HOW TO: Get rid of boredom in your job

I was in the wrong place... I had arrived in Grasse, France, just after 8am but my perfume creation workshop was not until 10am. I parked at the perfume factory, wandered to a nearby boulangerie (bakery) for breakfast and returned back to the factory just after 9am. It was lucky I went back early. Like I said, I was in the wrong place. Apparently the workshop was at this master perfume house's other site, a 5 min drive up the road past a green-themed McDonald's (perhaps yellow was deemed too garish for the French?) and a super-busy roundabout.

I found the actual workshop and walked into the air-conditioned gift shop, spying the complex set up in the back room. But I still had 30 min before it began. After signing in, the "Nose" (perfume maker) behind the counter told me "not to smell too much", so I wandered outside and sat in the morning sunshine.

Why, when I was on holidays in Europe, had I woken up at 6am, left my hotel in Biot at 7am, and arrived in Grasse at 8am to sit down to my very own "scent organ" of over 100 bottles of "notes", composing my own signature perfume? Why wasn't I still tucked up in bed, sleeping off too much red wine from the night before?

It's because I get bored... very easily. And learning is a fun and easy way for me to create variety in my life. But there's more to learning than that... much more.

The source of boredom is familiarity

Have you ever started to feel bored in your job? What was it that really drove the boredom? I bet, it was when you started to do the same thing day after day: the same tasks, at the same time, with the same people. Everything became familiar and easy. Challenges dwindled to mere repetitive inconvenience. And motivation for your role dwindled along with it.

When we start to feel bored, especially in our jobs, it's often because we're not growing. And you might have heard this saying: "If you're not growing, you're dying." As much as people say they hate change (which I hear a lot because I'm Change Manager!), unfortunately we humans are living creatures and we are constantly changing. The way we make change for the better, and keep variety in our lives and jobs, is by making sure the change we make or experience is growth.

"Education ends with school, but learning - that's life-long."

Learning is a pre-requisite of growth

Growth comes when you learn something new. And I'm not talking about only formal education - yes, doing another professional leadership course can be valuable. But I'm talking about any type of learning:

• Anytime you ask: "How does that work? How do I do it?"
• Anytime you build skills or knowledge
• Anytime you get new awareness or make new connections about information or the way things are
• Anytime you solve a problem

I am dubbing it: "evergreen learning". And it's not educational lessons stuffed down your throats by schools, but instead the lifelong choice you have as adults to curiously explore new information, skills, knowledge, and solutions as a pathway to never-ending growth.

How to grow... without changing jobs

Even though I'm a Career Coach, if you're bored in your job, you don't have to find a new job straight away. Start with something easier... and less risky. Find a way to kickstart learning, either in your job or out:

• take on a new work project
• learn a hobby or skill
• visit a museum
• listen to a few informational podcasts

Don't underestimate the power that comes from learning anything new. If it's something you do in the job, it'll enhance your performance. If it's something you do out of the workplace, with a bit of lateral thinking those skills can transfer back into your role. Plus you'll probably actually enjoy having a job that you're familiar with given you're growing so much outside work.

What learning am I doing?

I'm on holidays for 8 weeks and I'm doing bucketloads of "evergreen learning" in that time. Of course, there are days when I just chill and relax. But...

What I enjoy more is wandering around a fabric museum, touching the wool samples of everything from merino to camel to yak and finding out how fabric is created through the stages of shearing, spinning, weaving, dying, and fulling.

What I enjoy more is discovering that making a perfume is about using base notes, heart notes and peak notes for a scent that surprises with fresh sweetness on the first spritz, then mellows musky on the skin through the day.

What I enjoy more is the tour of the chocolate factory tomorrow, uncovering the creamy secrets of French chocolatiers (and perhaps some samples!).

What I enjoy more is the one-week Provencal cooking course I start soon to make market-to-table feasts.

And all these experiences wrapped up in audio lessons in a new language, learning the road rules and cultural customs, and solving the never-ending confusion of French petrol stations.

My signature scent, "L'Eau de Lata", will take 2 weeks to settle in its bottle. So for now at least, I'm in the right place.

Lata Hamilton is the Founder and Head Coach of Passion Pioneers. To get help finding your feet and finding your future, contact us via our website for your complimentary Career Clarity Coaching Session.

And if you're a recruiter, check out our special Talent Acquisition video for ideas to improve your candidates' experience.