Hat Tip:  Lyss.

If there ever was a unifying question in today’s workforce, it is this one.  Here is my take on it.

First, everyone is different.  If you have six months’ of cash saved up, you have more options available to you than someone who is living paycheck to paycheck, with ramen being the sole nutrient for the day or two before payday.  I get that.

We all live nowadays in a time of instant gratification.  Some say the current crisis is caused by the housing problems, but we really all know that we each had a small part to play because we didn’t want to save up for the newest IPOD (now in teal!!!), so we will just charge it.  The art of delayed gratification is understood, but seldom practiced.

Same with our jobs.  We want instantly to be promoted and to be ‘fulfilled.’  We all want to be passionate about what we do.  We want meaning.  And we want it today.  Dad waited for his ‘fulfillment’ after all, and look what happened to HIM.

But.

Maybe your mom and dad didn’t tell you this because all of us moms and dads were too concerned with your own self worth development,  as in “your role is to clap-and-cheer, Jimmy, the most important part in the school play today.”  You are used to performing and excelling, even if you didn’t actually perform or excell.

Our bad.

So now here we are.  You are miserable at work, and you don’t want to “settle.”  What to do?  What to do?

I think you have to have a heart to heart talk with yourself, first.  Are you giving it a chance?  Have you worked hard enough at it?  Do others at your job seem ok with it?  Could it be YOU?

Most of the time, we can do better in our current jobs and try to jump before we are really finished learning as much as we can.  So unless you have another, obviously better job waiting for you, here is something to realize and work on.

Every job is BIGGER than the person holding it.  If you are creative, smart and realistic enough every job can be made BY YOU to be that non-misery creating job you so want.  You have heard stories about even the lowest office assistant creating a new role for herself by doing extra things with an incredible positive attitude to the point where she becomes one of the most crucial members of the team….and she started in a  near demeaning role.

You be in charge.