Have you noticed how the common traits of people who don’t really enjoy their jobs, compared to those who love what they do? A few of them come to mind.
Reason – the weekend. People who hate their jobs use the weekend as the goal for the week. The target. “3 more days til the weekend.”
Reward. “Another day, another dollar.” People who hate their jobs don’t have any passion for any kind of value they are adding in their business.
Retirement. The long goal. People who hate their jobs can’t wait to retire.
Resignment. People who hate their jobs are resigned to the fact they will be there until fired, retired, or dead.
If I think about the above in the context of my job, I am kind of in the hate column. Like a lot of you out there, I don’t hate it with any kind of vengeance, but there isn’t a lot to love at times. And I spend a lot of time at work thinking, “surely I can do better than this”.
Notice this has nothing to do with renumeration. It is totally about how rewarded you feel. And not by your employer saying “good job”. I mean, rewarded deeply in your heart. It doesn’t mean “I hate my job”, “I’m better than the other people I work with” etc. etc. It just means I want to do something that aligns more with my goals, values, aims, lifestyle, family and so on.
If you sit back and think, “what is it all for”, and you look at yourself in your job in 10 years, or 15, and you’ve been promoted over and over, earning more, and you still hate it, maybe it’s time to think about how to start building up something else, something that matters.
If you leave your children with a careworker because the little bit extra you make at your part-time job means the bills aren’t such a stress, wouldn’t any extra money on the side be fantastic?
If you leave for work early to sneak in that little extra bit of overtime, and miss out on seeing your kids, and your wife has to deal with babies and children and breakfast and so on, how much would you pay to buy that time back?
If the feeling that your employer has one over you, and you are sick of smiling along at his jokes and having to pretend to be some company lover, wouldn’t the knowledge that you were making money in your own time, by your own methods be incredibly empowering?
If you worry if you even have anything of value to add, how validating would it be to create something people will gladly pay you for?