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You Understand Your Business But You Don't Like Doing It!

Debra Templar-Group - Friday, September 11, 2009
Does this sound like you?

You understand the business you are in but you just can't take it. 
bored manIt's no longer for you.  You're just going through the motions.  You open the store.  You tend the counter.  You take the money.  You pack up the goods.  You are courteous (except when you are pushed) but you just can't stand it anymore.

There's no real purpose to your work - even your life.

And the worst news is you are the
owner!

I know how that feels.  So do countless others across the Western retail world.  We expect to enjoy our work and decide whether it is meaningful enough for us before we'll agree to put our heart into it.  It seems as though we have an epidemic of 'the right to enjoy our work'.  Once upon a time people simply worked; down the mine, at the forge, at the mill, in the paddock and the helm.  They didn't think about anything but death separating them from their lot in life.

We're getting choosier

As you've noticed, all that's
changed.

Most of us are well enough educated and multi-skilled to pick and choose between many options in a lifetime. Whether that is right or wrong is not for me to judge.  It is, however, the reality of today's working environment.

So little wonder that you might be reading this and wondering whether you'll ever be able to develop a passion for what you do.

Take the test:
Here are a few simple questions to clear your head:

Are you really at your wit's end or do you just need a holiday?
If you just need a holiday, go take a holiday and come back a nicer person.  If your holidays aren't due, get longer sleep, exercise a bit more, eat less fate and sugar and don't rage so much on your days off.  You might be surprised at how much better your job looks after a week of early nights.  You'll certainly look better.

Is the job you are in the only one you can?
Either stay where you are and get to like it, or start a study course that will equip you with new skills for either a promotion or a new job, or compound your problems ten-fold by leaving and not having a job but please don't stay there wasting away.

Are your skills portable?
Give fair notice and go find somewhere else to work so you can catch on fire with a new purpose!

Do you think a change will do you good?
Remember that shifting a dead body to a new coffin won't bring it back to life.  You'll simply be taking your worms with you.  You need to sort out why you're on the planet first.

Do you understand that every job requires you to have a passion for it?
As I said earlier, give fair notice and go find somewhere else to work so you catch fire with a new purpose.

Can you see your job as a training experience for something better?
Settle in a learn as much as you can about the product, the business, management and customers.  A well worked job is like a well ploughed paddock, sown for a bountiful harvest.

Or, is it as if you are in gaol, at a dead end, cut off at the pass?
If you have another passion and it will do the world good to let if free then you had better made a fast track toward it and get on with it.  You only have one go at life and you're already wasted a great lump of it.  If you're the owner of the business go see the landlord and beg to be released.  The landlord would rather have a live business in your location than a dead one.

Do you know what you want to do?
Then go do it.  If it will pay you a cheque in the first week as big or bigger than the one you're getting now, then nothing should hold you back.  Do look before your leap though. Sometimes that greener grass is isn't so green...

Or, are you still working it out?
Write out an ideal picture of what you would rather do for people and determine if anyone will you for it.  If they will pay you the make haste.  Let not the world be without your contribution a moment longer.


Debra Templar

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   Over the past 20 something years I have gained many skills and worked with fabulous people! I am a retail enthusiast, keynote speaker, consultant and business coach, trainer, author and 'doer'.
Debra Templar: www.thetemplargroup.com.au   www.twitter.com/debratemplar   wwww.linkedin.com/DebraTemplar