Stop doing work you hate
Maybe it’s not the right time to be thinking about applying for new jobs or buying a new business, or maybe it’s the perfect time. COVID has left some of us busier in our work than we have ever been, adhering to new protocols, taking on the workload of those who were laid off. On the other hand, COVID has left some of us jobless, or without a business to run.
Whatever the case, it’s a time for reinvention; it feels like the perfect opportunity to stop doing what we hate and get honest with ourselves. There is uncertainty, so why not jump into the fear it is causing and take your life off auto-pilot?
Success magazine quotes author and speaker, Denis Waitley, an advisor to Olympic athletes, “The risk in staying firmly inside our comfort zone is that it creates psychological barriers that can lead to real limitations because we haven’t done anything dynamic in a long time, [and] we begin to think we can’t.”
When you look up ways to get out of your comfort zone, there are a lot of stories about jumping out of planes, or learning to fly. But we don’t need to take to the skies to leave that safe place in which we have become so accustomed to living, and simultaneously hating.
Want to stop doing what you hate? Start here:
1. Activate your energy. Here’s a little physics for you. Force = Mass X Acceleration. That’s You multiplied by Movement equals a Force in a direction. Isaac Newton’s Second Law of Motion. Motivational speaker, Mel Robbins says, “Your soul needs exploration and growth, and anything that is a break from routine is going to require force.”
Robbins’ “Activation Energy” could look like many things. Choosing to put different food in your lunch today. Doing something active outside this morning. Recording your observations on life in a journal before you turn out the light tonight. Robbins suggests setting your morning alarm half an hour earlier than you usually do and stop pressing the snooze button. The idea is: stick to one small change and make it a part of who you are.
Activate yourself to leave what is known and comfortable.
2. Re-write the boundaries of your niche. You know marketing. You know cars. You know women’s clothing. Whatever your specialty, add a new skill set, new offering, a spin on your niche to attract new customers, and keep it interesting and challenging for yourself.
When we reinvent something, doors can open.
3. Choose a recreation. Because we are not all living the same reality and we can’t just ditch the job or the business, there are other ways to temper the dread that work can sometimes cause. If you were to choose a side project, what would it be? Maybe you’ve always wanted to write a book, build a go-cart, run a marathon, or volunteer your time at the local shelter.
Do it. Get out of your comfort zone.
4. Hit rock bottom (or don’t). In her article “If you hate what you are doing, stop,” Kristina Adams from The Startup points out, ‘Challenging the status quo is either too much effort or too terrifying, so you do nothing instead. Many successful entrepreneurs [have] to hit rock bottom—whatever their definition of that is—to find their way out.”
She suggests to “think morbid”. Know that if something happens to you tomorrow, you have done everything to fulfill your dreams and live the life you envision. You don’t necessarily need the bottom (that’s sometimes hard to climb out of). Then again, maybe you do. Sometimes we need the mild heart attack to be convinced our lifestyle and doing what we hate is killing us.
5. Hire someone to do what you don’t want to do. What if the part of your day you spend on auto-pilot could be taken over by a new hire? Robbins says, “We are full of ideas, but we kill them.” Now you have part of, or all of your days back to yourself. Maybe it means a little less profit this year, and the next and the next. But what might you find in place of revenue and profit? Maybe another avenue of business, or career path. Maybe joy.
Resources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp7E973zozc
https://medium.com/swlh/if-you-hate-what-youre-doing-stop-976842fdfa3b
https://www.success.com/52-ways-to-get-out-of-your-comfort-zone/