Your dream job is going to be boring AF.
And I know that's not something that you were expecting me to say.
But it's really true. And let's talk about the reasons why today.
First, we need to talk about that whole social construct of
your career being the thing that fulfills you and gives you meaning in life,
our society, we seem to have accepted that your job should be fulfilling,
it should give you purpose in life.
I mean, there's more than 65,000 career fulfillment coaches
on LinkedIn for a reason.
But is your job the most important part of your life?
Ultimately, I guess I'm asking you:
Are you your job?
Is your life only going to be full if you have a specific job or
a specific job title, what happens if you lose your job,
or retire or take a career break?
When your identity is wrapped up in work,
you end up not knowing who you are, I think there's a few reasons
why this social construct exists and isn't really being questioned enough.
First, I think that when our identities are wrapped up with our jobs,
and especially when it's your primary source of feeling valued and
feeling important, and yes, feeling like you have a purpose,
you'll continue doing it even when you have to put up with low pay or poor treatment.
And when there's all sorts of chaos in the pursuit of your career fulfillment,
when your career is the thing that fulfills you,
you don't have a choice, because if you walk away from your career,
you have no purpose. But that feeling isn't true.
I think you're much more than your job.
Your job is what you do.
It's not who you are.
Your career is a part of your life, but it is not your life.
Which brings me to the second point, having a boring job lets you
have a really fabulous life when work is stressful when you're
dealing with difficult coworkers. And especially if you're in a toxic workplace,
it tends to consume your life. Because obviously,
you spend so many hours a day at work,
you probably spend more time with your coworkers than
your family or your friends. So when it's not going well,
it tends to consume your life.
It ends up being the conversations that you have with your partner,
or in some cases, rant sessions.
It ends up taking the time and the space that you have for
yourself and your hobbies and your personal relationships,
basically all of the energy that you have to do anything except for work.
But this makes a boring job very ideal.
In a boring job, you can still have professional growth and challenges,
you're still dealing with humans at work after all, but you're not being
overburdened, and you're definitely not being set up for failure,
a boring job might not be the fanciest job.
and expensive team retreats
and all the bells and whistles.
But it's not trying to keep you there all of the time.
It's the kind of job that you wake up in the morning,
you go to work without any feelings of dread or anxiety,
and you do your job. At the end of the day you leave.
And you go on about your life, which actually I need to come back to
something at this point, boring jobs are not toxic. And just to iterate here,
I'm not talking about a boring job as in a job that you have nothing to do
a job where you're under utilized can be a very toxic work experience,
I'm talking about a job that doesn't have drama,
or at least has very tiny amounts of drama,
a boring job is a job where you're treated well.
You're paid well, you don't work with anyone who is particularly offensive
is there office politics involved, of course,
that exists everywhere humans got a human, you know,
but on the whole, your coworkers are fine. Maybe not the kind of people
you're friends with outside of work. But we know coworkers don't need to
be your friends. And maybe you have an annoying coworker too.
But that's also normal in a boring job, you can do your work
without being obstructed, undermined or sabotaged.
And if you've recently been in a toxic job, this can feel extremely boring.
Remember, conflict triggers dopamine in your brain,
and it's gonna want its supply. Which brings me to the final point,
which is also something I touched on earlier.
But I really want to elaborate on the most important aspect of a toxic job
is that it doesn't consume your life,
when you clock out or shut down at the end of the day.
That's it - you're done.
So instead of feeling like you have to be friends with your coworkers,
because you never see anyone else, you're able to maintain your
personal relationships outside of the office, you're able to pursue
your hobbies and interests and exercise giving you those dopamine hits
that your brain might be looking for. And ultimately, a boring job is
going to allow you to construct the life that you want to outside of work.
And actually, before I close it out,
there's one more thing that I do want to add a boring job can have
career growth opportunities, but it can also just be a job that you do.
I know that my channel really talks a lot about career success and
getting promotions. And it's been a theme that I've really been
following in a lot of videos lately. But I want to be really clear:
career success does not always mean that you're on the path to
becoming the CEO. I know for a lot of people that would be their nightmare career,
not their dream job. And I know that there can also be a lot of pressure,
like you should want to climb the career ladder like you should want to
start a side hustle like how you should do all of these things.
And I think one thing I would love to talk to you guys more about
is that you can opt out of that. And if you're not actually sure what
you want from your career, I want you to go and watch this video so
we can get you clear on your career vision