8 reasons for staying in a job you hate

It’s counterintuitive to think there’s any positive takeaway points from staying at an unfulfilling post. But, what do you do if you find yourself in such situation? Are you going to be focusing on the negatives and feeling miserable as each work day goes by? Of course not. Here are some tips on what you could do if you find yourself in such predicament.

you get creative – you might not be passionate about your work anymore, but you’ll be passionate about your exit strategy! If there’s any motivator out there that gets people serious about turning their life around, it is knowing there’s a serious problem and they need to fix it ASAP. You’ll start thinking about your own exit strategy and best of all you’ll probably start coming up with all sorts of ideas until you find the one that works so you can quit with curtain dropping finality. Go all in exploring the alternatives!

learn a lesson – everything in life is a lesson. Not everyone’s career is smooth sailing but there’s also a lot to be learned from staying somewhere you dislike. You’ll learn about tolerance and pinpoint what makes you a less than chirper employee – was it the work culture? The hours? Or the nature of the job? So you don’t repeat the same mistake twice. A job is a job, it shouldn’t cause you grief. Learn the lesson, then have the courage to try something else, somewhere else.

time management – you’ll end up valuing your time more than ever, because that 8 hours a day or however long you work in a day will be a reminder that you need to hurry up and get a move on it. 8 hours is 1/3 of your day, and it really teaches you to utilize those 16 hours you have wisely. What can you do in 16 hours that significantly improves your situation in the future should be the question you’re asking yourself.

it motivates you to gain new skills – the hard pill you’ll have to swallow daily. You can’t do it forever, you just can’t. It doesn’t make you happy, you are wasting time. You also can’t job hop, thinking the next shitty job is somehow better than this one, that’s just wagering too much after you already put your fate in someone else’s hands and they might not even like you — what to do ? Challenge yourself and start learn new skills, or create something on the side that’ll make the transition easier. There’s many night school options available. If not, there are also hundreds of books, tutorials and other resources out there – all you need is curiosity.

it gives you a definitive date to quit – I want you to do this. Kind of like setting an appointment for yourself. We’re all too comfortable with having others tell us what to do, how to live, how to use our time. I want you to do this for you – if you know something is not working, set a date for yourself to cut the cord. This makes everything we’ve just talked about real – because it becomes a realistic goal you work towards and you won’t be stuck in the same place years later wondering how you got there. You’ll hit eject button faster that way. Trust me.

it’ll make you think twice about the comfort zone – if the comfort zone is being ‘stuck’- then what’s out there? Are you going to remember that ‘I worked with a company for 15 years and…blah’ it sounds boring already – or are you going to remember, ‘I quit my job and started something I actually find rewarding!’ when you talk to people? When they say get ready to be really uncomfortable – the really uncomfortable can be really thrilling and not mentioning rewarding. Learn to enjoy the process, even this bit about being stuck. Everything has its purpose.

stream of income – the reason you’re staying there in the first place, but the weakest reason on the list. You’ll have a steam of income while you figure things out – but remember you’ve already set a self-eject date. Do not chicken out! There are so many opportunities out there. You just have to seek them!

you’ll trust yourself with yourself – this is so overlooked. Are you fit to take care of yourself and be happy? After it’s all said and done and the days ticked by and you’re finally on your way to cracking it. You’ll be working towards something you’re passionate about and gradually shifting your focus from something that made you miserable to something else that makes you happy. You’ll see how much you can accomplish for yourself and by yourself. You’ll see yourself in a positive light again as someone with skills and abilities that would’ve rusted if you didn’t make the jump.

So, give yourself a chance, mark down the date, start working tirelessly towards it, make yourself a priority, don’t let something highly variable like a job title stand in the way of positive self image and happiness.