How To Turn The Job You Hate Into Success You Can Live By

Let’s face it…we are in troubled times and many of us are in jobs we absolutely hate, but since it is a paycheck that pays the bills…we continue to show up day in and day out to sign up for more misery. Why do we wake up to the alarm every morning knowing that the day is going to bring more monotonous pain? Because we know eviction and debt is thousands of times worse than dealing with the annoyances we are putting up with on a daily basis. We would switch jobs to something more tolerable or something we actually enjoy, but in today’s economic conditions, there is high competition for a decreasing amount of openings. People just aren’t hiring! So with all of this stacked against us…what are we supposed to do in the search for professional freedom and happiness?

Your 2 Options as the Unsatisfied Employee

Like it or not…misery, frustration and outright unhappiness can all be incredible motivators. When faced with almost unthinkable conditions, you…as the employee, family member, leader, bread winner…have two distinct choices you can make with your available resources at the time.

  1. Bathe In Your Misery – This is an option. You can come home every day and bitch about how bad you have it. You can tell all of your friends and family how horrible your job is…how much worse it is getting and how you can’t do a thing about it because you are just an innocent victim in this situation. Feel sorry for me because my life is so terrible! You just wouldn’t understand! You continue this cycle everyday until you are finally throwing yourself into a depression because you see no end in sight to the madness. Your largest flaw in this line of thinking is that you are now letting others directly affect how you live your daily life and where you derive your happiness. These people that you bitch about on a daily basis are winning…and in a big way!
  2. Use Your Misery as a Motivator – Time to get off your ass and do something about it! That’s right…misery can be one of the greatest motivators to change. If you decide to treat your situation through a different outlook, you can come out on the other end happier than you have ever been, but it is going take some work and you can’t bitch your way through it.

How to Turn that Job You Hate Into Success

For those of you that picked #1 from above, you can stop reading this article right now and go bitch to someone about how bad you have it…the rest of this will not apply and you are going to tell me it is not possible if you read it anyway. Like I said in point #2, you can use your current unsatisfied outlook with your professional life as a gigantic motivator to get up and do something about it.

Every morning, when I wake up and start up my iPhone, I am greeted by a quote that gets me started during the day.

You never know how STRONG you are…until being strong is the ONLY choice you have.

During times like this, being strong is your only option for professional change. It is not like the olden days when you could just sneeze out a new job that paid, appreciated and thanked you more just for stopping by. Everyone is on harder times than usual so being strong and pushing through is your only option in the search of happiness. But how do I turn this strong motivation into professional happiness?

Right now is the time to start conditioning yourself into habits that will benefit you greatly in the long haul even if you do not see the direct benefit now (or it takes a lot more work than it will in the future).

  • Start Your Own Company – Sounds weird to start your own company during hard economic times, but truly successful business owners will tell you that troubled economic times can be the best time to start something of your own. Do you have that idea that you have been holding onto for forever but never acted on? Now is the time to try to get things going. You are going to spend countless hours during what used to be your off/down time outside of work growing your business, but when your little start-up takes over your full time income, you are able to drop that job you hate in favor of something you can call your own. You just have to be willing to put in that extra effort and give up a lot of your free time in the beginning. Your ability to adapt and change quickly will give you an advantage over competition that has more overhead and bills. Many of you that read this blog are interested, trying or already have setup online businesses that have the added benefit of low start-up costs. Now is the time for you to put forth the effort and get the grunt work done as you look forward to growth and success. If you can make money now…image the results when the economy shoots back…
  • Be Willing To Do What Others Are Not – Maybe owning your own business is not for you…that is ok…owning your own business is not for everyone. During times like this you need to use your unhappiness with your current work situation to be willing to do what others are not. Are you willing to walk into prospective businesses and hit them up face to face with a resume? Now…more than ever…is the time to actively market yourself to keep your resume from being just another white sheet in the massive stack. You need to find new and unique ways to make yourself more marketable and not rely on the conventional job searching techniques that…quite honestly…do not work anymore. You can not expect to throw your resume on Monster.com and get great offers.

As you go out and try to change the way you are doing things, you are creating habits and confidence that are going to help you tremendously in the future. It is times like these that true greatness is born from the ashes…you just have to be willing to step outside your comfort zone to try something new. You never know…it could lead to professional life happiness and satisfaction that you had never dreamed and it was all because you decided to use your misery as a motivator and not a crutch. Sitting around and complaining does no one any good…especially you!

“I Hate My Job” image by Adam Foster | Codefor

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2 comments

Mike August 8, 2009 - 7:10 am
I worked retail for several years after college. I hated it, but unlike the other people I worked with, I didn't just complain about it. Instead, I worked every night, day off etc, to create a business that eventually led to me and my partner getting full time jobs out of it. We basically got bought out, so I'm still working for someone else, but at least I'm not on the battle lines of retail anymore. Now with my coffee blog, I'm doing the same thing, working all of the time when I'm not doing the 9-5, working towards it being my full time job.
Robb Sutton August 11, 2009 - 10:28 am
Retail can be the pits...but a gigantic learning experience about the shopping habits and mentality of the general public. I wasn't fond of that time...but I would not give up what I learned either.
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