Your Job Is Your Life

One of the most important things we want from our life is to enjoy it. No matter what we are doing we want to be able to enjoy doing it, have fun while doing it, or receive some sense of accomplishment from doing it. In some jobs doing any of the above things is not possible for any number of reasons. One of the biggest factors in not being able to do something we enjoy is we have to have an income and we can’t earn enough doing what we want to do.

As the old saying goes, beggars can not be choosers. There may not many jobs for you that both pay the bills and give job satisfaction too. You have to choose what is most important; generally paying the bills wins out. What do you do when the job you have is not the best job in the world and you can not leave it?

Disliking your job, and not trying very hard to do your job are common complaints. Promoting that behavior yourself is not a wise choice. Like it or not, the job you have at the moment is a job you need. It is nice to think you will just quit because you are tired of doing it, but for anyone out of school, quitting because you want to is more of a pipe dream than reality. If you feel this way it is time to take control of your thinking and start to see your job in a positive perspective.

Our job is a large part of us and who we are. If we choose poor behaviors at work, those poor behaviors eventually spill over into the rest of our life. Choose a positive behavior at work, and our life will be better for it.

Your job takes a large portion of your waking life. It may not seem like it, but add up your working time, getting ready for work time, your commute time, and leaving work to get somewhere else time. That time added up is a large part of your awake time each week. Making the most of that time makes you feel better and makes that time go by faster.

Your job is you. Whatever you are doing, what and how you do your job is a reflection of the person you are. If you do sloppy work, and do the minimum, chances are you are treating your life the same way. Life rewards you with what you put into your life.

Your job is everything you own. Whether you own a few changes of clothes and a pair of shoes, or you have a flashy toy filled life, chances are money you earned from your job is responsible for what you own.

Your job keeps you healthy. You get paid money to live on. If you have a higher level job, you receive benefits too. Your job helps keep you healthier than if you did not have money or health benefits.

Your job is your charity. Whether you tithe through your church, occasionally give change to the needy, eat at certain fast foods, or buy certain products, your job is what keeps you on the giving and off the receiving side of charity.

Your job is your contribution to your community. No one lives or works in a vacuum. Your job is your contribution to your community no matter how you define it. How big of a contribution you make in your community depends on how much pride and energy you put into what you do. Whether you run large city, or sweep a sidewalk, you are needed by your community, and you help make your community what it is.

Your job is important because _____. You fill in the rest of this paragraph. Only you know what more personal reasons your job is important. Perhaps it is a social reason, maybe something more personal.

I used to listen to a teacher tell us kids, “Take care of your job, and it will take care of you.” That Teacher I discovered knew what he was talking about. I have a related post here if you wish to read it too.

How To Keep Your Job

Keeping your job is not hard to do as long as you do those things in your control with intent. Having worked at over twenty different places myself before I had ten years in the workplace, I saw many people, including myself commit job suicide. I also watched people excel while seemingly doing little actual work, by doing a few important things correctly.

The real key in keeping your current job lies in remembering how you felt when you found out you were going to be hired. Did you arrive at your current position through luck or did you do your homework, and get the needed skills to win your job. Did you feel special when you were hired?

Were you excited and elated over the possibilities of your job, or is it just another job? Many of my early jobs were just another job. Walk out one door and in another door. If your skills are in demand everywhere, there is always someone hiring, because someone like my previous self is always leaving.

Do you appreciate the job you have, do you feel special doing it? Think of the other people you work with as if you were their boss. They are your competition, how do they feel compared to how you feel about yourself. Do your feelings about your job stand out from theirs?

If you are not doing anything different than everyone else is doing for the same position, whether you keep your job, or someone else does is a roll of the dice. You are really just holding a position, and from the companies perspective, whether it is you, or someone else in that position does not really matter. In other words you are expendable.

Many people are their own worst enemies when it comes to both enjoying and keeping their job. I doubt many of them even are aware that they are doing it. As an extreme example is the work group rebel. Rebels tend to disagree more about their work than any other personality. Dissent is a good thing until the rebel crosses the line and dissents not only about the way the job is done, but the job itself.

Remember why you were hired. What were your initial hiring criteria? You were hired for a specific set of skills that need to be done. Many people after they become comfortable with their work, start rewriting the rules they will work under, deciding that certain areas are part of their job, and other tasks suddenly are not. Essentially they rewrite their job requirements, generally to their detriment.

Taking on and completing an extra task or two is very important, and they do not have to be critical tasks. Find something that needs to be done and do it. Show you are willing to do a little more than everyone else. This shows you care, and you want to be successful. You do want to take on tasks that compliment what you are currently doing. Do not take try to take on tasks outside of your area of influence unless it is of great benefit to the company as a whole and your boss approves.

Your boss or those above your boss are not your enemies. Making your boss an adversary through your attitude, or actions is a sure way to start the process of looking for a new job. You boss and those above your boss need you as much as you need them. They can not be successful without you position being successful. Being abrasive, or difficult to approach is not a character trait you want from your bosses perspective. Your boss has his or her own problems same as you do. They do not want their job to be more difficult than it has to be.

Most people in their daily work, are not mindful of these few indicators of job success. Your boss will focus on what is important, and that changes all the time. They will remember when they have to make decision about you, what type of employee you are. The decisions your boss makes that effect you are your raise, advancement, opportunities, and contributions to the company. You want to be more than a random name drawn from a hat when it comes to your future.