Reasons To Be Thankful For Your Job (Even When You Don’t Feel Thankful At All)
Whether you love your job or hate your job, you can definitely be thankful for it.
People always think they want to get onto the next great thing. “If I could just lose 20 lbs, I’d finally be happier”.
The truth is, the only thing we know and can cherish is what is happening to us right now. It’s shown over and over that whether something amazing happens to you or something horrible happens to you – all people tend to retreat to the same baseline level of happiness.
There are many ways to increase your baseline level of happiness. One important one is gratitude. The more thankful you are for anything that happens in your life, the more positive you feel in any situation given to you. The more positive you feel, the more positive things happen to you.
So in terms of your job, it’s so easy in your career to just think the next big thing will make you happy. “Oh if I just made $10,000 more I would be so happy”. Or “If I got that promotion then I would be happy.” We think our lives will be so much better in these future situations – but the truth is we are simply just subject to our baseline level of happiness.
And guess what – we spend about 100,000 of our adult life working – so we might as well make the most of it.
The best thing you can do for yourself is just to try to be grateful for the current position you’re in!
Whether you overall love or hate your job, all of us have bad days sometimes. When your boss is yelling at you, a coworker is taking credit for what you did, or your company loses a big sale – we all have times it’s easy to feel ungrateful and like everything is so unfair.
1. You have Job
You are EMPLOYED! Imagine if you didn’t have a job at all. How miserable would you be?? First of all, you would be broke AF. Not only can you not afford brunch and a gym membership, but you could get to the point where you can’t pay rent. You would be homeless.
Second of all, have pride in yourself! If you were unemployed, you may feel embarrassed, lowly and worthless. (Note: not that you actually would be any of these things!!! They are just common feelings that creep into our brains).
With a job, you now have goals, purpose, identity! You have a place to go and a thing to do everyday! Even if you don’t think you like it, your life has so much more meaning than it would if you never had anything to do.
Would you rather go to your job every day or fight in a war? Work or be imprisoned in solitary confinement? Get payment and benefits for what you do, or be enforced into slavery with beatings and rape? If you are employed at ANY job in America RIGHT NOW, you are SO LUCKY. Millions and millions of humans have had to survive much worse than you.
2. You probably have at least 1 Advantage that other people don’t have.
Do you get Summer Fridays where you get to leave work early? How about Work From Home Fridays, or Casual Fridays? Does your work provide free coffee or snacks?
Do you have lots of vacation days or random holidays off? Do you get paid for snow days? Does your boss let you leave early when it’s your turn to pick your child up from daycare?
Do you work at a restaurant and get free meals, or a retailer and get a discount in the store?
Does your company provide you a phone or turn the other way when you steal office supplies?
Do you have downtime to catch up on budgeting or Netflix or personal calls? Do you get paid overtime or large bonuses? Is there lots of room for growth and opportunity?
Do you get to travel? Do you have a 401k with a company match? Do you have health benefits? Do you have flexible hours? Do you have a long maternity or paternity leave?
Does your company ever provide free drinks or host events?
Even if your job sucks, I’m sure you can think of at least ONE perk that you get. Hey, even McDonald's employees get free food!
3. Contrast creates beauty.
Christmas wouldn’t be so special if every day were Christmas!
You can’t have flowers without rainy days. The sun is only appreciated in contrast to the dark nights. Summer feels good because we have a sucky winter. Traveling is exciting in contrast to your humble abode and routine life.
Guys, you need shitty days to make the good ones feel good. You wouldn’t know there are “good” days if every single day was good! Those would just be called “regular” days.
So if you don’t LOVE your job, it will only magnify the things you do love even more. Use the stuff you don’t like to appreciate the stuff you DO like.
Is there one guy in a different department whom you hate? Well, thank the lord every day he’s not YOUR boss!
Do you have to wake up at 5 am every day? Well, now 6:30 feels like a juicy indulgence on the weekends, while other people are complaining about it!!
I know there’s some stuff that really sucks, but it’s all about perception. Try to be thankful for everything in your life – everything happens for a reason.
4. Realize all that you do and be thankful for yourself.
Unfortunately, bosses don’t have the reputation of being really excellent appreciators of their employees. This is really stupid of them. The most important thing – more than bonuses or raises – to increase productivity and satisfaction at the office is giving employees proper recognition for their work.
But guess what – thank your freaking self for what you do! You don’t need your boss’s stamp of approval!
YOU helped a coworker out with a problem today. You trained someone and gave them the opportunity to succeed in their life. You took over someone’s shift so they could attend a wedding. You saved the company millions of dollars. You successfully completed laboratory experiments. YOU successfully cooked the best beef wellington your restaurant has ever seen. YOU rocked a presentation to the CEO. YOU wrote an entire draft of a book all by yourself.
Be thankful for all you were able to accomplish. Be thankful you have eyes or hands or a conscious mind that helped you complete the work.
Chances are, you’re probably selling yourself short. “Well, my book could have been longer.” Or “Well, it wasn’t really me that saved the company millions, it was my team too.” Too many times we don’t celebrate our accomplishments! Take a minute to BOAST YOURSELF because you ROCK.
I appreciate you and totally trust you are doing awesome work!
5. You are learning new skills every day and bettering yourself.
At your job, you are learning skills. You are learning hard skills – how to use specific software systems, or manage client accounts, or clean or cook or use tools.
You are also learning soft skills – how to negotiate, persuade, listen, act in meetings, send professional emails, logical thinking, resourcefulness, decision making, solving conflicts, motivation, confidence, patience and work-life balance, collaboration, networking, and staying on task.
So every time you feel stuck, try to remind yourself that you ARE growing every day.
If you apply for another job, you can always highlight these skills in your next interview!
You are increasing your value every single day.
Take a moment for gratitude.
Close your eyes. Think of three things that happened at work today that you can be thankful for.
And remember, just because you are trying hard to enjoy your situation right now, doesn’t mean you can’t still strive to get a promotion or different job. The purpose is not to be complacent or lose ambition, but to appreciate your position so much you attract positivity from every angle and soon get the job of your dreams!
You can thoroughly enjoy dinner, while still being excited about dessert! 🙂
But who knows – maybe you’ll get so good at this, that the job you have will become the job you love!
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