Question: I feel stuck and bored in my career. What should I do?
Dear Bored At Work,
There are a few different things that could be happening here so we are going to address them both:
1. Knowing who you are and what you want
2. If it’s time for you to challenge yourself even further
Lets address both of these topics…
1. What Do You Want?
The first thing you need to do is figure how you got to your current situation so you do not repeat it. Most people get bored or stagnant with their career because they never took the time to figure out who they are or what they want from their life.
Chances are, you have been running your life on “autopilot” either:
A. Doing what you think others expect of you
or
B. Approaching your work just to make money
So my first question to you is this…
Do you know what you want and makes you happy in your career? Or have you been doing what you think is expected of you?
If you do not know what you want or what makes you happy in your career, then it’s time you have a sit-down with “your bigger self” and answer that question.
2. Challenge Creates Stimulation
Do you know how muscles grow?
By challenging them. Challenge creates stimulation.
“If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you” – Fred Devito.
Your mind is a muscle. It needs stimulation and challenge or it won’t grow.
So my question to you is this…
Do you enjoy your line of work but are no longer feeling challenged at your current job?
Your job must challenge you in a healthy way so that you feel stimulated. I am not talking about “stressing out” or “struggling”. I am talking about a healthy dose of challenge so that it drives you to become better at what you do.
All of us must feel that our career is progressing in some way. So do you still enjoy your line of work and are not being challenged where you are at?
If this is the case, that is a simple fix:
A. See if your current company is willing to give you the opportunity to be challenged.
Or,
B. Find another company that will provide that opportunity.
But here is the trick, YOU have to make it happen. Because most of us get comfortable with familiarity, we naturally don’t push ourselves. We are creatures of habit and don’t like change.
So it is up to you to kick yourself in the butt and not stagnate. Otherwise you might subconsciously sabotage yourself and set yourself up to be pushed out.
What do I mean?
A lot of people who become miserable with their current situation actually “set themselves up” via self-sabotage to get fired or create circumstances that pushes them in the direction they should be moving in.
But because they don’t have the courage to naturally do it, they subconsciously sabotage themselves so it leaves them no other choice but to move in a new direction that makes them feel fulfilled.
So don’t allow yourself to stagnate because that self-sabotage could look ugly.
To recap what we just covered:
1. Make sure you know what you really want from your career
2. Figure out if your current role is challenging you enough so that you feel stimulated
If you need help building a career you love so that you don’t wake up when you’re older feeling weighed down by misery and regret.