I Hate My Job: Do What You Love Or Love What You Do?

Just by observation and the feedback I get, I must say there are more people out there who say "I hate my job" more than “I love my job”. Perhaps what is more frustrating is that most of these people do not really know what they want, spend too much time talking and complaining rather than acting upon their dreams or aren’t even ready for the changes that will take place when they change jobs. Or think about changing jobs.

Passion: Follow Your Passion
Sure, the first thing conventional wisdom or common sense career advice will tell you is to follow your passion. Especially when you are one of those who complains about “I hate my job” constantly. The cliché advice is that when you do what you love you need not work another day of your life. That is true. But it is also true that many people put here aren’t exactly working out their passion but is enjoying every minute of it.

Let’s face it, the only reason why we read about people living out their passion as what we know as "work" is because it is an interesting story to tell. Everybody loves motivating stories like that so the media features them - the investment banker who became a scuba dive instructor full time, living in a chalet facing the beach and drinks juices with little umbrellas in them! More romantic so to speak.

The problem is that when you complain about “I hate my job”, and when you read stories like that you fail to see what is the process that person living his passion went thorough in order to get there. It could take years and years of hard work, href="http://www.career-success-for-newbies.com/seven-habits-highly-successful-people.html">conviction and patience. Not including lots of disruption in life that a 800 word magazine article does not cover.

So, before you say “I hate my job and I want to live my passion” again, let’s stop and think what you are ready for. Now, I am not saying that you cannot, should not and will not live your dreams. In fact, I encourage you to. I am merely saying, please be ready for a lot of uncertainties that will come along with discovering yourself and what you love doing.

Passion and Vocation
There is nothing wrong with pursuing your passion and making that passion your work. One thing you need to think clearly about is the fact that, just as there are many facets to your live – you may have many passions too. So, which one are you going to pursue and which will give you the kind of monetary returns you are willing to sacrifice for? Passion and vocation are very different things. One is perhaps, for the ease of discussion a hobby - the other is work. Let’s be clear about it each time you say, “I hate my job”.

If you want to pursue your passion as work - what have you done about it? Let’s make sure your dreams meets with action. That’s what is real. If you want to own an online store to sell cell phone accessories, what have you done about it? Have you researched enough? Have you tried getting a part time job in a store to get some experience? Spend some time doing some experiments and test to see if you like it. Test to see if your commitment matches your conviction before you say, “I hate my job.”

Sometimes you maybe good at something but you do not have passion for it. But one can find new passions. Have you tried loving what you do? Millions of unsung heroes who do not get featured in magazines and books out there love what they do. What they do may not be what they have a passion for, but they gradually learned to love it and love the role of that work in their lives. And one may add, their role of at work and the role of that work to the community that they serve.

Pursuing your passion as work takes sacrifice. Sure, it is cool to say you are pursuing what you love. But remember that the price of being cool is a lot of sacrifice that you may not even see now. What is the price you are willing to pay to see your dreams or passion to fruition? Those are some of the things they do not write into those cool career-changing articles that you read. Are you read for those sacrifices?

Career success can mean many things to many people. What does it mean to you? You need to find that meaning before you say, “I hate my job.” Perhaps you never did learn to love your job in the first place. Or perhaps, you have been too myopic on your view of what work should be and is to you. Try a different route and see if it works. Do not just sit and complain. Do something about it and remember that change takes conviction, time, patience and hard work.

You can be the person that gets featured in career success articles but remember it takes a lot more that just saying “I hate my job.” It takes action to meet with dreams; conviction to meet commitment, time, patience and working hard to make sure hard work pays off.