I believe life is too short to be miserable in your career. I also believe that when you’re feeling frustrated and stuck in your career, that frustration often spills over into other areas of your life. Similarly, doing the work you love can be absolutely life-changing.
Many accomplished women, after 15 or 20 years of achieving their professional goals and climbing the ladder, seem to feel stuck in their careers. They struggle with figuring out what change they should make and how to get there.
I was one of them.
Often we’re not feeling as challenged or we’re no longer learning and growing. Perhaps our contributions are not valued, at least not as they once were. Some of us long to do work that has a greater purpose. Work-life balance seems “out of balance” for many women, as we continue to sacrifice one for the other.
Questions start swirling in our heads, “What am I working so hard for? Should I stick it out and hope the perfect opportunity will come along? Should I jump ship? What do i even want to do?” What we do know is we can’t keep doing this for the next decade, or worse, until retirement.
On the surface, it may not seem so bad. After all, many of these accomplished, professional women are doing well financially, and may even be in leadership positions.
The truth is that over time, the frustration becomes overwhelming, and it begins to impact other areas of our lives like our confidence, relationships and energy.
I was exactly there, but with a strategic action plan and some time, I was able to transform my own career into one I absolutely love.
The impact of that transformation was life-changing, specifically in three ways:
1. CONFIDENCE BOOSTER.
As professional women, we already face barriers at work designed to chip away at our confidence (i.e. pay inequity, glass ceilings, predominately male executive teams).
If we also don’t love the work, the day-to-day activities we’re engaged in, are we really going to be motivated to break through the barriers?
When I was doing work I loved, it didn’t feel like work. I was learning, growing, and doing work with purpose. My confidence began to soar, and I began to crush the barriers. That confidence spilled over into other areas of my life.
2. RELATIONSHIP ENHANCER.
Even when you don’t take work home, you may struggle to shake off the stress and frustration that comes with work you don’t love.
Do you get short and snippy with the people you love? Are you “too busy” to spend time with them? My own mother once told me I wasn’t so fun to be around anymore.
Now that I’m doing work I’m passionate about, work that allows me to balance my personal priorities and work that makes me happy, that happiness has exploded everywhere – in my marriage, my friendships, and of course, with my mother.
3. ENERGY SKYROCKET…ER.
It’s incredibly draining to do work you don’t enjoy. At the end of the day, you just don’t want to even think about it, let alone strategize about your future.
I get it. By contrast, when you’re doing work you love and are amazing at, it is incredibly motivating.
Today I am always looking for opportunities and making time to do things differently, to expand, to get creative. I’ve become more productive, more committed, and more successful. Rather than feeling drained at the end of the workday, I’m feeling energized and excited for tomorrow!
Life is too short to stay in a job or career that makes you miserable. I know, first hand, transforming your career into one that capitalizes on your talents and experience and where you do work you love and are amazing at is possible, even after all this time. Especially after all this time. It will change your life!