How to Excel in a Job That You Don’t Like?
Jul 20 2016
May be your current job doesn’t offer you the thrill that you were looking for. However, that’s not a reason enough to get in a self-pity mode and lose out on career and financial growth. There are ways indeed in which you can turn the grass greener on your side as well. This post will tell you tips to not only survive but thrive in a job that you totally hate doing.
Choose a job that you love, and you won’t have to work a single day in your life. These are the words of the wise Confucius, the great Chinese teacher and philosopher. However, more often we are not in a position to choose. Most of us are busy finding jobs, rather than choosing the best job for us. So it isn’t a surprising situation that we find ourselves in a job or career that doesn’t match our aspirations, a job where half of our time is spent looking at the watch waiting for the day to come to an end. However instead of treating it just as part of life, there are several things that you can do to make your current job as rewarding and satisfying as you would have liked it to be. Here are listed a few of them:
Train yourself to focus
This has happened to us so many times. Just when we start our daily work, a text or Whatsap message drops by on our phones, distracting us and making us forget the agenda. We start responding to these texts and social media updates on our Facebook or other social accounts forgetting that there is a lot of work to do. Therefore, to ensure we are not PPMA, or physically present and mentally absent, we must train our mind to concentrate. Learn to focus, forever hard it may seem. Remember, the more you are able to focus the better are your chances of getting success and being recognized as an asset to the company. If you find it difficult at first, as most of us will, try starting focusing for small durations like five minutes or so and proceed to longer chunks of time. Here is a perfect piece from researchers at Harvard Business Review that talks about training our mind to focus.
Find out what is wrong
Before you rant about how much you hate your current job, make sure you know what you exactly hate about it. Sometimes, we tend to be clumsy and uncomfortable without any particular reason, just because everything and everyone is so new. You do not know many people at your workplace, you do not know what’s your manager is like and how can you win over him. All these factors contribute to feeling lost and unworthy, which some people confuse as a bad job and harbor ill thoughts about it. What you should understand is that there are certain things about a job that will improve over some time, while there are others that won’t change or get better over time. It’s only after you are done assessing what’s actually wrong and what can be mended that any decision should be taken regarding staying or leaving the job.
Remain positive
All the biggest hurdles of life can be overcome, provided you keep a positive mindset about it. If a person thinks positively his performance will automatically experience a boost, whether he likes the job or not. With improved performance comes recognition and rewards, which again act as a booster for the confidence and self esteem of an individual. Staying positive thus will at least make your job less painful and more rewarding, which might even persuade you to stay in that role for a longer period of time.
Give yourself ample time
If you spend more than 40 hours working, week after week without taking any vacation or breaks, you are bound to breakdown, and look back at the job with disgust. Most of us hold our jobs responsible for everything that’s wrong in our personal lives, without ever realizing that it’s our bad time management which is the main culprit. Had we learnt to manage our time and lives better, many of our woes would not have arisen at the first place. Therefore, if you find cribbing a lot at the office, it might be time to pause, and recognize the other aspects of your life that you love. Instead of making the job your life, try to keep it as a small but a significant part of life. When outside the office, try to spend your time doing something productive, which helps your grow as an individual. Focus on what you can do to improve the life standards on the whole and make time for that.
Ask for new responsibilities
One major reason why people suddenly find themselves hating their job is the role assigned to them. They know their task too well to feel any excitement. The predictable nature of the job makes it counter-producti
Keep searching
If nothing else works then obviously you need a better job and the best way to do that is keep looking for it. Apply to jobs on various job portals, spread the word around in your professional circle and reach out to people in your industry to keep pushing forward. Do not rest until you find a new and better job and all the while following the above advice.
