If every one of us loved what we’re doing, then we’d all be a whole lot happier and wouldn’t be doing “work”. What to do when you hate your job. Many of us don’t love what we’re doing. But we do it so we can afford to put food on the table.
And for some of us, the workplace can be so miserable, that it literally consumes our whole lives. We continue doing it for various reasons. An unstable job market or fear of quitting being some of those reasons.
I’ve personally been in both these situations before. Not loving my job AND being miserable. I come from a place that’s very familiar with this issue and really understand the struggles.
I believe that these next tips that I’m going to share, can make a big difference in your life.
The first step I really believe cannot be skipped is figuring out WHY do you hate your job?
Is it the people or the company that you work for, or is it that you’re simply not passionate about what you’re doing or you don’t love the industry you’re in.
The reason why it’s so important to know these things before putting a blank statement over yourself that you “hate your job” – is because you could jump the gun and go to another company thinking that it will be better there, and end up unhappy again. The underlining reason was that you actually don’t love the industry itself.
When we’re feeling unhappy, we tend to confuse the situation a little bit. We misunderstand the real reasons behind what we’re feeling.
If it’s the job itself than the solution is to go to a different company. Now if it’s the industry that you hate, then you have to figure out what you’d love doing.
And not just that, but find out what you’d love doing that can also comfortably pay your bills.
What should I do to feel better RIGHT NOW or what can I do to change things INSTANTLY
The moments of happiness and success that are long-term and sustainable don’t happen in a moment. It’s a process and many of us don’t like that – I don’t like that!
But we can either choose to accept that and start shifting our view of things and start doing what’s necessary, or risk continuously being unhappy and disappointed. Short-term fixes don’t work long term.
Here are some things to do while you still have to get up and go that job you hate every day
The mind will be your everything during this time. I recommend starting focusing more on what you want, rather than how much you hate your current situation and want to get away from it.
The first thing you could do is to think about developing skills.
So rather than focusing on serving a sentence, you’re shifting that focus toward developing or bettering a skill set that can lay your future foundation.
So what can you learn or get better at?
Is it Excel, PowerPoint, HTML, Photoshop?
Of course, you would have to know what your foundation needs first, that’s why I started with the importance of figuring out where you are and where you want to go. Once you know those things, you’ll also know exactly what’s needed to get where you want to go.
Here you can and you SHOULD not only use some evenings when you get home or weekends to develop those skills, but also some lunch breaks to solicit tips from other coworkers that have the skills you want to learn.
If you get asked why do you want to learn this, you can say it’s something that looks really interesting and you’re always excited to learn new things.
Nobody needs to know…
So research, read, watch and be excited throughout the day to go home and learn more. Learn the things that will get you where you want to be.
That shift in attitude will be half the battle in dealing with the job you hate.
Develop the ability to not let the things that happen at work affect you
One way to do this is by envisioning an armoured suit on your body.
Strong, like a shield sort of speak that will protect you from the people and events around you. They won’t be able to get through the armour and to your skin.
If that’s tough to visualize, then imagine yourself surrounded by this beautiful, powerful golden light. An aura of protective energy so strong, that negative vibration can’t get through because they’d be repelled.
Whatever works for you, just take 2 minutes in your car or in the bathroom before walking into the workplace, and put your protective shield on.
Have a visual reminder insight that this job you hate is just temporary
Now I would avoid putting something that bluntly says “this is only temporary” because that will raise obvious doubts in the mind of your coworkers and management, and you don’t want to add to your daily pressure the risk of
endangering your current job, even sucky and all.
If you’re going for a quote or phrase, it should be something that only you can understand.
For me, I had made a miniature vision board.
I knew I wanted to do what I’m doing now
Write and inspire other people. Soon, on my little vision board, I had a picture of a home office with white furniture and a laptop on the desk.
So take that dream that you have, attach a visual image to it and put that someplace where you’ll see it frequently, so you’re constantly reminded that this is about a bigger picture and not the current situation.
You could listen to a funny radio show, podcast or CD on your way to work. Watch a sitcom or comedy every Sunday night, go to a comedy show during the week or Netflix something. There is a variety of things you could do to get some laughs and I recommend doing this as often as you can.
I always watch something funny on Sunday nights even now because it takes my mind a little from everything I have to do come Monday.
I also incorporate humour throughout the week and that’s always helped me to keep moving forward.
Now you have to remember that your job and what you do right now, is not who you are and it does not define your self-worth. Do your best to not allow your CURRENT situation to convince you that you’re something that you’re not.
I wish that we could all do what we love from the get-go.
