Stop Wasting Your Time! (Ep.2 Closed Captions)

How do you know you need a change?

• Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to find out if you are happy with where you are at in life. Do you feel like you have a purpose? Are you contributing to something you believe in or something that makes you happy? Do you feel valued by the people around you? Are you making a positive change in someone else’s life? Do you feel like you are participating in quiet quitting?

• My first job in high school was at a restaurant as a busboy. I was 14 years old, so there wasn't much for me to do but to clean tables and dry and put away dishes. I quickly learned that the restaurant industry wasn't for me. The first few weeks were exciting because it was my first job and I was learning a lot about everyone's role and meeting new people. I showed up early and ready to work every single day after school. Within 3 weeks a shift in me happened and I started to miss work without calling in, and when I would go in, my eyes were plastered to the clock counting down the seconds of when I could leave. I was so confused because this wasn't like me. I was never late for anything! I was one of those kids that was always on time, took AP classes, enjoyed homework, never liked to let people down, etc. I don't know why I couldn't get myself hyped up enough to get to work or be excited about my new job anymore. The management was awesome, I loved the manager, and my co-workers were great. So, what was it? I stayed for about a year and pushed myself to suck it up and be better but in the end, I quit because I thought it wasn't fair to the employer that I was basically doing the bare minimum. I chalked it up to maybe just not being ready for a job yet. 

• A year had passed since I quit that job, and I joined the national honors society at school. They were partnering with local businesses to let us be part of some work study/internship programs. I had family members who worked at one of the companies on the list and it just so happened that one of the family members had a manager that was looking to hire a student intern. Granted, I was hearing this information second hand; the initial offer was to my older brother. My brother didn't seem to be interested in the work, so I had to speak up and let them know that I am interested. My family member seemed a little disappointed that my brother didn't want the job, but still got me in touch with his managers admin. Within the next few months, the admin had e mailed me a link to the job posting, I sent in my resume and had an interview set up. I got a call 3 months later letting me know that I was chosen for the internship. I told myself at that moment that this was going to be different. I was going to do better than I did at my restaurant job. 

• Looking back on the restaurant job and this internship, I’ve come to the conclusion that it's not that I had a bad work ethic when I was 14, I quickly realized that what keeps me energized and wanting to work hard every day is being challenged. In my internship, I moved around the company almost every year, learning more about what the company does and following my interests. If anything within the company got too easy for me, I would need to move again because I would lose attentiveness and almost get the same feeling as I did at the restaurant where I started to slack and get bored. When I think about my job at the restaurant, I remember always asking if I could take peoples orders, or be the hostess for a while, or learn anything else to keep me from feeling like I’m just living the same day over and over, but since I was only 14, they wouldn't allow me to do much more than clean tables and dry dishes. And I get it, it's no fault of the restaurant or managers that I couldn't participate in some of these more interactive positions, but this realization helped me figure out what I wanted my future to look like. 

• So now I know for me to feel a sense of purpose, I need to be challenged. Most people don't like change, but I absolutely crave it. If I am not changing, I don't feel like I am growing, so I make sure that every year when I write out my goals, I always include goals that allow me to grow in a certain area of interest or learn something new. I also feel like if you feel you are just doing the bare minimum at your job and you are not happy or you think you need to be making more money, then you need to start looking for another job. Instead of quiet quitting where you passive aggressively punish the company and never feel the need to go above and beyond then you might be in the wrong position or the wrong company. Quiet quitting isn't healthy for you as an individual since there is so much resentment involved, so make that change! 

• How to make a change?

• Since I have never been scared or deterred by change, the thing that works best for me in terms of getting where I want to be is to jump right in. I don't necessarily care where I have to move, or how many jobs I have to apply for, when I want a change, I shoot for the stars and hope for the best. At some point, I stopped enjoying my job at the large company. When I realized I was no longer fulfilled in that job, I spent a day doing research on job roles I was interested in. I found a company that had a similar setup as my current job but was 2 hours away from where I was living. The next day I applied for as many jobs in the new company that I could possibly justify. From that venture, I got 3 interviews and 1 offer. I was always open with my current boss about my intentions and concerns, so when it came time to apply for new jobs and when I got an offer it was no surprise to him. In my experience, as long as you are clear with your goals to your manager, they actually want to help you succeed in your goals, even if it means leaving your current job (as long as you have a good manager). So, if you’re ready, write down your goals, discuss these goals with your manager, ask for guidance and stop feeling guilty about leaving! I know if you have a good manager, you are less likely to change jobs because you don't want to let them down, but if they are truly good managers, they want to see you grow! Leave behind yourself doubt and just go for it! 

• Steps to grow.

• On my website, I have a template for writing out your goals, it's easy to follow and you don't need an overwhelming amount of information to get started. So let's start with why you’re here, what's on your mind? Where do you want to be within the next year? Do you want a new job? Lose weight? Start homeschooling? Focusing on one goal at a time and creating baby steps might seem like it will take forever, but in reality, these small wins are going to build your confidence to get to the big wins! So here we go, get a piece of paper out and write down 1 to 3 goals that you have for this year. Now that you have your big goals, let's pick one and break it down. I will use my own experience as an example. My goal for the year is to homeschool my kids while working a full time job. So under this goal I will create steps, step one being something like “find a flexible curriculum,” and “figure out child care.” Step two would entail something about how my tasks of finding curriculum and finding child care will be implemented. Implementation tasks would be things that I can easily check off like, “do a google search on different curriculums” “have kids take learning style tests” “Watch youtube videos on christian curriculums” “Make list of materials I need for school year” “Interview an Au Pair” “Talk to parents about help taking kids to extracurriculars during the day”, etc. Within business, your initial goal could be something like “Get promoted to a senior position”. Step one will be to assess if you want a senior position in your current company or if you want a position elsewhere. If you want to stay with your current company, step two would be to address your goal with your manager and get his/her input on how to take that step. You will take whatever he or she says into consideration as you write your next steps. If you want a position with another company a good next step is to update your resume, the next step from that would be to apply for jobs, etc. 

• A step that never hurts in either situation is to start networking. Attend conferences, and meet with like minded people. Especially if you are new to the workforce and want to work with a specific company but it's hard to get in; find these companies at job fairs, offer to start as an intern, ask for a mentor, heck, even volunteer just to get some experience under your belt (something I suggest everyone do once they know what direction they want to go in.) 

• Now, if you’ve been thinking about this for a while, you might have a pretty hefty check list right now, take that list and decide what day and time works best for you to check in with yourself on how you are doing with this goal. I try to do at least one thing a day to take steps toward my goal, even if its as small as finding pinterest ideas for homeschooling I want to make sure my goal never gets put on the back burner. If you have the same goal as one of your friends or family members, have them do a check in with you once a week so you both keep each other accountable. Some days might be harder than others, but never stop trying to attain your goal! Once you stop trying, you let failure set in, when failure should not be an option. We get back up, we try something else if what we are doing isn't working. We might even change our goals along the way, as long as you know you are working towards something, then you are succeeding.