By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Most of you may not hate your jobs but many of you are. What should you do so that your job doesn’t eat you up from the insides?
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The title of this is “What to Do When You’re in a Job that You Hate” or you feel like you’re stuck in a job that you hate. Here’s a simple suggestion provided by Marshall Goldsmith period Marshall is a an international coach. He has written a number of fabulous books from a coaching perspective, including “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, “Triggers,” and many many more.
By the way, just as an aside, Dr. Goldsmith comments that he is Buddhist, share my information freely. He is great about this kind of stuff.
He had an article on LinkedIn a while ago that asked that question. He said you have a couple of choices. One choice is to suffer through the day, day by day until you either get fired for your poor attitude or you found another job that you liked more. Perfectly valid and, Lord knows, when I worked in recruiting, most people came to me at the point where they had decided that they needed another job. Meanwhile, you’re in a position that leaves you miserable.
So, what’s the other option to create happiness and meaning in your work life, regardless of current circumstances? What he says is how you create happiness and meaning when you’re stuck in the job that you hate is that you break down your days in one-hour segments.
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So, for example, you have to think of it is going to a one-hour meeting. You’re dreading this meeting as being pointless, unnecessary and you dread everything about it. So, at the end of this boring, time sucking meeting, you are going to ask yourself four simple questions, ready?
“Did I do my best to be happy?”
“Did I do my best to find meaning?”
“Did I do my best to build positive relationships?”
“Did I do my best to be fully engaged?”
So, he’s asked the provocative question.
“If you knew were going to be tested, what would you do differently to raise your score on any of these four items?”
He wants you to rate yourself on a 1 to 10 scale about how you did so that, this way, you’re giving yourself feedback about your performance period Now, he has worked with executives around the world and, when asked this question, they typically respond with, “When I go into the meeting, I go with a positive attitude.”
Instead of waiting for someone to make it interesting, I make it interesting, myself. I try to let the presenter in on some ways, instead of critiquing them in my head. I try to build a positive relationship with someone. You get the idea.
His idea’s very simple. If you’re stuck in a job that you hate, from now on, pretend that you may be tested every hour. Basically, what’s going to happen but is your heart and your mind are going to thank you for it, and each our that you spent on this job, he says it’s an hour that you and I can’t get back. So, why waste your hours be disengaged and cynical. Take this personal responsibility and ask yourself four questions and overall you’ll find yourself happier.
I know when I coach people with this model. It has been very effective for them.
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