It would be nice if everyday you woke up eagerly anticipating your next day at work. Once there, you knew you would become passionately involved with your job. What you did was vitally important and you were making a positive change for those around you and society in general. In fact, you have the type of job that you would do even if you didn’t get paid. Yes, that would be nice.

Does anyone have a job like this? Have any of your past jobs been fast-paced, nonstop, laugh-a-minute adventures? I’ve been fortunate enough to land some really good positions during and after graduation. I must honestly say that even some of my most pleasant positions had their moments, sometimes days, of tedium. There has been a little bit of the “daily grind” in just about every position I’ve held. It is work. If it was fun, it would be named accordingly.

We all find ourselves doing things day in and day out, seemingly without purpose, or worse still, simply a real pain to sustain. There is never a day when the alarm goes off that I really want to go to work. Minimally, I would prefer a couple of hours more rest before taking on the world. I’ve sat numbly through plenty of meetings and training seminars. I’ve counted tiles and even holes in tiles in the ceilings of any number of conference rooms. I’ve had to carry out meaningless “exercises in futility” to please overly anal and/or paranoid supervisors.

Perhaps if I were to imagine a life as a rock star, as an actor, or as a professional athlete, I might lay claim to job excitement. However, if I insert a little realism into such fantasies I’m certain that they put up with a tremendous amount of frustration and boredom as well. There are reasons why so many of them lead tragic personal lives. One answer is that as humans we are predestined to live lives that are far from boring. After all, our ancestors took exciting risks every time they crawled out of their caves. Without such adrenaline rushes, life for us is bound to be boring by comparison.Most jobs command a salary because most people wouldn’t willingly choose to do them for free. Often the more you get paid and the more promotions you have received brings a commensurate load of annoying responsibilities. The “grass may seem greener” in a lot of other jobs, but this usually turns out to be a faulty perception.

You should not dwell on the frustrating aspects of jobs that are especially boring. You may feel as though these are a waste of your talent and resources and, at times, you’ll be right. Sometimes you just have to wade your way through them. If you fairly analyze your job, you will probably find that it does have some redeeming meaning. You need to remain alert to what you enjoy about your current position and not be completely brought down by the garbage that gets in the way.

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