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How to Shift the ‘Tude” and Have More Fun In Your Job

I remember when I was in my twenties and I worked for a big corporation as a legal secretary – if you can even imagine an off-the-chart ADDer doing this job in the first place.

After being shuffled around the legal department to various attorneys to see who I might show the most promise with, I ended up with a woman attorney who was three years my senior.

In the morning she plunked down several personal tasks for me to do like writing her friends’ letters, paying her bills and basically anything but the work I was hired to do.

Rather than just roll with it, I adopted an adversarial attitude and refused to be her personal assistant.  In reality it really did not matter whether or not I did her personal work.  What mattered was that I had a job in a nice company that paid well and I could actually avoid doing the legal secretarial work I abhorred doing in the first place for a little while.

I was, instead, indignant, arrogant, distrusting, feeling put upon, taken advantage of, incredibly bored and plain angry.  Who did she think she was anyway?  One of the things I was not was much of a team player.

Even though she WAS the boss of me, I acted as if she were not.  I simply refused to acknowledge that I was given a job to do and was expected to do whatever the job entailed.

Of course, I WAS in the wrong job, had my Bachelor’s degree plus an additional certification as a secondary teacher in California.  I was supposed to be a teacher – I was too good for this stuff.

Bottom line – I was fired!  Again.  I had good friends who worked there, the company was very generous in a way that you never see today, and it was a comfortable place to hang on the way to figuring out how I was going to get to be the professional I so longed to be.  But I was determined to start the ADD isolation process early in my career.

Let me tell you, I scored no points on any count.  Had I displayed one ounce of maturity and simply took the attitude of doing the best I could no matter what I was doing, there is no doubt in my mind today that my generosity of spirit would have been rewarded.  At the very least, I could have taken pride in a job well done.

Many of us ADDers tend to cut off our noses to spite our face when it would take just a minute or two to breathe and make another choice.

It would have also helped my diminishing self-confidence.  I was just one angry employee.

I repeated this scenario until I was 29 years old when I finally got into my Master’s program and started heading down the path of career fulfillment.  It was a LONG road.

In hindsight, it was really not necessary to go through what I went through.

If you are currently in a job that you do not feel measures up to either your expectations of how you think you should be doing, or is a step along the way to doing what you love, I say MAKE THE MOST OF IT.  Here is what I only dream I had done at the time:

1. Adopt an attitude of gratitude.
2. Be determined to do the very best work you can do, no matter how much you are not loving it.
3. Ask co-workers if you can help them if you have time on your hands.
4. Smile more, encourage your co-workers.
5. Act as if you love it – ok, just try it for a day and see what happens.
6. Get coached to change directions – but don’t forget the folks (jobs) that helped you develop lifelong skills (physical, emotional and spiritual) along the way.
7. Think of your “job” as a living in the present meditation.
8. Always think about the tasks you enjoy doing and try to do more of them.
9. Remember always that You Are the Boss of You.

Remember the road to career happiness often hurls us in a number of directions before we eventually recognize the path we are meant to take. Being on that path makes the “means to an end” so much more palatable.

Learn more about how you can get coached today to change directions or do more of what you love in the work you are already doing.  Schedule your Complimentary 30-60 minute Career Strategy session with Shell and take away a rush of cool ideas you can apply now.  www.shellmendelson.youcanbook.me.