How To Cope With Your Day Job

Discover how to cope with your day job when you still need it to have money coming in to fund your transition into a new career or your own business.

Video Transcript:

This video is for you, if you’re at that in-between stage where you’re changing careers or starting your own business, but you’re still needing to hold down a day job in order to have money and cash flow coming in to fund your dreams.

“How do I cope with my day job?”

I often get this question, and let me read out loud one I got last week from one of my clients, inside of Your Career Change Map – Which is my programme for helping you figure out what the right career or business is for you, especially if you’re in your 30s and 40s.

Here’s what Tom asked:

 “Hey Rikke, I’m now getting serious about my career change. How do I survive my day job? I’m becoming increasingly disinterested and disengaged, but I need the money for a little while longer.”

Can you relate to that?

I’ve got three highly concrete tips, but before I give you coping tips, let’s make sure the job you’re in right now is not making you so ill or you hate it so much that it’s actually going to impact negatively your chances of ever transitioning into a new career to business.

I’ve got another video that’s called “Should I Quit My Job?” (Link here)

If you’re wondering whether you’re better off finding another job whilst you are transitioning instead of the one you’re in right now, then watch that video.

There are really three scenarios that most career changers find themselves in, and some of them are just not sustainable, so if you’ve got a really toxic job right now, you probably need to get out and find another one, whilst you’re changing careers, but watch that video if you’re in doubt.

Here’s why – I will NOT give coping tips to anyone if your current work scenario is so unsustainable that coping is not going to help.

Just so that’s clear – I have A LOT of experience in this area, which is why I’m being very protective of you.

But if you are in a day job that is not so horrible that it’s making you sick or ill, or making it totally impossible to focus on your transition, then let’s go.

I’ve got 3 strategies for you!

#1: Take Care Of Your Mental & Physical Health

Have you noticed that when you’re in a job that you’re not happy in, you tend to sort of slack off on your health, your fitness, you might even allow yourself to come a little bit depressed?

 One of the first things I do with my clients is I tell them to take this time, this transition time to take even better care of their health.

Exercise – If you have never exercised in your life, start exercising.

Sleep better, eat better, take really good care of your mental health. Maybe you might even want to go see a counsellor, whatever it is, but fight back.

The classic tendency I see when people are in a day job that’s not making them happy is they tend to slump, they eat unhealthy, they comfort eat, they just stay on the sofa and do the Netflix and chill.

Do the opposite!

 If you’re going to make a transition happen, you need to be in great shape, you need to be mentally and physically well, so take this time right now to fight back, get healthy, eat well, sleep well, all of those.

You will need those habits for your new career or your new business.

Don’t wait until you’re transitioning, because it might never happen. The way to cope is to really focus even more on those basic habits and get them down pat.

The result: You’ll be able to cope so much better with the day job and you’ll have even more energy for your career transition.

#2: Learn & Start Using New Skills

If you’re moving into a new career or you’re starting your business, you need to learn new skills.

What’s so great is that if you can actually learn those new skills and use them in your current job, then you can put them on your CV or you can link them with the great name you’re probably working for right now as something you’ve already done within your existing career. Whatever those skills, you want to pick them up and learn them now.

Ask to be involved in projects at work where you can use those new skills!

You’ll likely have to self-fund the training to learn those new skills, but as soon as you are learning those new skills, ask for specific tasks or projects in your current day job where you can use them – This will enable you to put it on your CV – I.e. you’ve already used those skills in a professional capacity – You’ve got real-life examples of already having used them!

What normally happens when people aren’t happy in their jobs, they give up, they don’t want to participate in anything, and instead of lie low and become de-skilled –Instead use this time to really give yourself the ammunition that you need.

#3: Flip The Script – Be Grateful!

You are very lucky to have a job that is funding your dreams.

Rather than allowing yourself to be sucked into this kind of “Ah, I hate my job, I hate my boss” mode – Flip it whenever you get into that mode, because we all know that does nothing for you, that whole victim mode.

The amount of times I go out, and I live in the UK, and I hear people bitching about their boss, their company, whether it’s on the train, in the pub or the restaurant, I’m always immediately removing myself from that shit energy. I know it’s a tendency, we’ve all been there, but flip the script and be grateful.

You have a day job right now that’s probably not ideal, but it is helping you fund the career or business of your dreams, so be grateful that you have it.

Don’t let yourself get sucked into victim bitching mode, it’s going to drain your energy, the vital energy that you need for your transitions to take really, really good care of yourself.

There you go, it is absolutely possible to cope with a day job, if you :

-Fight back and get in the best shape of your life – Sleep well – Exercise well – Take good care of your mental health.

-Start learning and using some really concrete skills that are related to your future career, your future business in your existing job right now to get real life proof that you can talk about.

-Be grateful that you have a money maker for making your dreams come true.

Now, if you want to really kick-start that transition, come over to www.Rikke.me/kickstart

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