Should you be obsessed with your job?
This article is part of my ‘write everyday for 31 days series’ and is article number 5. To read yesterday’s article click here.
Today, during a discussion with a friend of mine, we were discussing work, and the difference between when you love the work you do and when you hate it.
A little backstory
My friend hates their job. Every morning he wakes up and dreads going in. This isn’t anything to do with the staff. His colleagues, he says, are all really nice and welcoming and when he’s sat in the office he feels involved, liked and appreciated.
All good things…
But then 9am hits and he has to start working. This is where the problems start.
He hates the work he’s doing. Neither his head or heart are in it. This is a problem when you’re supposed to be doing the same thing five-days-a-week, eight-hours-a-day.
His theory
My friend thinks that if you don’t absolutely adore your job, then there is no point in doing it. Just like everything in life, your job should bring you happiness and shouldn’t be the reason you dread waking up in the morning.
I asked my friend if he was going to leave his current role and seek out something different.
To my shock he said: no.
The problem he has is that he doesn’t have any transferable skills. This job is all that he knows. So moving companies won’t help his dilemma because he’d be doing the same thing as he’s doing now, only in a different environment, with different people (who he previously said he was fond of).
At a loss of what to do, my friend concluded: “I’ll just have to suck it up and get used to it.
The solution
I’m not sure about you, but this shocked me. I empathised with him. I couldn’t imagine hating the work you were doing. I couldn’t imagine not doing anything that didn’t feel me with immense excitement at the thought of the challenge.
But when you have children to feed, and a roof to keep over your head, it really isn’t as simple as just leaving your job to find something you’d be good at.
Many of you have probably been in similar positions where you’ve hated your job, but the fear of doing something different scared you.
What if the next job was worse than this one?
What if you liked the work at the next job, but the team you worked with were awful?
What if you never find what you enjoy?
I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with not enjoying aspects of work, it probably happens to everyone.
There are certainly areas of my job I could do without, but I understand that If I want to do my job to the best of my ability, I need to do such tasks.
But there is nothing stopping anyone expanding their learning while they’re doing something they dislike.
And that’s exactly what my friend is going to do.
He’s enrolled in a number of online course in the hope to expand his knowledge and find something he enjoys.
He’s a beautiful reminder that it’s never too late to find what you love and chase that dream.
What dream do you wish you could chase, but the fear of failure holds you back? Leave a comment below, i’d love to know
This article is part of my “write everyday for 31 days challenge”. If you’re new here, then why not check out some of my other articles:
