How is your work changing you?

You might NOT notice your career is unfulfilling at first, most people don’t.

?Your friends, family or colleagues might notice it before you, but even then, they probably won’t relate it to your career.

?They might just notice changes in your behaviour.

?They might notice that you’re feeling tired, withdrawn, frustrated or hard to be around.

?At first, they might even think that it’s their fault.

?You might have already gotten to the point where you’ve forgotten who you are.

?You might have let the imposter in (the one that’s telling you that you’re rubbish, that you don’t deserve a better role, that other people are better than you)

?You might be acting out of character.

?You might be feeling lost or stuck in your career.

?You might already recognise that you need to make a change, but even that is making you feel frustrated because it feels like too much work to make a move, you haven’t got an up-to-date CV, you’re not good at interviews, your confidence is low etc.

?The thing about continuing in a career that is misaligned or a job role that you’ve outgrown or come to hate is that it causes you to experience high levels of work stress, and this can creep into your out-of-work life too.

?Work stress becomes a thing when you’re doing work that isn’t aligned with your skills, capabilities, resources and values.

?Once you start experiencing the stress and discontent that comes with misaligned work for a period of time, your behaviour starts changing – FACT.

?Some specific changes you might notice include

1.??????Change in Appetite

Being in an unfulfilling career/job can lead to a shift in your appetite.

Regardless of the direction i.e., eating more or less; we tend to use food as a response to stress.

Either you eat more to comfort yourself or eat less because you forget to eat.

And ultimately you discover that you’re beginning to lose or gain weight because of your job.

2.??????Withdrawing from friends, family and work colleagues

There’s something about doing misaligned work that causes you to question yourself.

Causes you to doubt your skills, your abilities, and ultimately the value you have to add to the world. This is where your imposter creeps in (aka Imposter Syndrome)

And once that doubt sets in, you find that you want to isolate yourself from the world so that no one sees you the negative way you’re now seeing yourself.

?OR so that no one has the opportunity to ask about that job you hate or ask what you’re doing with your life.

?So, you begin isolating yourself from the people that matter.

3.??????Increased Alcohol or Substance Use

?There’s often a desire to numb yourself and all the feelings you don’t want to deal with when you feel like you’re stuck in a job you hate.

?A job that you feel is going nowhere.

?You might find yourself turning to substances – both legal and illegal – in unhealthy doses as a way to run away from feeling sad, angry, depressed, undervalued, lonely, unseen, and frustrated.

?You don’t know how to escape that draining job, so you settle for escaping the feelings that arise.

4.??????Avoiding Responsibilities

Misaligned work is a drain on your mental and physical resources. ?

?It will literally drain you of any energy or zest for life. Which causes you to lose motivation to do work or even show up in excellence at work.

?And you’ll very quickly find yourself avoiding responsibilities in your personal and professional life because you don’t have the energy or motivation.

?A part of you might even avoid those responsibilities because you’re worried about disappointing yourself or others because you don’t believe in yourself or your abilities like you used to.

?Have you noticed any of these changes in your own life or behaviour? Or maybe other behaviours have changed, and you KNOW it’s because of work?

?Please stop underestimating how much your work is negatively impacting your life and health.

It’s time to take ownership of your career and your life.

I can provide the support to help you understand what is next and create a plan to move forward.

Sometimes you might want this to happen quickly, sometimes you might want to go at a slower pace. I will work with you at your pace to help you find a job and a career that’s right for you and make sure that you’re being paid the salary that you deserve. ?

Drop me a message today and let me help you move forward in your career.

Have an amazing day!

Pam :-)

Pamela Langan - Queen of Careers

www.pamelalangan.com