Antoinette Hancel on how to turn a job you hate into a springboard to discovering your divine destiny

Have you ever experienced an awful feeling descending upon you as Sunday evening is approaching, robbing you of the few remaining hours of free time you should be enjoying with your family, literally dreading the thought of going to bed because you don’t want Monday morning to arrive? Do these words sound familiar “I hate my job, but I can’t leave”?

This was my experience at one point in my career. I recall my body going into actual convulsions on approaching my office complex. The obvious solution was to leave but I had grown accustomed to certain benefits, coupled with the usual financial and personal commitments common to most working people, and felt it was not the right time to quit.

The way I coped was to get to work as early as I could, do a reasonable day’s work and dash out the door when my hours were completed.

However, I have always had a deep desire to help others succeed and for each of us there is a desire lurking deep within us, even if it is yet to be identified, that acts as a motivator in our decisions and pushes us closer towards our purpose. When a senior management role became available in the division where I worked and there were no suitable applicants from the first round of advertising, a question popped into my head after I saw it advertised for the second time. That question shifted my focus from everything being about me to being about what I could do for the organisation. The question was “What if by taking up this post, I could make a difference to the working environment that would improve things for my colleagues and for our clients?

That question compelled me to apply because I felt, in that moment, that if there was even a remote chance I could make a difference, I would be willing to take the risk that this promotion could result in me becoming even unhappier at work.

Taking Control

So how do you turn things around in a job you hate, or kick-start your motivation when leaving is not an immediate option?

Do these words sound familiar “I hate my job, but I can’t leave”?

The following steps have proven to create a shift for almost anyone that implements them.

Move towards the thing you are resisting

When we are unhappy at work, we have a tendency to stick rigidly to our role or our job description. We are likely to do less and not go the extra mile, which leaves us feeling even more deflated and de-energised because we are naturally creative beings.

By virtue of being who you are, adding your style and excellence to a task, you enhance your own well-being by expressing and releasing your creativity.

Be fully present

When we show up fully in our working environment, a quantum shift takes place in our emotional energy patterns. Contributing, collaborating, participating and getting engaged at work alter the field of energy around us and in turn act as a catalyst in shifting the energy levels of the other people in our working environment.

Maintaining the right emotional energy patterns increases our vibrational frequency; it lifts our mood and the mood of everyone around us. We have all experienced the impact of being in the presence of someone whose aura flows from positive energy patterns. They are, as the saying goes, “like a breath of fresh air!” The shift in our energy patterns also puts us in a more resourceful state that helps us navigate our way more skillfully in the workplace and gets us the outcomes we really desire.

Ask yourself an empowering question

When we are unhappy at work, we tend to ask ourselves very disempowering questions that serve to reinforce our low motivation or our dissatisfaction at work. We often ask questions like “How am I going to get through the day?”, “How am I going to finish the report when I can’t concentrate?” and after rehearsing a few of these types of questions, we are already in a state of defeat before the day has begun.

If we start changing the questions we ask ourselves at the beginning of the working day to those that put us in charge of the outcome, we stimulate our own inner confidence because we are more likely to achieve them. Every achievement reinforces our self-confidence and the more confident we feel, the greater our motivation.

My application was successful and by asking myself a powerful question, I took control of my destiny. Leading others tested every fibre of my character and yet propelled me on a journey of self-development that has continued to this day. I was forced to shift my mindset in ways I never dreamed possible. I realised that to create change, people have to trust you; and for people to trust you, you cannot “DO”, you must “BE”. In order to “BE”, you must undergo a character transformation.

By sheer accident I stumbled onto a path that showed me how to reclaim my personal power and to use what I had within my own control to raise my motivation to a level I could never have anticipated, and to the extent that the job I once hated became a vehicle for developing and stretching my personal gifts and talents.

So please ask yourself this question:

“What am I not doing that, were I to do this at work today, would make the difference to my colleagues, my customers and myself?