Happy Monday.
Back to the grind after a long 4-day weekend.
Sigh. It was a nice restful weekend, wasn’t it?…But such a tease! (Not fully on vacation yet).
You may have found yourself dragging your feet to get back to routine today with a “case of the Mondays”.
Let’s have a heart-to-heart.
Are you happy?
Genuinely happy?
Moreover…what makes you happy?
Really, take a moment to reflect on your:
Health
Purpose
Hobbies and passions.
Relationships.
Spiritual life.
Financial life.
Your education or career.
Are you feeling happy with or satisfied in your job?
If not, you are not alone—among nearly half of all Americans (48.3%) who are unhappy at work, according to the most recent report by the Conference Board, a nonprofit research group specializing in business and public interest.
Every year since 1987, the Board has run a job satisfaction survey. Nearly three decades ago, 61.1% of workers said they liked their jobs. That number has slid over time, reaching an all-time low in 2010 following the Great Recession, when only 42.6% of workers said they were satisfied in their jobs.
Percentages aside, how often do you hear these words:
“Ugh, it’s Monday!”
Or, “Ugh, I have to go to work.”
Or, “I’m so ready for the weekend.”
In other words: I really don’t love my job.
Sure, you can “do your job” but work most definitely feels like work—no sugarcoating it.
SURE, everyone has ups and downs in their days, and work will, at times, always be “work”, BUT…on balance…WHAT IF you could actually love what you do?
What if, despite it being Monday, you could show up to the “office” (or your home office, or the coffee shop, or the gym, or the studio, etc.) and exclaim, “It’s Monday!!!!!!”
In other words: why are you doing something you don’t love?
While there are most definitely seasons of doing things as a “means to an end” (such as: working a job to pay the bills while you concurrently work towards building your dream career, writing your book, saving money for higher education, etc.), there IS also a liberating truth that, if you are NOT doing something you love…you DON’T have to stay stuck.
Take Kate Gailliett’s story.
Kate, 34, is the founder of her own business “Fit For Real Life”—a remote-coaching fitness business she started out of her own home in order to ultimately, “help people move better”.
Prior to launching her home-based business (currently in Utah), making her own schedule, creating and crafting her dream business and practice, she was a “regular” personal trainer—coaching clients in a gym and doing the “same ol’, same ol’” routine that trainers do.
However, in her heart, she knew she wanted to take her passions for training to a new level:
“I wanted to help people become fit for real life [not just in the gym]. To have a durable body and powerfully strong mind. To expand their idea of ‘fitness’ to include their personal development, or ‘higher consciousness fitness’ as I call it. I want humans to be fit for all manner of life experiences and moments and I use movement coaching to help them become just that!”
Thus, Fit for Real Life was born, and Kate went to work, developing an online platform, brand, blog, marketing plan and even step-by-step program called “The Unbreakable Body”.
Kate’s approach is 100% unique to the fitness industry in that she digs deeper than simply writing fitness plans or looking on the surface of your physical body to help you get fit. She looks at the BIG picture (your mentality as well), and offers innovative techniques and tips for individuals, such as:
“I can make your feet stop hurting, regain their arch if you’ve lost yours, and turn them into powerful little machines that handle big output and long days on your feet (can link to this article if you wish),” she said.
Today, Kate makes her OWN schedule, and fills her days with a variety of entrepreneurial tasks and 1:1 distance-coaching client interactions to fulfill her mission:
“My morning is filled with creation. Writing client programs. Writing new posts. Filming videos. Anything that moves the “make new things that help people” ball forward. Then I have a snack and go boulder for an hour, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends. The afternoon is filled with the part of work I don’t love as much – tasks like email, spreadsheets, fixing things that aren’t working. In the summer, I have a firm ‘no working late’ thing because Utah evenings outdoors can’t be beat. In the winter, I have no set rules and tend to expand my work day to include an evening session. It’s just me and my assistant and there is a lot to do! I don’t mind it,” she said.
WHAT IF you could…make your own hours? Wake up excited to go to work? Show up to wherever you are and be “all there”? Not need Facebook, Instagram or e-mail to help the day go by? Often look at the clock, like you were back in high-school, wishing for the school bell to ring? Not feel the weight of the world on your shoulders by the end of the day?
You can.
Kate is just ONE example of an individual who is pursuing her passion—doing something she loves—despite the “risk” she seemingly took when she first started.
There is some other statistic out there that goes: 90% of startup businesses FAIL.
How depressing right? That will make you want to leave your current job right (wrong)!
However, even if you don’t want to start your own business…you DON’T have to stay bound to your current 9 to 5 that you otherwise hate.
I, like Kate, had a vision and a passion for STARTING SOMETHING and doing something I loved post-graduation from grad school well over a year ago now.
After walking the ceremony aisle to receive my diploma, passing my boards, and beginning the daunting job-hunt process, I QUICKLY realized that what I truly wanted to do…didn’t exist.
While the word “holistic” is a highly touted word in the health and wellness sector…a combination practice that incorporates mental health, physical health, emotional and spiritual health simply did not exist…
NOR did a holistic approach to eating disorder recovery (at least here in my city).
So what’s a girl to do?
Start a movement!
She found her niche…I found mine.
And here’s HOW you can find yours too:
- Answer this: What is something you would do—regardless of the money? Rain, sleet, snow or shine…you’d be there. Despite being paid or not, it’s something you find yourself dreaming about, yearning to make more time to do, or getting ‘lost’ in time while doing it. Art, cooking, writing, helping people, styling closets, doing hair and makeup, working (and playing) with kids, etc. While you DON’T necessarily have to make a career out of your hobbies, your hobbies (and interests) can help point you into a direction, genre, or field where you feel connected and like you are living out your mission, your purpose.
- Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years? I often prompt “10 years”, but for getting your thumb on the here and now—and the direction you want to go—let’s start a little smaller. What do you want to be doing? Ideally—if money, or obligations, or logistics were not an option…DREAM BIG and write out a paragraph or two—an excerpt if you will—of your vision for what you WANT your life to look like (take the ‘realistic’ mindset of yours out of it—and write from that 5-year vision).
- Immerse yourself. Interested in a career path or endeavor—but unsure of what that change or new pursuit really looks like? Connect with someone doing what you maybe see yourself doing and ask to shadow them or if anything, pick their brain. Put on your little inner journalist cap and ask them everything (and more) about the job, what a day in their life looks like, how they got to where they are, etc.
- Don’t do your job hunting online. Online job searches are simply overwhelming and exhausting! And sites like Indeed and Monster seem to always post listings from the SAME ol’ SAME ol’ companies. Instead…do your own research and reach out to those places, companies and fields you are most interested in—even if they don’t have a job posting listed on their site. Heck, you don’t even have to mention you are looking for a job—but instead, look to point 3, and simply request a coffee talk or appointment to learn more about the company, the field, the jobs, etc. express your interests, but you don’t have to look like an over-eager job seeker either.
- Work your connections. Another statistic for you: According to a report from ABC News, 80% of today’s jobs are landed through networking. Use that LinkdIn, Facebook, e-mail and of course the network of connections you know (or who your friends know) to think outside the box here and see what could be out there. While it seems as though “smart jobseekers” attend networking events, apply to job after job, or constantly refine their cover letters and resumes… genius jobseekers utilize their network of former colleagues, friends, relatives, neighbors, acquaintances, and others; or start the building process (wherever you go)…and keep it going once they’ve landed a job.
- Talk to people. Piggybacking off of point 5…just talk to people! When you’re standing in the grocery store check out line…waiting on your car at the dealership for service…getting your hair cut…and talk to people in the interest of them! Ask them about them…find out how you can build others up…find out what makes them tick, what they do for work and play, how their day is going…and concurrently build your network of people who like you (and perhaps have a connection, or two, or an inside scoop you have yet to uncover along the way). In layman’s terms: Become a people person—and have fun with the process!
- Want to do your own thing? Or start something? No time like the present to begin strategizing! Whether that means
- Amazon it. Learning never stops and there is a WEALTH of information available both at your fingertips (internet) and Amazon (books!) on the cheap. If you have an entrepreneurial bent, here at some of the most influential books I’ve read to date for some inspiration:
- $100 Startup
- Millionaire Messenger
- The Art of the Start
- The Slight Edge
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
- Do It Marketing!
- Believe in yourself. If you don’t…no one else really is either. The beauty of doing something you love all starts with you. If you believe you will achieve it…you will. Think back to all those papers you procrastinated in highschool or college! And despite procrastinating them, you always knew that, no matter what, somehow, some way, it would get done. Just do it.
Kate’s words of wisdom on what she knows now…that she wishes she knew then when starting her dream gig?
“You will feel like you’ve almost lost control of this entire thing multiple times. Get used to it. Learn to dance with that uncomfortable-ness.”
Boom.