Question from Job Seeker: My question might come across as unusual, but I constantly feel pressured about how I should feel about my job. People tend to insinuate that finding a job I ‘love’ is my only way to eternal bliss; and I’m not saying I don’t like what I do, but I constantly go through ups and downs. This seemed to be normal to me before but hearing my surroundings comment on it makes it feel not so right after all. Is there such a thing as a job to ‘love’? If so, how do I know I have found it?

Answer from Bayt HR Guru: Seeking perfection and eternal bliss has got to be the perfect path to eternal misery. One of the very unfortunate things we put up with in our society is the thought of an ideal; we personally like to call it utopia. People often tend to mix between utopia and ambition. While ambition motivates you to always attain better and work harder to achieve a clearly defined present goal, perfection may make you always feel dissatisfied and unfulfilled with your current situation and pushes you to search for that something better without you quite knowing what it is.

Here’s our advice to you to help you better assess and accept your job:

You don’t have to love your job all of the time – simply liking it most of the time should be enough: Take a minute to think of all the things you love to do in life. You might love to dance, play tennis, watch TV, hike or paraglide but you wouldn’t even once think about turning any of that into your profession.  Why? Because a lot of things in life are better kept as hobbies, something you can turn to on your time off, when you want to escape your daily routine and especially after a hard day at work. Now imagine your hobby or what you really love to do was your actual job, with obligations, a fixed schedule and possibly a boss; how disappointing would that be?

Now to face the social pressure:

Be grateful: Learn to accept that we all have ups and downs at work. Some days are bright and sunny, some others are cloudy, and some rain buckets; but all of that is very normal. Look around you and see how many people are unemployed and struggling through their daily life to meet their obligations towards their families or their very own personal well-being.  Be grateful for your family, your good health, your understanding boss, your supportive colleagues, your opportunities to develop yourself and progress in life.

Think positive: Be positive and nothing can get to you. Instead of letting people bring you down when most vulnerable and after a long and hard day at work, inspire them by your positivity and send out all the good vibes. Smile and think that tomorrow will definitely be better than today. Every day is a new chance to start a new.

Be ambitious:   Aim high and let your ambition go wild. Be a visionary; imagine where you’d be in five or 10 years from now and work towards achieving that goal. Never wander or go astray, know what you want, be self-confident and work on getting there with hard work, perseverance and determination.

Good luck!