JOB SPECIAL..... Worked up 

Worked up





Tired with your job? These tips may help you to reboot your focus

The longer you feel like you're stuck in a career rut, the harder it can be to escape. Here are a few methods to bring focus, excitement and pur pose back to your work-life.

As an employee, if you feel like you're stuck in a rut, and unsuccessfully scrambling to get out, there are still plenty of routes you can go down to replenish your dwindling supplies of hope, focus and excitement at work. Simply put, you can't wait for a solution to come from somewhere further up the hierarchy, but you can set things in motion and take responsibility to heave yourself out of difficult situations.

TAKE TIME FOR YOURSELF

Often when work time subtly starts to creep into `me time', months can go by without us realising we've been entirely absorbed by work, leaving no time for family, friends and the pursuit of our own projects. We can't shut our minds off when we lay our heads on the pillow at night. We check our emails as we're rushing our breakfast. We go on the hunt for Wi-Fi when we should be spending time with our kids. Yet when we're completely honest with ourselves, it's clear that the problem more likely lies with our complete lack of time-management skills, prioritization, and self-discipline.Force yourself to take a holiday for a week or two. Arrange to meet friends for a couple of nights per week.

TAKE A LEAP INTO THE UNKNOWN

If you feel like you've been treading water for way too long, maybe it's time to shake things up, take a risk and throw yourself into some new, deeper waters to get the adrenalin pumping again. To do this, you don't necessarily need to quit your job. In your down time, turn off the TV and start working on a project that excites you. Take the initiative to improve something at work that'll make your time there more fulfilling. After all, if you're not willing to initiate change, don't be surprised when things stay the same. Take a leap and see what happens.

SHARE YOUR AMBITIONS

When you look around the office, every person you glance at has their own, unique ambitions and dreams, yet very few people actually talk about them. By opening up to your colleagues (or better still, your manager) about your own career ambitions, you'll put in place some public accountability to push you and motivate you towards these goals. Not only this, but when people know what you're working toward, they'll be far more likely to help you out.

DEVELOP STRONGER RELATIONSHIPS WITH COLLEAGUES

By making your on-the-job time more sociable, and thus more fun, you're less likely to feel so depressed at the simple thought of heading into work each day, and you'll hopefully be given a fresh bout of energy to help you further your career.

TAKE A BIRDSEYE VIEW

Your job is not your career. A career is a much larger, long-term vision which you need to keep a close eye on to ensure you're on the right path. It's all too easy to stay in a position simply because it's convenient, pays well, or is considered by others as a `good job', but if it's not helping to get you where you want to go, is there really much point? Is spending five years in this well paying, dull, lifeless job a better decision than spending those five years working toward your larger goals and ambitions?
Only you can make that decision.

GET NETWORKING

You don't always need to change jobs right away if your current position isn't taking you down the right path. Instead, you should put some time and effort into building your network during the evenings and weekends. Attend meet ups, talks, events, networking events. Be strategic with your networking. Keep in mind where you want to go and what you want to achieve. Connect with people who'll excite and motivate you, help you, or who could put you in contact with people who could help. Knowing you have this strong network of influential and motivating people behind you removes that feeling you may have that if you lose your job, you may just lose everything. For many with a large, close network, losing or leaving a job can be the best thing that happens to them, as their network pulls together to set them up with something even better.

Rob Nightingale

 (This article was first published in http:www.makeuseof.com)

MM5DE16