“People tell me all the time, it’s just a job, you don’t have to like it, but I can’t let go of the dream of doing work I love!”
Is this you?
It was certainly me. I grew up thinking that work was the devil. Nobody likes their work. You do it to pay the bills. You live for the weekend. And throughout my twenties, and much of my thirties, when I worked away unhappily, I would chant this rhetoric in my head on Sunday night and Monday mornings. I would just keep pushing myself towards the weekend and try and push the pain to the back of my mind. But still something kept nagging at me and it was the dream of work. The dream of doing work that I love.
When you hate your job, and everyone around you hates their job, but somehow seem to keep going, you feel like a bit of a loser. I mean everyone else is able to get on with it. Why can’t you?
But I’m here to ask you…
“Why should you?
Next time you start beating up on yourself for wanting more, how about asking yourself:
- Why should you spend the majority of your waking hours (if you work full time) wishing you were somewhere else?
- Why should you spend your precious days doing something you have zero interest in while your skills and talents go unused and unrecognised?
- Why should you work so hard that you feel too exhausted to enjoy your leisure time?
- Why shouldn’t you set a great example to your kids of what working life could be like?
- Why shouldn’t you leave work on-time?
- Why shouldn’t you be happy?
“To have a job that I love, that doesn’t feel like work and pays well, that is the dream”
Is this you too?
Well start making that dream a reality. Here are some quick and easy ideas to get you going and if you want more where they came from then get my FREE download Six Steps to get Started on your Career Change.
- Think of three people you know who love their work and ask them about it. It doesn’t have to be work that you want to do. The idea of this exercise is to change your mindset. Not everybody hates their job. Get into the psyche of someone who does love work. It will then be easier to see yourself in that place.
- Make a commitment to leaving work on time or getting some time at the weekend to try something new. It doesn’t have to be work related. It could be a new walk or exercise class. Going to a comedy club or to see a movie with subtitles. Anything. It just needs to be different from the usual. To start seeing things differently you need to start getting new inputs and inspiration into your life. You also need to start carving time out of your calendar for yourself.
- Allow yourself to daydream but then write it down or create a vision board. Create a vision of your perfect life. Where would you live? Who would surround you? What would your hobbies be? What could you see yourself doing? If your perfect life seems a step too far at this stage then think about what your perfect day would look like – you’re allowed to make it Saturday. What would you get up to? Could you bring any of that into your life now? Even if just in a very small way?
So, give yourself permission to dream but don’t forget to take action because, in the words of Pablo Picasso, “Everything you can imagine is real.”
If you need help getting started on your career change dream, then don’t forget my FREE download Six Steps to get Started on your Career Change. Or contact me for a FREE Career Change Consultation – 30 minutes over skype to discuss any career issue that’s troubling you.