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In the movie "The Shawshank Redemption," the main character says that there is one choice to make in life: We can either get busy living or get busy dying. It makes you stop and think, doesn't it? If you aren't actively doing one then you are, by default, doing the other. I meet so many people who are passively dying. At work, they're in what I call the 'comfort zone.' So easy to get into, and so difficult to get out of.
Have you ever driven somewhere and not remembered how you got there? You put yourself on automatic pilot, turning off your brain for the mundane task of driving. Many people do that at work. They sit back and relax into the comfort zone, allowing their body to perform mundane tasks automatically, and giving their mind the day off. They ask nothing of their brain, and as a result it becomes more and more comfortable doing very little active thinking at all. Before they know it, these people start to die inside.
Are you allowing yourself to die at work? What can you do about it?
Getting your dream job
Imagine you just won $100,000. Enough money to allow you to quit your current job for awhile, but you'd eventually have to get another one. In other words, the perfect opportunity to get out of your comfort zone and make some changes. What would you do? What is your dream job? Does your current job offer any of those opportunities? If not, can you go looking for them? Most jobs offer many opportunities, although we tend to tell ourselves we don't have the time to take advantage of them. But if your will to live is strong enough, you will make the time.
Working is a fact of life for most people. So is, for instance, eating vegetables to stay healthy. I personally don't like to eat peas very often. It would make no sense for me to cook them every night would it? So, if I have to eat vegetables, I look around for a vegetable that I do like and I cook them. If I have to work, I should look around for parts of my job that I do like and focus on those instead of forcing myself through the actions just because I have to work.
How to get out of the comfort zone
List the 10 duties or activities of your job you like best (don't list: break, lunch, or time to go home). Find ways to do those activities more often - perhaps join a committee or team that will require those activities. It will be more work and effort than before, but living takes more effort. On the plus side, if you are living at work, the days will go by much faster than when you were slowing dying.
Focus on what you love about your job.
Don't dwell on what you don't like about your job.Trade some of your duties at work. If you don't like making client follow-up calls and your co-worker doesn't like attending meetings, see if it is realistic to trade. Draft your 'dream job.' What does it look like? Take one activity at a time and try to incorporate it into your job.
How I started living in my job
Here is an example of what I have done in the past: When I was younger, I always wanted to travel. I thought it sounded like a lot of fun and was something I'd always had on my to-do list. The job I was in at the time involved no travel at all. Another job in my company became available in a different department. Still no travel involved. However, there were people in that department who did travel. I made a lateral transfer to that department. I learned about the department, about the travel and about the other jobs in the department. The next time one of the positions that required travel was available, I applied for it and I got it.
I made a strategic decision to work towards something positive in my job. It took time and effort, but I stayed focused on what I wanted and I started living! My desire to be alive professionally was so strong that I made the time to ensure I got what I wanted. If I had never made those efforts and had continued to sit in my other job saying things like "I sure wish I had a job where I could travel," but had never done anything about it, I would have been dying inside.
Desire, plus the willingness to do something about it, equals living. No desire, or no desire to do anything about it, equals dying. Don't be one of the living dead.
Shake things up - and get living.
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