What’s your relationship with your job?
Have you ever considered that you have a relationship with your career?
It’s that time of the year when everyone starts talking about relationships.
So in between the posts about ‘how to have a romantic lockdown Valentine’s day’ and ‘the best gifts to buy your Valentine this year’; I wanted to speak about a different relationship.
How’s your relationship with your job going?
What’s your career status? Single and ready to mingle? Open to new opportunities? Committed to the role you’re in? Or is it just all a bit complicated?
Here’s some ideas to help you fall back in love with your job:
Make time for it
In a healthy relationship, it’s important to prioritise spending time together. Within your 9-5 there might be elements of your job role that get overlooked. Tasks you put off because you don’t feel confident in that area. Maybe it’s part of the role you love to do but don’t prioritise because you feel too busy. What parts of your job could you spend time on, so you have a better relationship? Maybe it’s developing skills so you get better at those tasks you hate? Maybe it’s setting time aside to do the parts of your job role you really love.
Celebrate the wins
When you were at school and you did something good you might have been given an award or a special mention in assembly. It doesn’t happen as much as adults… so I love to encourage my clients to celebrate the small wins. Get excited about receiving a kind email from a colleague or client, finishing a project on time, making a sale. Celebrate the small wins by taking a coffee break, planning a celebration meal that evening and telling people what happened.
Forgive the crappy bits
When people you love make a mistake, usually it’s possible to forgive them and move on. When something happens at work that isn’t in line with what you expected (e.g. your training plan isn’t approved, your feedback is ignored, someone else takes credit for your work), you have 2 choices: deal with the disappointment and move on or continue to be angry and resentful. If these things happen over and over again, it’s worth questioning if your relationship with your job has become toxic.
Still not feeling the warm-fuzzies?
If you’ve tried all of those, and you’re still not feeling it… maybe it’s time to move on. There’s plenty of fish in the sea and all that…
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How I can help you find a job that’s a good fit
If you have found yourself at a crossroads and know you want to make a change, but the idea terrifies you and you don’t know where to start - grab the End Career Paralysis mini course, to get unstuck and make a decision on what direction you want to head in: let’s make sure your next job is a keeper.
I created End Career Paralysis to help you make a decision about what to do next in your career.
The course will be helpful if you’re weighing up options of whether you should look for another job, or not; if you’re trying to make a decision of whether to go self-employed, or not; if you’re considering taking a career break to look after your kids for a couple of years… Basically, if you’re in the process of making a decision about what to do about your job, I’d encourage you to sign up. I know it can really help you.
You can sign up here. I would love to help you find a career that works for you.
