Monday Motivation - 5 Things!
“If I just had less stress…”
“If I just made more money…”
“If my boss was just a little nicer…”
I hear this stuff everyday. After all, there are about a billion ways to start the sentence that ends with, “then this job would be worth it.”
Let me tell you, I’ve been there - working twice as hard to make half as much as I did the prior quarter, bringing my stress home with me like an extra briefcase full of papers ready to spill across the floor and ruin the rest of my evening, and all the while feeling about as unappreciated as the gum on the bottom of someone’s shoe.
You know what? As bad as I felt, I’ve come to realize that I did it to myself.
That’s right. It wasn’t my job’s fault. It was mine. I made the choices that had me carrying more stress than necessary, and I failed to communicate that stress level to my bosses (unless you count passive-aggressiveness as communication, which I don’t!). I also let all the little problems stick around and build up in to monsters that I just chose to hide from for the most part. A job being worth the stress if you make more money at it is just a myth. If you let this garbage build up and kill your passion for a job as I did when I was younger, then you’re robbing yourself.
Life is too short not to be happy. Today, I challenge you to make a list of 5, just 5, things about your job that make you happy. 5 things that make it worth coming in to your office or maintenance shop in the morning. I promise you, no where on that list, if you really soul search on this one, will you find, “Because they pay me well.” People who love what they do don’t look at the paycheck, they look at the pay off. Maybe you like to lead others. Maybe you enjoy knowing that you’re good at what you do. Maybe you know that you can do things others can’t. Whatever the reason, odds are what makes you happy about your job are also the same things that make you a great employee.
Save that little list in your planner or some other place that you see everyday (Not taped to your monitor!) and remember to look at it on those particularly tough days, when you’re thinking you should have stayed in bed. Our jobs will do what we let them do. They’re a little like dogs. When you’re training a dog, what you’re actually training is YOUR reaction to what the dog does. Same thing here - we can either let them destroy us, or we can let them complete us.
Today, choose to let your job make you happy. Let it make you feel accomplished. Let it help you feel fulfilled. After all, that’s kind of what it’s there for.