Work to love: what to do to love your job on Mondays
Waiting for the weekend is not a long-term strategy
In my previous article “Why job hopping can positively affect your career”, I wrote about how changing jobs and experimenting at the beginning of my career helped me figure out what I wanted to pursue in my professional life.
I learnt that there are enough companies and jobs in the world and the right one is out there. Sometimes it takes kissing a few corporate frogs before you find your good corporate match.
Job hopping and short-term chaos can pay off and help you settle down to a desired long-term career.
This may also be the first step that will help you avoid hating your future Mondays.
Don’t spend your week counting down to the weekend
Living for the weekend and holidays doesn’t sound like a particularly exciting life to me. It doesn’t add up either:
- 2 days of weekend vs. 5 days of work;
- 5 weeks of holiday vs. the rest of the working year.
A few weeks ago I had a quick chat with a colleague of mine. To my ‘What’s up?, he answered: ‘Good, it’s Thursday. Imagine it was Monday?!’
In fact, I could have easily imagined that. When I told him that I liked all days of the week, including Mondays, he looked at me as if I was an extraterrestrial creature: UFO-alert!
I could have only said: ‘Hey, what’s so weird about that?’ I like my job and I like my team. Thus, believe it or not, I like Mondays. The same goes for Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
I like weekends, too, but to like only two days per week … doesn’t add up for me.
But it wasn’t always like this. It took me a few years of working in different companies and positions to see what made me feel alive. I kissed many corporate frogs to figure out what I’m good at and what I like doing.
Eventually I’m doing what I want to do. It was my job hopping that helped me understand my assets, strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes.
Unfortunately, I’ve got many friends who have been working for many years in the same company/role and they’re not even sure if that’s what they want to do. At the same time, they’ve often been too scared or lazy to make a change. Needless to say, most of them hate their Mondays. But …
To hate Mondays is outdated.
Today we have many more work opportunities than our parents did. We usually have a choice and don’t need to get stuck at a place that perhaps pays (good) money but is a source of frustration and/or stagnancy.
Thus, if you can afford it, leave your comfort zone and let hating Mondays be a thing of the past.
I didn’t know what my dream, or preferred, job was for a long time
And at that time my life was all about waiting for the weekend.
Luckily, my job hopping in London helped me understand what I didn’t want to do all day long and all my life. I was already working towards loving my Mondays.
I didn’t want to sell unwanted stuff. I didn’t want to become a Copy & Paste Master. I didn’t want to be on the phone more than necessary. I didn’t want my job to be mostly about chasing people.
I didn’t want my job to be only about filling out spreadsheets, meeting deadlines and fixing mistakes made by others. I didn’t want my job to be about waiting for things to go wrong or difficult … otherwise there’s no challenge.
I had to learn most of these don’t want’s the hard way.
Eventually I discovered that I preferred generating ideas and creating content.
I preferred to focus on creation, creativity and things coming into being
When I realised that, I had a few month break from my career (before that I worked mostly in purchasing and projects). During that time I set up a community page and blog about London. Then I got down to writing my book “The power of displacement”.
Soon after I was offered three jobs and I was having a hard time deciding between Project Management and Marketing. I had always wanted to work in digital marketing, but I was experienced in co-ordinating projects.
‘OK’, I thought, ‘Marketing now or never’.
This has been the best professional decision I’ve ever made. I’ve always been into creative tasks and I’ve always wanted to make a living writing and taking pictures. As yet I’ve never missed projects or office administration.
Currently no two days are the same for me and I simply love working with words and publishing content. Even though I’m not self-employed, I feel lucky to be able to live off writing, creating content and generating ideas. I do some photography, too, but for that I’ve never been paid (yet).
Of course there are those who would never like to do what I’m doing, which is absolutely ok. There are different jobs and people with different personalities and preferences.
Originally, I was into everything: admin, marketing, teaching, translating, finance, HR or logistics. At that time a random (good) job would do.
Now I know that not everything is for me. Because now I know what works in my case. Finally, I have a job that I really like and I’m never bored doing it. I get busy, but I hardly ever feel tired.
And yes, the best part is: I like (most) Mondays as much as any other day of the week!
Ignorance and convenience can cost us bliss
I trust that changing jobs at the start of our careers can be a blessing in disguise. The upshot may be finding a job that we’re passionate about. So … to options and the freedom of choice!
A temporary life chaos and experimenting may be inconvenient at first, but ignorance and convenience can cost us bliss and … destroy our Mondays.
My experience abroad and job hopping in London has taught me a very important lesson: it’s ok to be a little unreasonable and fussy when moving along our professional paths.
Sometimes we may feel tempted to take that better-paid and prestigious job, to work for that well-known brand, to finish that medical school, even though we long for something completely different.
The cost that we can pay can be five business days of misery and/or boredom.
At the same time, cheesy as it may sound, the heart may whisper:
- Do that unpaid internship;
- Take a risk with setting up your company NOW;
- Go for a position at that startup: you will be a co-creator of its bright future.
- Quit!
Of course, we must be reasonable enough, for instance not to set up our company on the moon or go into terrible debt, being an unpaid intern for the next twenty years. You know your situation and your needs best :)
Still, what our heart is trying to tell us usually indicates what we’d be happy with if we were to look back on our lives in twenty years’ time. Being too reasonable and materialistic as well as acting against our gut feeling can lead to frustration, regrets and chronically bad weeks at work.
It can lead to hating our Mondays, i.e. the beginning of something wonderful: a new week full of possibilities.
So why not start working towards loving Mondays right NOW!
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