Everyone says to find a job you love doing. That you are passionate about.

I agree that the best jobs are the ones that align with your values and passions.

But you should never leave a job just because you are not happy with it.

Sound contradictory?

A Job is a Job

A job is simply a set of physical or mental tasks that are undertaken in order to receive remuneration.

In other words, a job is what you do to get money or some other emotional benefit.

A job is neither good or bad, it is the same as walking down the street.

You choose if you are happy at your job or not.

Read that sentence again.

Understand that you Choose to Hate your Job

If you hate your current job then ask yourself the following questions:

• How would you describe the negative emotions/thoughts you have towards your job?
• What are the activities that bring up these negative emotions?
• Who makes me feel bad about working and what is it that they do or say that makes me feel this way?

When thinking about it you discover that what you truly hate is the emotions that you experience while you are at work.

So the solution to deal with a job you hate is to first understand why this job raises the emotions that it does.

A while back I wrote on How to Not Hate your Job in which I talked about how I went from being totally stressed out at work to actually having fun while doing the same job.

I hated my job because I couldn’t deal with the stress of highly strung bosses and upset customers. Once I realised that the stress was what I hated about my job I took steps to learn how to deal with it and consequently the same situations no longer hurt me.

I no longer hated my job, rather I used it as a tool to learn about myself and to create a better life.

This is why you must understand why you ‘hate your job’ before you try to change it.

Make Change Based on Understanding Yourself

No job will bring you never ending happiness.

Happiness comes from inside yourself, a job is just where you get to express it.

Once you have gotten through and released your hate towards a job you can start working on discovering more enjoyment in your work.

Look at the things that are most enjoyable both in your life and in your workplace. Try to spend more time doing those at your job.

If you find that you cannot bring those aspects you enjoy into your job then now is the time when you can start looking for a job that aligns more with your passions.

Now you choose a new job based on what you want, not on running away from what you think you hate.

We make better choices when we understand ourselves.