing something every day that sucks the zest for life out of you?

The problem is you don’t know what to do. You don’t know what else you want to do. Even if you did know, you don’t know how to get there.

The good news is there is hope.

This problem can be resolved by doing some real soul searching and assessing three major areas in your life.

Area 1: Your Strengths and Personality

Who are you? What are you good at? If you answer those two questions accurately more than half the battle will be won. Fortunately you don’t have to figure this out on your own. There are a number of resources to help you answer these questions.

One very good and inexpensive way to determine your strengths is to use the Strengthsfinder 2.0 (not an affiliate link) assessment.

Another more comprehensive tool you can use is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The MBTI is the most reliable and validated personality assessment on the market. Most Fortune 500 companies provide the MBTI to their employees and I provide the MBTI to all of my coaching clients. I highly recommend it.

Area 2: Skills and Abilities

By the time you are 25 you have likely used hundreds of different types of skills to accomplish something. What have you noticed you are particularly good at doing? Which skills do you enjoy using the most? Is there something you would like to be able to do but have not tried?

However, just because you may be good at something doesn’t necessarily mean you enjoy using that skill. You’ll know you’re on the right career track when you find a skill you also enjoy using.

Area 3: Values, Interests, and Dreams

What is important to you? What do you find yourself doing during your non-work hours?

Some may ask you what your passion is. I say rather than search for the holy grail of passion, take a look at what you are already doing. What types of things do you find yourself drawn toward? Do you enjoy backpacking, blogging, kayaking, data analysis, talking to people, etc. Your interests are the seeds to discovering the kind of thing you would enjoy being paid to do.

Also, when we’re seven years old it’s Ok to say you want to be an astronaut but when we grow up we forget to continue dreaming. You need to tap into your inner seven year old.

What do you find yourself dreaming about during the day? Even if you think it would be irresponsible and impossible to do, the key is to allow yourself the freedom to dream about the job and the life you want.

When you put all of these components together, you should have a pretty good idea of what you would rather be doing. The next step is putting together a plan to get to where you want to go.

You’ll be saying sayonara to that job you hate in no time.

Question: When you were seven years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?

(If you liked the post [or not] leave a comment below. You’ll get a response from me.)

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Doing non-creative work you don’t enjoy. 

I ordered lunch the other day and one of the servers preparing my chicken sandwich muttered under his breath, “I guess this is what I get for being a history major.”

He went on to explain his frustration with his job and how he was dying to do something different and more creative.

It’s an all too common story. Feeling stuck in a job and settling for work that sucks the zest for life right out of us.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

In fact, now more than ever, we need you to do work you love to do and express your creative genius. Here are 3 reasons we need you to unleash your creativity in your work:

This is an excerpt of a guest post I wrote for Jeff Goins’ blog. To read the entire post go here.

Everything was going well on the first day I wore them. A little stiff here, breaking them in there, the usual with new shoes. However, at some point during the day I noticed some significant discomfort on the top part of my foot. I just chalked it up to the break in period of new shoes so I did’t bother to do anything about it. However, it started to really hurt and it was becoming a distraction. Then it hit me.  I don’t have to suffer like this.  I have the power and the ability to untie my shoe, readjust the fit, and keep moving. Freedom! I felt like William Wallace in a pair of Keens.

This led me to start thinking about how this can often happen in our careers. Sometimes we needlessly tolerate pain in our careers when we have the ability to change our situation. But how do you know when enough is enough? Here are some indications it might be time to start making a change in your career:

1. You dread Sunday night. When I was at my lowest in my previous career I would loathe Sunday nights.  Saturdays were great. Sundays during the day were wonderful. However, after dinner on Sunday night I knew I would be back at my cube in a matter of hours and it was like someone had sucker punched me in the stomach.

2. You’re taking a lot of time off. If you find yourself regularly taking unplanned vacation days or sick days just because you can’t bear the thought of  being at work it’s probably time for a change. I once had to take an “emergency” vacation for a week because I just could not take it any more.

3. You’re doing the bare minimum to keep your job. When you’re less than fired up about your job its going to be difficult to go the extra mile. Maybe you’re not exactly slacking on the job but in your heart of hearts you know you could do more. The job gets done but you just can’t bring yourself to put in that extra effort because in the end you really don’t care about it.

4. You are completely exhausted when you get home. I’m not talking about just being tired from working. I’m talking about going straight from the garage to your couch tired. You feel like you have nothing to offer your friends, family or significant other because the life was slowly sucked out of you all day at work. One day after an extremely stressful day at work I sat on the couch, skipped dinner, watched TV for 5 hours straight and then crawled into bed without remembering a thing about what I had watched.

5. You look forward to your dentist appointments. Any interruption to your work day is a welcomed reprieve. When you find yourself loitering in your optometrist’s lobby after your check up rather than returning to work, it may be time to start dusting off that resume.

If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms you might want to start thinking about making a change. It may be that just a change of scenery in the same line of work will do the trick or maybe you’re looking at a complete career overhaul.  Either way, take a look at what you’re experiencing in your work life and take control of the situation. Oh, and if your shoes are bothering you just bend over, untie them, and fix the tongue.  It worked for me.

What kinds of things have prompted you to make job changes or other changes in your career?

The coal mine meant hard work, black lung, and a steady pay check.  If your granddad worked there, your dad worked there, and guess what? You were going to work there too.  Seemingly there weren’t a lot of choices.

In times past children were expected to follow in the paths of their parents.  The son of an engineer was expected to be an engineer, the daughter of a nurse was sent to nursing school, and the children of a farmer were going to work the land. Today that is not the case at all. There are so many options and opportunities available for interesting, enjoyable, and profitable work.  Yet we often spend more time planning a vacation than we do outlining the career we want for ourselves.

How many people do you know who are in their current careers and are miserable because they chose a career they were not interested in but their parents encouraged them to go into it. Or they graduated from college, applied for a couple of jobs, and the first employer to make them an offer sent them on a career trajectory they never wanted.  Today, we still have the equivalent of the coal mine when we choose particular careers because we believe our options are limited.  So how do you begin to escape your version of the coal mine?

The first step is to start asking yourself the right questions.

Stop asking yourself these questions:

1. What careers will be most in demand in the next five years?
2. What job pays the most with the least amount of education or training?
3. Which jobs are easy to get?

Start asking yourself these questions:

1. When I daydream about a career, what do I dream about?
2. How can I add the most value to others?
3. What types of things do I tend to do in my free time away from my job?
4.  What recurring themes have I noticed in my life about things I enjoy doing?

When you start asking yourself these questions you will begin to move toward the type of work that is most fitting for you and is truly work you enjoy.

I would love to know your answers to the four questions.  What did you come up with?