Anth Quinn

I’m not a career’s advisor but I am frequently contacted by people who don’t enjoy their job but lack the self-confidence to go after something else.

What do you think they should do?

As ever there is no “right” answer, there are many potential approaches some people would say “Get up and walk out!” and maybe for some that’s a great strategy, others would say “Begin to look for what is good about your current job, you can learn to be happy where you are!” Again this can be a useful strategy to experiment with, especially as you already know that you see more of what you look for in life.

Today I’d like you to consider an alternative approach, I’d like to tackle the problem at the root and look at one of the major sources of a lack of self-confidence.

I’d like you to review another example of my initial question:

“If you could do better in a job, should you?”

Many people will tell me that it doesn’t really matter, if you don’t like your job you should do just enough to get by and “live for the weekend”. The other thing I hear a lot is: No way! If they paid me more (treat me better, I had more positive work colleagues, more flexibility - feel free to add your own favourite excuse to this list) then I’d work harder. The way the treat people they don’t deserve my full effort and loyalty - who knows they could make me redundant tomorrow!

As I’ve said this is very very common. I admit I have some sympathy with this view too. In this world of short-term contracts, right sizing, downsizing, performance related pay and the closing of company pensions, how can the company expect you to be loyal?

The problem is with this kind of thinking is that is completely fails to address the most important issue.

What is this issue?

It is what this sort of attitude and thinking is doing to you inside!  What is it doing to you self confidence? Your Self Esteem? Your belief in your ability to grow, change and break old habits?

I’ll give you a clue! It’s destroying them, slowly perhaps, but overtime the effect can be devastating!  Remember the tide comes in slowly, but nobody with any sense thinks they won’t get wet just because they can’t see it moving minute by minute.

So how does this relate to people in jobs they don’t like or to you directly?

Well think about it, every time you give your best, you stretch learn and grow - developing the discipline of giving your best will transform your level of confidence as sure as night follows day.
I get lots and lots of emails asking me “Where do I start?” the answer is simple start where you are and start small. 

Who cares if the company don’t value your work?  Do a great job anyway, for no other reason than what it does for you inside.  I think you’ll be surprised how quickly you begin to enjoy your work, and if you still want to leave for a better job you’ll have the confidence to do it!

And remember we haven’t just been discussing jobs here.

Cheers,

Anth.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 12:29 am and is filed under Career, Motivation, Self-Confidence, Self-Esteem. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.