Love Who You Are – At Work
“I don’t hate the work, or the job. But I hate who I am at work.”
I was having a conversation recently with a young professional when she said these words. My ears perked up immediately. This is a vibrant, engaging, intelligent young woman. How could she not like who she is?
The answer is simple. She’s in the wrong job.
And if she doesn’t change something – soon – she’s headed straight to career burnout.
Researchers have proven that the single greatest driver for corporate burnout is mismatch. A mismatch between who you are – what the work is – what the culture is.
Mismatches show up in our bodies as stress. And our bodies are smarter than we are.
No job is perfect. Small mismatches exist for all of us in every job.
It’s the big ones that turn us into someone we don’t recognize. Its the big ones that stress us out.
When we ignore the call to do something different – the body turns up the volume on stress until we listen.
But most of us don’t listen until the volume becomes deafening.
Disliking who you are – or who you are being – is deafening.
I’ve been there.
A few years ago I realized I hated who I had become, not just at work but in my life as a result work. According to Gallup’s StrengthFinder, my number one strength is Positivity. Yet in my job, I was completely devoid of my natural sense of optimism. I had become cynical, pessimistic and skeptical. My naturally bubbly self was drained of energy.
It sucked going through every day like this. I was depressed that had no clue how to recapture my innate positivity. And even worse I hated myself for feeling stuck and powerless.
The truth is that I wasn’t powerless.
In fact, changing the situation rested entirely within my power. While I was aware of the mismatches that were causing my stress, I wasn’t convinced they were up to me to change.
I had tried communicating my concerns to leadership – which didn’t work. I had tried practicing loving kindness towards those I felt less than loving toward – that didn’t work. I tried starting side projects to recapture my passion – that didn’t work. Ultimately – for me – what worked was changing the whole situation.
Here’s the thing. It’s always up to you.
You might not always have to change the entire situation, but you do have to change something.
Are you feeling stuck? Know what to change but not how?