Practicing courage when you hate your job
Unless you’ve got a trust fund, you probably spend 8-ish hours of most days working. In most of Western culture, your identity is tied to the career you undertake. That’s why practicing courage when you hate your job can be some of the most difficult facing of fear that you ever undertake.
Here are a few things to remember when you’re hating your job and struggling to be courageous in the face of it all:
This isn’t forever. I know it seems like forever, but since we know nothing is forever? This isn’t forever.
Life can turn on a dime. Maybe the reason you hate your job right now is because of the schedule. What if the schedule changed? Maybe you hate your job because of the commute. What if a new office opens up, closer to you? Maybe the reason you hate your job is because of your manager. What if that person leaves?
You have the ability to make choices. Remembering that you are powerful and have the ability to make choices is a great way to practice courage in any situation, not just when you hate your job. You can choose to leave the job. You aren’t a tree. If the situation is truly that bad? Find a way, no matter how hard it is.
You could choose to learn something. I once had a job that I truly hated more than anything in the world. The people there were giving me a seriously hard time. One day I decided that these people were my practice for someday when I would become a mother, and would need to deal with a toddler throwing a tantrum or a teenager throwing around attitude. It didn’t miraculously make the people behave better, but I felt more like the job had a purpose—I could learn something.
Ask yourself how you’d feel if you no longer had the job and couldn’t pay your bills. If you’d be worse off in that case? The job is providing you with something.
See if you can effect change. You probably aren’t the only one who wants it. If you start trying to effect positive change, then you’ll feel more empowered.
I don’t want to bypass the very real reality that sometimes, jobs are soul-sucking. What I’m trying to do is point out the ways that we can stay aligned with our optimism in even the most difficult of circumstances. Practicing courage when you hate your job might seem like the last thing you’re capable of doing, which to me is all the more reason to actually do it. Face the things that seem “impossible” and use them as your training ground for life’s challenges. That’s going to feel better than simply repeating, “I hate this” every time you walk through the doors.