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My friend works at least ten hours a day, EVERY DAY, even during weekends. She’s been at her job for several months now and she’s perfectly fine with that schedule. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t fine with ours. No matter how much we want to avoid stress at work, it’s almost always there to sap our energy. Do you tend to hate Mondays too? Do you dislike your job? Do you come home stressed and tired every day because of work? Do you stay at your current job just because you need the money?
There’s one great way to minimize or avoid stress at work though. It’s not an easy solution, but it’ll certainly be worth it.
The Single Biggest Way to Avoid Stress at Work
There was one lesson in Thomas J. Stanley’s book, The Millionaire Mind, which stuck with me. Most millionaires work hard, you can count on that, but they’re not usually stressed about it. Why? They know the biggest cause of stress and they’ve learned to manage their lives out of it.
“As most millionaires report, stress is a direct result of devoting a lot of effort to a task that’s not in line with one’s abilities. It’s more difficult, more demanding mentally and physically, to work in a vocation that’s unsuitable to your aptitude. It’s even worse if you know that you are a round peg assigned to a square hole. Add the realization that your vocation has little or no probability of making you wealthy, and you are stressed out big-time.” — Thomas J. Stanley, The Millionaire Mind
In short, working at a job or business that’s not right for you (and won’t make you wealthy) is terrible for your well being.
This ties in with what Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman explained in the management classic, First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently. People are best placed in jobs that use their talents. For example, if you force a guitarist to play the drums and vice versa, you’re going to have a difficult time and terrible results. Most of us are like those musicians forcibly playing instruments we don’t like using just because we need to pay the bills.
Remember my friend who works over 10 hours a day every day? She really enjoys drawing and creating digital art, so she opened commissions and she started streaming on twitch.tv (watch her here). Since she enjoys her work, she’s able to do it several hours a day even on weekends. If she can do it, why can’t we try it too?
Find a career or business that you love doing. Sure, you might have a prestigious title or career that you can brag to your friends, but is it worth it if you’re not happy with your life due to the stress you get at work?
Think about it.
Start thinking about your dream career or vocation. It should be something you would do even if you aren’t paid for it, and THEN find a way to make money out of it. If you want to avoid stress at work, you have to find work that’s fun for you. Start planning for it: prepare your finances, learn what you need to learn (e.g. business, marketing, management, specialized skills, etc.), and find a way to transition into it in a few years (I’ve done it myself—click this link to read more).
It won’t always be easy, but it’ll be worth it. Don’t forget that the average human lifespan is around 70 years. Stop trying to put off until later as we’ll all run out of time soon enough.
You only have one chance to live life. Isn’t it time you start living your dreams?
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