Is Your Current Job Worth 97,000 Hours Of Your Life?
Posted on May 09, 2013 by Cynthia Belmer, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
How to evaluate if your current job is aligned with your inner voice.
Have you ever wondered about the amount of time you spend at work in your life? Have you ever considered evaluating your work environment based on your personal values and needs?
Most of us disregard these two important factors even though we spend most of our life at a workplace that we may not be fond of. Based on the latest Gallup survey, 70% of employees hate their job and the number of people that are voluntarily leaving the workforce is higher than ever.
Yet most people stick around their job even if they’re not inspired, encouraged and if it’s not aligned with their core values and mission in life.
I totally understand that life demands and responsibilities are a big toll on a lot of families, but is being in a toxic work environment the only solution to feed the souls?
In fact, I’ve calculated the average number of hours we spend at work from the age of 18 to 65 and the number exceeds 97,000 hours if we were to work only 8 hours a day.
Can you imagine yourself being in a job that drains you for more than 97,000 hours in your life?
Our jobs are one way to express our deepest voice within us. If you’re allowing your voice to be squished on regular basis, then you’re allowing it to die. Most people look so stressed and unhappy in their jobs because they’re not expressing this unique voice.
If you spend 8 hours at work every day, that’s more than you spend in your own home (excluding when you sleep) which makes your workplace your secondary shelter.
Now, imagine you’re living in a house that has not been cleaned for 30 years. You see piles of trash everywhere, dust, dirt and so on. The toxicity of this house is going to get to your health eventually and it may actually kill you.
The same is applied for the workplace except that you can replace the trash with bully bosses, some co-workers that are ready to eat you alive to get a promotion in addition to the fact that you’re there to follow instructions ( even if you’re a leader, you still have to follow your boss’s instructions).
I am not saying that this illustrates every single workplace in the corporate world. But if you’re spending more than 97,000 hours in your life in a negative place, then it’s time for you to become aware of the physical, emotional and spiritual risks of your own being.
Many think that there’s something wrong with them if they hate the job they have because many would die to have such X dream job.
However, you’re constantly changing and evolving. Your current dream may be very different from the one you had in the past because someone told you, that’s the way to do things.
Quit living someone else’s dream and start living yours. Start taking care of your soul and express your own voice through every single action you take in your life.
If you’re unhappy, do something about it instead of watching yourself drain. Any solution is better than wasting 97,000 hours on something that you hate and that is killing you slowly from the inside.
Take immediate action and use the questions below to evaluate if you are in a work environment that feeds positivity to every part of your being.
1- What are the core values that are embedded in your being? Why do you do what you do?
2- What are your company’s values? If you don’t know it – contact your HR and get the company’s handbook. All this information should be there.
3- Compare your own values with your company’s and see what they have in common.
4- Write down what is your ideal work environment
5- How is your company’s environment aligned with your ideal one?
