How to enjoy your job more (without having to quit, move country or other drastic changes!)

We’re heading into that time of January where the shiny new resolutions start to wear off and life can seem like a bit of a slog. In this article, I talk about small changes you can make to enjoy your job, and therefore working in January, a little bit more!

I love a motivational entrepreneurial story as much as the next person. But quite a lot of them are all about tearing up the book and creating a new life altogether and have some negative elements of?hustle culture in them.

And for most of us, it’s not that realistic, because you've got a whole life that needs to be taken into consideration, where you live, your caring responsibilities and numerous other factors.

Perhaps leaving your job is not what you really want. We can be generally happy with where we work, but know we could enjoy our job more.

It is often tempting to think the grass is greener, and other people are having much more enjoyable lives and jobs. But that's not universally true. Firstly, I think it's definitely about a perception or what you focus on. The grass is always greener where you water it. While you're thinking about other people’s successful careers, actually, you may be neglecting to water your own grass.

Social media shows you peoples career highlights and you're just seeing people's edited versions of what they're doing. They don't show you the really dull stuff such as the boring meetings or the long hours completing admin. Instead it's all the sexy, exciting stuff such as promotions and bonuses.

It can seem that everyone else is having these fabulous, fulfilling and challenging careers. But however, that may not be true. Don’t compare your reality to someone else's highlight reel. Take a perception check and see what is driving you to feel slightly unhappy. If it is those external factors, then consider who and why you follow people on social media and edit your feed.

The next thing to do is work out?what is irritating you or any friction factors with your current job. Think about what you want to do less off. Write down what the irritation factors and then see if there's anything you can do to kind of reduce the irritation.

Then, consider what you would like to do more of. Identify what bits of your job do you really enjoy doing.?What types of clients do you prefer? What types of projects do you enjoy working on??

By figuring out the work elements that you really enjoy, you can find opportunities to do more of those. Put your hand up volunteer for new projects that align with what makes you happy.

Now, of course, every job is going to have elements that you don't enjoy about it. I'm yet to find a job where I like everything about it. And there are still irritations. But the idea is that as you move through your career, and as you move through your role, that you can try and reduce the things you don't like. You can do that by delegating tasks or suggesting new ways of working and new ways of doing things.

Another practical step you can do to recognise satisfaction and enjoyment is to keep a gratitude list. Keeping a list of the things that you're grateful for or thankful for work allows you to see the positives and the things that you do enjoy, and allows you at the end of each day to reflect on a positive note.

Write three things every day that you're thankful or grateful for. It may be a meeting that you prepared effectively for or a report that landed well Or it may be the connections you made at work, where?someone who you met at work who found really interesting and wouldn't have done otherwise.

Often we focus on the things that didn't go right so I think it's a nice way to end the day just being thankful and grateful for the things that you have had, and the opportunities you have and the things that went well.

You can also consider the mindset you are bringing to work. It's similar to relationships in that respect. When you are first dating someone, it's all new and exciting and you make an effort you dress up, you go on dates and do all those things. Then as you move towards a long term relationship elements of that can fall away.

It can be the same with your job. When you first join a team, know, you make an effort to dress well, get there on time, prepare for meetings and are generally organised. Then as we relax into roles and time changes (especially in a work from home era), we can sometimes drop those good habits.

If you recognise that, then go back to dating the job and get excited about it. Think about things that coming up at work and what you could do to make the extra effort or to really impress. That's going to reinvigorate and also potentially lead to better opportunities.?

What tips have you got to enjoy your job more? What small changes have made a big difference for you?