Staying the Course of Your Life’s Big Picture
5 tips for staying the course when your job gets boring
The Seen: The greener grass on the other side of the fence.
The Unseen: The relentless labour, sacrifice, and commitment of the gardener on the other side.
My recent experience vividly brought home the scenarios described above.
Background: I'm one of those non-glamorous guys who can use the same item of clothing for many seasons. I do this by purchasing three or more designs that are exactly alike or similar in appearance. Having got through that initial purchase, I’m good to go for the next several clothing seasons, completely oblivious to current trends.
With that mode of operation, I commissioned my neighbourhood tailor — whom we call them “fashion designers” here — to sew my dress.
On the expected delivery date, the guy was nowhere to be seen. After three extra weeks, he eventually showed up. Where has he been all these days? Unknown to me, he was out on a quest for greener-pastures — a salaried job.
Here, unemployment and underemployment infamously reigns supreme. Salary jobs are scarce. Moreover, for an artisan operating at my tailor’s current level, a salary job will only offer short-term benefits that come with ever stressful underpaying job conditions and future opportunity costs.
Having completed his apprenticeship, he was now self-employed. Even though his business offers better prospects for growth and financial success, the seeming greener pastures of salaried employment have already lured him away.
His is typical of many scenarios promising entrepreneurs and businesses find themselves. Why did this expert-to-be leave his highly demanded service to squirrel for another job?
The first challenge for aspiring entrepreneurs who take the apprenticeship path is to complete their training. According to FE Week in the United Kingdom, “the overall achievement rate for all apprenticeships increased slightly from 57.5 percent in 2019/20 to 57.7 percent in 2020/21.”
Completing the training is the first part of the hurdle. The next challenge is staying the course until the seeds of diligent training begin to bear fruits. It is at this point that many promising entrepreneurs give up. They give up due to their inability to sustain the drive until they begin to realize the fruits of their early sacrifices.
Why do young people leave more promising vocations for jobs with no future guarantees? If you are the ones caught in this act, how can you overcome the urge to job-hop in unhealthy, self limiting ways?
1. Look at the big picture — your future.
Bigger picture thinking means you reflect on how your present action and choices may likely affect your future chances of success.
What were you trying to achieve when you started?
Losing sight of the goal you had in mind is a common pitfall that many entrepreneurs fall into. If your aim is to achieve economic independence independent and to ultimately control your destiny, you must not loose your focus. Without focus it is easy to become discouraged and distracted,
2. Play for the long run. Enjoy the process.
The road to realizing any meaningful challenge is never straightforward. There will be many challenges and obstacles.
The pathway to any worthwhile life challenge is never without some hindrances and setbacks. Unfortunately, the social media daily inundates us with instant success. Even though we know that this is never the truth, many of us always swallow the bait.
Many prefer to not consider the pains behind the gains of successful people. You must purpose to stay the course despite the challenges.
The peak isn’t the point, climbing the mountain is. If you don’t like climbing mountains, I promise, the peak has nothing more to offer you.
~ @JTaylorForeman on Twitter
3. Reset and challenge yourself.
When the going gets tough, the urge to opt out on yourself gets very high. Do not quit on yourself. Reset yourself.
How do you reset yourself?
For a start, rediscover and clarify the reason for your why. As the saying goes, “Where there is a will, there will always be a way.” This still goes back to the aforementioned big goal — the drive and motivation behind what you are trying to achieve.
Resetting yourself also entails writing down and following through on both your long and short term goals.
A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true.
~ Greg Reid
The day to day tasks leading to your goal may be boring, mundane, or daunting. You must persevere and persist. Every little consistent step you take leads you ever close to your target.
If you do not start and persist now, in the next, one, two or five years from now, you will still be at the same place.
Will you rather make progress or make regrets?
4. Why go it alone? Team-up and arrive early.
The desire to be a celebrated trail blazing lone-ranger may be doing you more harm than good. There are times to go it alone. At some other times, route to you success may well be best assured if you enlist the help or company of other people.
Getting others involved in your quest for success may well be what you need to gain new insights and perspectives that eventually speed you on to your goal.
Others might have achieved what you are trying to do today. Why not learn and grow through their experiences instead of trying to reinvent the wheel?
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. — African Proverb
5. Beware of immediate gratification.
In Greek mythology, the sirens were creatures half bird and half human who lured sailors to destruction through their alluring sweet songs. While sailing near the shores where the sirens dwell, Odysseus saved his crew’s lives by blocking their ears from hearing their irresistibly tempting songs.
Like the sirens of the Odyssey, the internet and social media constantly ensnare us with the allure of instant gratifications.
Simply put, instant or immediate gratification is the tendency to forgo a future benefit in order to obtain a less rewarding but more immediate benefit.
You must discipline yourself and always resist the urge for instant gratification if you are to press on to your most beneficial goal.
If the grass on the other side of the fence appears greener than yours, it may well be that the gardener tends and waters his grass better than you do.
Takeaways
The temptation to drop out of your business or chosen career path is always present and ever appealing. These tips will keep you on course.
The big picture is “the future you”. Always keep that in view.
Play for the long run and enjoy the process while doing so.
Take time to reset and challenge yourself to go further.
Seek opportunities to team up with others who have done it before.
Resist and overcome the urge for immediate gratification.
Thank you for reading.