A recent survey by the online site OfficeVibe revealed that 75% of people say that they don’t quit their job, but they quit their boss.
It’s easy to criticize our boss. Nobody over the age of seven likes to take orders from a boss, whether it’s mom and dad, a teacher, a spouse, or yes, even that person who is allowed to tell you what to do at work. Now, most of us love our parents and many of us even like our bosses, but we’d like to be in charge of ourselves for once. We’d like to be in charge of our own destiny. I am a proud former member of the United States Navy, but we know who excels there. People who are good at taking orders.
Another survey by Gallup found that just over half of Americans reported that they were not satisfied with their career. The reasons were all over the place, from lack of professional development to not getting decent benefits to simply being treated like a number who can be replaced. Do you feel this way sometimes?
Again, I want to suggest to you that it’s not the company, or your co-workers, or anything else that is making you unsatisfied other than who you see in the mirror. “What do you mean, Arnel?” you’re probably asking. “I’m not the problem,” you say. Well, you are, but thankfully you’re also the solution.
Most of us wanted to be something when we were a little kid. When I was growing up in Haiti, I wanted to be a world-famous soccer player – although we call it football there. But I didn’t practice enough, I didn’t have the work ethic or the passion to become a professional athlete… most of us don’t. But even most kids who have realistic dreams like being a fireman or a teacher don’t end up doing what they dreamed of when they were young.
Why is this?
We like to say, “Oh well, life got in the way” but that’s not the truth. Maybe you didn’t dream about being a medical assistant or a mid-level hospital administrator, but you can’t blame life. What should you blame? You got it. Time to look in the mirror again.
Life didn’t get in the way, it’s just that it’s human nature to make deals with ourselves, to settle for second-best, or to simply give up. We tell ourselves that being the manager of a chain restaurant like Olive Garden or Applebee’s is almost the same thing as owning our own restaurant or being a shift leader at a pet store is kind of like running a rescue shelter for dogs. But let’s be honest, those things aren’t similar. We just try to convince ourselves they are. Some of us settle for money, some for benefits like health care, some because of the hours, or travel, or one of 100 other reasons. And once you start settling, it’s easy to keep doing it. Do this often enough and there will be times you feel like you’re living someone else’s life.
It's time to stop that by taking on the two things that prevent people from changing their careers.
First, is not knowing HOW. A lot of people don’t know what they want to do, or how to research the path of where they want to go. What does somebody who is a 38-year-old mother of two do if they want to become a veterinarian? What about a 51-year-old man who has decided that the world of finance isn’t for him and he wants to work as an X-ray technician in a hospital? What does he do? If he’s like most people, he does nothing. He tells himself that he makes a good paycheck, that things could be worse and keeps on working his unsatisfied self into an early grave.
The second thing that stops people is FEAR. Much like that guy who wants to work with X-rays, he could also tell himself that his wife will be upset if he changes careers, that he’ll have to start at the bottom all over again and he’s too old for that, or that he simply might start studying and find out that it’s much harder than he thought. Fear holds us back in a million little ways and a million big ways. Not being able or willing to change your career is one of the big ways.
That’s why I’m here. Again, my name is Arnel Duvet and I’m a career development coach. I’ve been right where you are. I took great pride in wearing the uniform of the United States Navy as a public health practitioner stationed both at Camp Lejeune here in America and Sasebo Naval Base in Japan. I know that I made a difference during the early days of COVID-19 to help get protocols in place among officers, enlisted and civilians living and working at those bases. But that feeling wore off, and as the virus continued, I became like 30% of recently polled medical workers who said they became burnt out.
I still loved helping people, but in the end, sitting in a poorly air-conditioned office listening to co-workers’ complaints, with long hours away from family, not doing anything that touched my soul got to be too much. I knew I wanted to keep helping people but I didn’t know how and I didn’t know if either my family or I could adapt to changing careers.
What does a career development coach, a teacher in Africa and a respiratory therapist-in-training have in common? Not much, but we all face our fears, sought help from an expert and are living testimonials that you can turn around your life and your career. You just have to channel that fear into something positive and believe in yourself.
Need more convincing? Check out ArnelDuvet.com and take the career satisfaction quiz. Don’t tell yourself you’re just having yet another bad day. Maybe it’s time to consider making a change. Take this quiz and we’ll calculate your score and let you know if you’re satisfied where you are or if it’s time to follow your destiny.