Here’s an equation that with reflection and action helped me immensely.
Habits = behavioral patterns = your repetitive way of acting (towards someone, something, or a given situation)
It came as a surprise to me that you run these patterns in everything you do.
These patterns include the mindset you hold, your thoughts, your speech, and how you feel about things. Patterns are about HOW you do things and WHAT you do. Simply, understanding your patterns at your current job gives you clarity into what supports you, what doesn’t, and meaningful changes you can make.
So, you’ve got a myriad of mind, speech, and doing habits.
Say you’re feeling dissatisfied with how your work experience is going. You think if you changed your job or even just took a break everything will be better. No more long hours, less stress about projects, more happiness. That may be partly true.
Because your job patterns repeat, remember you’ll carry forward all of these into a new job experience.
Perhaps some will be less active because you don’t have that negative person around triggering your bad feelings. And, maybe some will be more active because now you’ve got that inspiring boss that makes you feel great about your work. Without clarity on what’s running, you lose control over how you feel on a day-to-day basis at work.
It’s like being whipped around in the wind like a balloon (as a wise person told me).
I’ll tell you a little secret. For over a year before I resigned from my managing director role at PwC, I spent a lot of time observing myself. Gained that clarity. And, I started new patterns that allowed me to transform not great conditions into meaningful experiences.
Now, I see my clients doing the same (maybe even quicker than I did). I’d love for you to start having the same experience. Read on to learn how.
3 Reasons Staying in Your Job Gives Clarity
Rather than breeze through this list, I challenge you do do something different. Listen from your heart not your head and deeply contemplate each of these 3 reasons staying in your job can give you the clarity you seek.
1. You’ve got a great opportunity to identify your job patterns.
You’re in a real situation experiencing real ups and downs. It’s not a theoretical what if about how it’ll be in a new job or if you take a break. I bet within minutes you could write down a meaningful list of experiences you’re having that could be possibilities for pattern transformation.
The list could include things like waking up with work on your mind, obsessing over email during your commute, feeling bad about yourself because you messed something up, sensing tension with a work colleague, feeling satisfied only from positive feedback, thinking hard work pays off. This is fantastic because you can do something about these because you see them.
2. You can decide if want to reprogram yourself (i.e. re-engineer your patterns).
Once you’ve gotten clear on your job patterns, you’ve opened up a space to make choices. You can see what works, what doesn’t, and what may even be missing. Then, you can clearly decide where to focus your effort. And, many resources are out there to help with re-programming if that’s the route you choose including coaching.
By staying in your current job, you’ve got nothing to lose in making these decisions. And, you may find these decisions affect your decision to stay or go. Can you imagine going through this process within months of starting a new job?
3, You can practice new, beneficial patterns before making any big decisions.
No risk or effort is involved with practicing new patterns now as compared to leaping into a new job or making arrangements to take time off. Because you’re in the same environment, you’ve got a perfect test ground. It’s possible to see if you’re in control of your experience vs. the environment surrounding you.
Gaining clarity on that is priceless. Imagine moving forward knowing how to trigger things like confidence in yourself without the need for praise or doing a perfect job.
Parting Thoughts
Now is the time to start making your job patterns work for you. Enjoy the security of using your current job experience as your training ground. Allow yourself to turn old patterns upside down. Name them out loud. Then, decide on meaningful steps you can take forward.
Please share in the comments what is one speech habit you’d love to focus on. This can include anything from what you say to others or what you say to yourself. I know for myself my biggest struggle came from the habit I had for talking to (more like criticizing) myself.
If you know anyone that’s looking to enjoy their job experience more, feel free to pass this note along to them.
Peace.
Jennifer
