You should never sacrifice five days of life for two… Are you living for the weekend? If the answer is ‘yes’ when it comes to your job, that’s a dead giveaway that it’s time to go.
The five days for two was a stopper for me. The words are those of Susy Welch, CNBC contributor and author.
If we took the entire workforce and asked if they lived for the weekend, I’m convinced we would discover that the clear majority would say that their career and lives are centered around those 2 days. They work for the 5 to have access to the 2. Such a sad scenario.
As I thought this through, I too recalled a sense of relief when Friday rolled around. That’s when I worked in the US; here in Dubai and the Middle East, it’s Thursday. If that is your life, you know how this plays out. Those two days will go by in a heartbeat. Sunday evening, though, is the other side of the coin. Listless, far away gaze, feelings in the pit of your stomach are a few of the symptoms. Looking at a TV that was looking back at me was evidence of my Sunday evening malaise.
Every Sunday evening — and for some it is Saturday — much of the world gives a collective groan. The weekend is fast receding, Monday is fast approaching, and the cloud is forming and beginning to set in.
I have always thought that Sunday was a powerful indicator of the state of your career.
In a 2013 poll from Monster.com, 81% of American respondents said they get Sunday-night blues — and 59% said they experience them “really bad.” Those are astounding numbers which do not translate well into the destination on Monday. Sunday nights aren’t considered the end of a great weekend but the beginning of something we do not look forward to.
There are a host of reasons for this. Some have to do with what our jobs or career are about. My personal opinion is that the source of a lot of angst is the job you have. Sure you can rearrange your Monday schedule so that it is breeze as you begin the 5-day journey. But if it is the job you are doing that is causing the distress, no amount of rearranging will help.
As I hear people complain about their jobs or careers my question is always,“What is your plan to fix it?”
That is often greeted with a blank stare or the same platitudes I’ve heard so many times. But think about it, if you are in a bad space, how are you going to fix it? What is going to enable you to get into a new mindset so that you relish the first of the week?
Sure, the end of the week will always be greeted with anticipation regardless of what you do. But we must figure out a way that we also look upon the new work week with zest:
Everyone today must tackle the last bullet. What do you want to be? Where are you headed? Those are questions that I think if we asked ourselves and came up with a plan, would solve the 5=2 equation. With all the change that is going on today in our businesses, it has an incremental effect on what we do for a living.
If you are stuck at this point, which it seems the majority of people are, my suggestion is to think as if you had a blank slate to start over again. You get laid off, think of how now you have the freedom to start all over again. We all must decide our next version.
I was in the magazine publishing business at one time, but digitization and the web killed that business. People who had the skills to put out a printed monthly magazine had to learn new skills to operate in this new environment. For the most part, they reinvented themselves.
In the end we must prepare; we have to develop a strategic plan the same way that an organization does. What is the plan and what are the milestones? It is the same process that organizations go through. We must begin to think the same way.
Try to get to a point that you say “TGIM” and not just “TGIF.” Trust me it can be done. This way you can retake Sunday and make it a fulfilling day.
