Considering Changing Your Career-life's Little Clues
There are many ways in which our bodies try to tell us when something is "off" when it comes to our lives
. I call them life's little clues and they come in the form of feelings and thoughts, and they are keys to determining what exactly is going on inside of you when it comes to your job as well as your life in general.
It is very easy for stress in our personal lives to create an overall feeling of unhappiness and for this be projected onto our jobs. Perhaps you are having marital problems, are going through a divorce, just had a new baby and are not getting enough sleep, or maybe you are dealing with raising a challenging teenager.
There are many things from our personal lives that can create a lot of stress that we can bring to work with us each day and change our once positive attitude toward our job to a negative one. That's because when you are feeling stressed about things in your personal life, it can be very distracting and cause you to have trouble focusing on your job. You can make mistakes at work, become short with coworkers and clients, and develop other negative behaviors. This then has a snowball effect and creates more stress for you. Next thing you know, you're hating your job (or at least think you do).
So what if your personal life is in order and you know your unhappy feelings are definitely coming from work? How do you know if it is something about your job that is creating the negative feelings or your overall career?
You start by paying attention to the little clues-your innermost thoughts and feelings-both when you are at work and away from work.
A great way to keep track and make sense of all of these little clues is to keep a daily journal for work.
First, record how you feel about going into the office or workplace every day. Be honest with yourself and write down your true feelings. Are you dreading walking through the doors and the thought of it makes you nauseous? Maybe you're looking forward to it but once you get there, you start to feel stressed and unhappy.
When a specific job assignment comes up, write down your reactions to having to complete that task. How do you internally process this request? Are you angry with the assignment and dreading the job, or does it make you happy to be trusted with such an important task? Write it down!
Take time to jot down your feelings about your coworkers as well. Do you generally get along with everyone, or do you find yourself constantly at odds with people-or a specific person?
If you find yourself feeling bored at work, write down the reasons why. Is it that you don't have enough to do? Is the job not challenging enough for you? Or is it you and your overall lack of ambition or desire to apply yourself? Ouch!
The key to journaling is to write down exactly how you feel about various aspects of your job and then look for recurring themes. Are you unhappy because of the people you are around or because of what you are doing? Maybe your job or career is not in line with your personal beliefs and values? Or perhaps you just disagree with specific company policies.
Whether it's your personal life, your job or both that are creating unhappy feelings for you at work, paying attention to all of life's little clues and keeping a journal of your thoughts and feelings will make it much easier for you to determine where your unhappy feelings are coming from. Once you identify exactly where the problem lies, it will be much easier to work out what you need to change-the company you work for, your job or your entire career.
by: Catherine Trebble
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