-By Favour C. Nrabulu
Last month, I promised to share with us tips on how to fall in love with your career.
We all know that because of the circumstances we find ourselves in as a society, not everyone ends up practising what they studied in school. Some microbiologists find themselves becoming bankers, trained lawyers are becoming actors, etc. We do what we have to do to survive; hence this topic.
On the other hand, sometimes even those who do practice what they studied in the tertiary institution tend to fall out of love with their jobs either because it suddenly becomes monotonous or it’s more difficult than anticipated or because it is not as financially sustainable as they envisioned or for whatever reason. This article is also for you.
These are few tips to help you fall in love with your chosen or accidentally chosen career:
1. Make a to-do-list every day. Once you get to work and get settled, begin the day with a list of the things you would like to achieve before the end of the work day. The more you check items off your list, the more satisfied you become. It also comes with a sense of accomplishment and achievement.
2. Develop your professional skills. Learning can be quite challenging sometimes but on the other hand, it helps keep your mind engaged, intrigued and interested in your chosen field as you find yourself discovering new things. Keep yourself on top of the game and push yourself to get to the top. You can achieve this by reading books related to your career, attending seminars, workshops and conferences or even by taking courses online.
3. When you’re feeling down about your job, make a list of the things you like about it. You might be surprised at how much you actually enjoy.
4. Take a vacation when you can. It doesn’t have to be a full blown, expensive trip; sometimes, just a weekend spent away from home when the week or month(s) have been too intense or stressful will do you a lot of good.
5. To avoid boredom when your workload is very minimal, take on new roles and assignments or volunteer to assist a colleague on a project. Make sure you don’t overtask yourself but the excitement of working on something new and challenging will keep you from being bored.
6. From time to time especially when you begin to lose focus or interest in your job, take time to reflect. Think about things like; why you took the job or went down that career path in the first place, what you’ve gained from it so far, the challenges you’ve been able to surmount since you started, how it helps you pay the bills etc. Sometimes reflecting on things helps remind us of our goals and the bigger picture.
Try as much as you can to love your chosen or accidentally chosen career because at the end of the day, you spend a lot of time at your job and the only way to live a happy, healthy life is to enjoy what you do on a daily basis. Like every other thing in life, it takes work, but with time, you will find yourself looking forward to waking up every day, ready to take on the day’s challenges.