(📷: Wil Stewart on Unsplash)
“We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.” -Arianna Huffington
It’s Monday morning and you’re already counting the days until Friday. You spend your entire week wishing it was the weekend, and your entire weekend dreading the start of the week.
Look, we’ve all been there — working at a job we don’t love or outright can’t stand. And it can be a frustrating, disheartening and awful experience. But, our jobs take up a massive portion of our lives, and if we’re miserable at work, that misery will spill over into the rest of our lives as well.
That’s why it’s necessary for your health and well-being to shift your perspective, and ultimately your experience, and learn to turn the job you dislike into one you enjoy. Here are five ways you can do just that.
1.) Look At This Time As An Opportunity For Growth
If you’re unhappy at work, I think we can all agree that you aren’t working at your dream job. And you know what? That’s okay. We all start somewhere — experience isn’t born out of thin air.
Whatever your job might be, whether you’re a barista, a fast-food worker or Wall Street banker, understand this job represents an opportunity for personal gain.
It’s an opportunity for you to acquire new skills (like patience, time-management and team-work), expand your career, and map out what you actually want to do with your life.
Ask yourself, “how is this job enabling me to grow as a person, and as as employee?”
Write your answer(s) down.
And then, write down three things you’re job has enabled you to do. For example, perhaps your job is the only financial resource you have and because of that it enables you to eat, have a place to live and money to spend. Or maybe it was through your job that you met your best friend, or caught wind of a new opportunity.
By shifting your perspective and acknowledging the benefits your job is providing you with, you will be more understanding and patient in regards to this period of your life.
2.) Let Go of Comparisons
“Why is she getting promoted and not me?”
“What does he have that I don’t?”
“Why is her job so much better than mine?”
It might seem like everyone around you has a better job, or is further along in their career meanwhile, you’re stuck at a job you don’t enjoy. But you know what? We all have our own unique journey to venture upon, and there’s no reason to compare yours to anyone else’s.
Cultivate a positive environment where rather than measuring your worth against other people and their accomplishments, you instead focus on improving your own for yourself.
Success is an interchangeable term dependent entirely on who is defining it. Your success in life and in your career isn’t measured based on what other people think, unless you let it be. Rather than giving away your power, and allowing someone else to apply their definition of success to your life, instead make up your own definition.
What makes you happy? How do you want to spend your time? What is one of your biggest dreams? When do you feel most accomplished? How do I want to define my personal success?
Ask yourself these questions and use YOUR answer to chart your own path to success.
3.) Have an Attitude of Gratitude
If you expect to have a bad day at work, guess what? You will.
One of the divine laws of the universe is “like attracts like,” also known as the law of attraction. When you expect negative things to happen, they do because you’re inviting negativity into your life.
Luckily, this scenario is easily avoided when you have an attitude of gratitude and invite goodness into your life. Because, when you expect good things to happen they will. And when you say thank you for what you have — such as your job, money and another day of life — then the universe will bring you more things to be grateful for.
So rather than waking up dreading work, and wishing away the day instead say thank you and go into work with the expectation that good things will happen. And they will.
4.) Hone Outside Hobbies, Passions and Interests
Everything in life is temporary, including this job you don’t like. One way to really maximize your time at work is to spend your time outside of working honing your hobbies, passions and interests.
This means when you come home from work, you don’t sit down and watch TV or aimlessly scroll through social media. Instead, when you get home you spend your time figuring out what you’re interested in, and immerse yourself into it.
The more you do this, the more you’ll understand what it is you actually want to be doing with your time and then you’ll be able to take action in pursuing that passion and finding a way to do it for a living.
As Steve Jobs famously said, “the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
There is greatness inside of you waiting for your to unleash it, but if you don’t search for it or sharpen it because you’re too busy being unhappy with your current job, then you’ll miss out on what could be.
So everyday when you come home, no matter how tired or unmotivated you’re feeling, make yourself do something you love because you’re attracted to it for a reason, and the only way to know where it’ll lead you is to invest your time in mastering it.
5.) Be Present and Open
There isn’t always going to be a tomorrow, so never wish away your today. Life is fluid, and the only thing we can be certain of it that there are no guarantees.
When you’re at work, put your best foot forward. Do your job to the best of your ability. Help your co-workers. Ask your boss for constructive feedback, and ways you can improve your skillset. And challenge yourself to be creative, do more, and find new ways to master your tasks while adding value to your workplace.
Don’t allow your life to become one cyclical groundhog day. Cherish today, and treat it as a new day and opportunity because that’s what is it.
Starting TODAY, challenge yourself to see the positives rather than the negatives. You have nothing to lose, but so much to gain.
Xx,
Antasha
About Antasha Durbin: Antasha is a spiritual writer, life-long student of the universe, and psychic tarot card reader. Her website, cajspirituality.com, is dedicated to casualizing the spiritual experience and making it attainable for anyone, anywhere, anytime. Follow her for free, easy-to-digest and highly actionable advice on spirituality, mindfulness and empowered living.
Isn't it time you started living the life you've always imagined?
This was an amazing article. I didn’t find one part of it where I didn’t feel like I agreed with you completely or it was coming out of my mouth and not yours haha. I really think anyone who hates their job should read and understand everything you wrote here. Took a little segment of what you wrote to quote in one of my future articles.
Thanks, would love to connect with you.
Hi Ian! Thanks for reading it, I’m so glad you enjoyed it! 😊 looking forward to connecting in the future! Xx