Most of us hate Sunday nights… because we dread Mondays and having to back to work. I can’t help but wonder: why?
Why aren’t we more savvy at finding gigs that really fulfill us, keep us happy and wanting more?
OK, so maybe a handful of us have the perfect job and Monday only feels like Monday once a month and the rest of the time is an absolute bliss — a fun, exciting, challenging and rewarding “occupation”, a career even; with some great people maybe; and perks, please. I’m okay with hard-work by the way. But if I could ENJOY it more, why not?
I love working, I’d like to love my job now. I need serious help!
I won’t be too demanding and ask for the realization of a true passion. In fact, that’s where I fail at all those tests and quizzes that crowd the webosphere and are supposed to tell you what you should engage in to have a blast at what you do — I just don’t fit in the model because I’m lacking a passion. I just can’t find the color of my parachute. Oops. But at the very least, all these efforts to find what I should rather be doing, ought to bring me to a better place.
Right after pocketing my business degree (by accident? Hmm, we’ll go back to that) I embarked on the road to the 9-to-5 office frenzy. It happened to be in Marketing, direct mail actually. Fine. Could have been … anything really. From there, I fell into fundraising — first working for a charitable humanitarian organization, then joining an agency consulting for not-for-profits. How boring, right? I can hear you yawn all the way here.
But read on.
Look, this isn’t a vent about my work or my coworkers, boss or clients. I like it for what it does: it stimulates my mind most the time, and it’s for the good cause — three of them in fact:
- helping non-profits make more money to support their missions? Check.
- bringing the paycheck that will fund my lifestyle and support my family. Check.
- making my company more money to grow the business, which in turns allows thousands of mycoworkers to support their families. Check.
The problem is: I don’t love what I do. At times, I hate the tension, the stress, the conflicts, the deadlines, the competition, the shortcomings, the office gossips, the lack of vacation, my laptop with VPN and the always-on Blackberry. I’m no material for corporate America. I don’t want to be on call.
I probably wouldn’t fit any better in my home country, but the rules surrounding employment in France are so different, you can’t even compare.
Friends have suggested I make lists of my skills, interview people who love their job, write down my goals, thoughts… And here I am. Hello, blog!
It's so good to have you back! Share your thoughts, I LOVE comments!
[...] my career dilemma is at least showing one thing: happiness is not always a consequence of prosperity. This will be the [...]
[...] already mentioned I do fundraising for a living in a previous post, but I did not explain that I occasionally write letter copy for our non-profit clients; in English [...]
I’m on of those annoying people who don’t notice Mondays. In fact, if I’m not in front of my computer I usually don’t know what day it is. Don’t hate me, it wasn’t always this way! I remember feeling exactly the way you described, frustrated and impatient with management, bureaucrats and paper-pushing. Took a lot of work, mostly internal exploration, but it was worth it because now I love what I do, it really is my passion and most of the time I have fun too.
I’m absolutely not sharing this to brag, but rather to point out that if I could find my passion in my mid 30′s so can you and anyone who really wants to. Remember the Audrey Hepburn quote,from “impossible to I’m possible”
Actually quite the contrary, why would I find you annoying for validating my hope that a better path is possible?
Thanks for providing me with the inspiration and kick-in-the-butt that I so needed!! You rock, Deva Coach