Do you feel like you have to leave the best part of you at home while you slug it out in a job that leaves you feeling lifeless?  You are not alone.

Many of my clients report this particular form of hell.   Many feel that they are trapped having to work in an environment that does not bring out their best but they can’t afford to leave.  Others seem to hit a beyond-tolerance point and do leave but find themselves back in the same situation in the next job.

What is going on?  Why do some feel like they are cursed, experiencing the same deadening inside regardless of the job they are on?  It sounds like something out of the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray.  In that movie he wakes up each day to realize it is the same day.  Despite all kinds of crazy attempts to change the day so that his life can go on, he is stuck in this weird time trap.

It may not be the job.

It may be what you believe.

There are a lot of myths out there that really suck our sense of well being right out if us.  Marcus Buckingham wrote “Now Discover Your Strengths “.  He is one of the early writers of the “strengths movement” that is sweeping business and education today.

Remember the days of grabbing your report card at school, scanning past the ‘A”s and ‘B’s, to lock in on the ‘C’s and ‘D’s?  And your parents did the same?  Then you, and they, spend a lot of time and energy targeting how to raise the lower grades and ignoring the good marks?

The wisdom of today is to leverage your strengths.  Know what they are and use them to pull up your weaker areas.  ‘Use what you’re good at’ is the motto.

It makes sense but sadly, research shows only 17% of the workforce believe they work in a job that plays to their strengths.

Are they in the wrong job?  Maybe.  But more likely they are buying into the myths I mentioned above.  Buckingham talks about 3 of them:

Myth 1:  As you grow older you are supposed to change.  You are supposed to mature and drop away the dreams you had as a kid.  Those dreams were foolish.

A Truth:  As you grow, you actually become more of who you really are.  The point of life is not to change but to channel the real you - the you that started with those dreams and fantasies as a kid.  So go back and dust those off.  Take a look at what they have to tell you.

Myth 2:  To grow, you must develop all of your weaknesses.

A Truth:  Focus on your strengths.  Identify what you are good at and grow those.  First of all, they will be your default under stress - the things you can rely on when it hits the fan.  Second, knowing and working your strengths allow you to leverage them around your weaknesses.  For example:  I know I have good people skills.  I can get into relationship easily.  That comes in very handy when I am thrown into a new job or new environment.  I can rely on those skills to get connected with people who can help me.

Myth 3:  The team wants you to sacrifice or ignore your strengths and do what the team needs.  In other words, put yourself aside for the good of the team.

A truth:  You must share your strengths and preferences wit the team.  Figure out what your best is and bring it often.  That is where synergy comes from and that is what contributes to high performing teams.

What I have learned for myself and with my clients is you have control over how you experience work.  It’s not about needing to change jobs - it’s about changing your beliefs about the job.

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Tags: Resources, Work, working with the Disquiet, changing beliefs, feeling dead at work, leverage your strengths, Marcus Buckingham, Now Discover Your Strengths, strengths based, strengths movement

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 9:00 am and is filed under Resources, Work, working with the Disquiet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.