The last job I had in the "9 to 5" world was one gigantic ball of misery.
I was completely unhappy, I felt my talents were being underused, my manager was nothing short of incompetent with no clue how to manage a team of individuals, and I felt as if I was promoting an inferior product/service that would provide no benefit to the consumer...
who, I might add, was reached in complete cold-call fashion and, 75% of the time, never requested information in the first place.
When it finally came time for my professional relationship to end with this company, the range of emotions running through my head were mind-blowing.
Have you ever been part of a relationship that you wanted to end so badly, you could taste it...
but feared the reaction of the other person? But then, out of the blue one day, they decide to tell you they want to end it? This is exactly what happened.
When they made the final decision to downsize my position, millions of thoughts ran through my head.
The one thing I remember most clearly was looking out the window and seeing that it was raining.
I literally envisioned myself walking out the front door and raising my arms to the sky and laughing with joy ala Andy Dufresne in "The Shawshank Redemption" when he escaped from jail after being wrongfully imprisoned for 19 years.
As a professional, I chuckled to myself as I walked out of the building for the last time.
I never did re-enact the scene from my favorite movie that played through my head.
Instead, I quietly closed that chapter of my life and immediately began writing a new one.
The point is, while I worked at that place, I never once let that "job" define who I was.
So often, we get caught up in our careers that we forget about the other ingredients that make up our lives.
This is in large part due to the fact that the average person spends more time at their job than they do with their family or doing the things they enjoy most.
When you meet someone new, the normal icebreaker is, "So, what do you do?" When I truthfully shared where I worked when posed with this question, just about everyone had never heard of it.
Embarrassed, I started to make things up that related to what I did, but weren't actually my position.
Over time, I found myself dancing around the question completely and quickly changing the subject.
Then I realized I didn't have to talk about the job I hated to explain who I am and what I do.
I simply shifted the attention to the positive things in my life.
That's what defines who I am.
In order to speak proudly about what you do, you have to be passionate about it.
But I've talked to so many people who've completely bought-in to the traditional style of life by working a job they hate because A) that's how they've been programmed their entire life, B) they don't know any other way, and C) they're too accustomed to their comfort zones to make any sort of change.
They don't speak proudly about it.
They simply complain about it and wish things would change effortlessly.
There are alternatives out there for those who seek it, but in order to see them clearly, you have to break free from your comfort zone and stop letting the things you hate the most define who you are.
Your job doesn't define you.
YOU define you.
You are fortunate enough to live in a world that allows you to make changes if you're not comfortable with what you already have.
But a change in consequence requires a change in mentality.
Are you sick of your job? The answer may be yes, the answer may be no.
But whatever your answer is, always remember the true definition of who you are is not limited to what you do for 40, 50, or 60 hours a week.
The actions you take that add value to your life, your family's life, and everyone you come in contact with not only define you as a person...
They define you as a leader.
I was completely unhappy, I felt my talents were being underused, my manager was nothing short of incompetent with no clue how to manage a team of individuals, and I felt as if I was promoting an inferior product/service that would provide no benefit to the consumer...
who, I might add, was reached in complete cold-call fashion and, 75% of the time, never requested information in the first place.
When it finally came time for my professional relationship to end with this company, the range of emotions running through my head were mind-blowing.
Have you ever been part of a relationship that you wanted to end so badly, you could taste it...
but feared the reaction of the other person? But then, out of the blue one day, they decide to tell you they want to end it? This is exactly what happened.
When they made the final decision to downsize my position, millions of thoughts ran through my head.
The one thing I remember most clearly was looking out the window and seeing that it was raining.
I literally envisioned myself walking out the front door and raising my arms to the sky and laughing with joy ala Andy Dufresne in "The Shawshank Redemption" when he escaped from jail after being wrongfully imprisoned for 19 years.
As a professional, I chuckled to myself as I walked out of the building for the last time.
I never did re-enact the scene from my favorite movie that played through my head.
Instead, I quietly closed that chapter of my life and immediately began writing a new one.
The point is, while I worked at that place, I never once let that "job" define who I was.
So often, we get caught up in our careers that we forget about the other ingredients that make up our lives.
This is in large part due to the fact that the average person spends more time at their job than they do with their family or doing the things they enjoy most.
When you meet someone new, the normal icebreaker is, "So, what do you do?" When I truthfully shared where I worked when posed with this question, just about everyone had never heard of it.
Embarrassed, I started to make things up that related to what I did, but weren't actually my position.
Over time, I found myself dancing around the question completely and quickly changing the subject.
Then I realized I didn't have to talk about the job I hated to explain who I am and what I do.
I simply shifted the attention to the positive things in my life.
That's what defines who I am.
In order to speak proudly about what you do, you have to be passionate about it.
But I've talked to so many people who've completely bought-in to the traditional style of life by working a job they hate because A) that's how they've been programmed their entire life, B) they don't know any other way, and C) they're too accustomed to their comfort zones to make any sort of change.
They don't speak proudly about it.
They simply complain about it and wish things would change effortlessly.
There are alternatives out there for those who seek it, but in order to see them clearly, you have to break free from your comfort zone and stop letting the things you hate the most define who you are.
Your job doesn't define you.
YOU define you.
You are fortunate enough to live in a world that allows you to make changes if you're not comfortable with what you already have.
But a change in consequence requires a change in mentality.
Are you sick of your job? The answer may be yes, the answer may be no.
But whatever your answer is, always remember the true definition of who you are is not limited to what you do for 40, 50, or 60 hours a week.
The actions you take that add value to your life, your family's life, and everyone you come in contact with not only define you as a person...
They define you as a leader.