1. Stop being so hard on yourself for not liking your SLP job.
Dear SLP, Go easy on yourself. It’s really okay if you don’t like it. We’re not supposed to enjoy every single part of our career (or life). What’s really painful is telling yourself you’re terrible, or something has gone wrong because you don’t like it.
I don’t love writing consultation reports, IEP’s, evaluations… I despise all the little SLP minutia, paperwork …dreadful parts of my job. It’s too much! I let that spillover into my whole job (and life). I actually like spending time with my clients (well, sometimes I do , sometimes I don’t). Mostly, I love connecting with them. I Looooove loving my clients. I get to do that everyday. Because I am so focused on the parts, I don’t like and it takes ANY possible shred of the enjoyment out of the job.
It’s so easy to focus on the things you don’t like and let that completely overtake how you feel about your career in general
We judge ourselves and the job then, make it responsible for our happiness. As if we should like every part of it. That’s just not how life works.
I shouldn’t feel this way, my job shouldn’t be this way, I should be able to use my time to help more clients, This is so wrong… I’m sure we could all add tons more here
See? you are “shoulding” all over yourself and your job. It makes the problem bigger and drains your energy.
2. Accept that 50% of your job (and life) is going to feel crappy and 50% is going to be nice.
Acceptance just feels better than resistance. When I became a life coach (my side gig), I thought changing my career would solve all of my problems because I loved it so much. Well, guess what? I am an excellent coach and I. LOVE. IT. I’m not so good at creating a website, writing emails, marketing and advertising (add 100 other things here). And because I’m not good at it, I don’t like it all the time. I’m not very confident, it’s not my favorite, I get discouraged… I’m tempted to quit at times and give up, but that would be silly. I didn’t quit being a life coach and I didn’t quit being an SLP. Nothing has gone wrong. It’s supposed to be unconfortable sometimes. Isn’t that fantastic news? hee hee
Be careful about telling yourself it shouldn’t be that way. Hey if your SLP job is more than 50% awesome – BONUS. Don’t let the 50% crappy spill over and take away the cool parts.
Another BONUS here
is that when you allow yourself to work through the hard times it builds your capabilities and THAT my friend increases your confidence (wooo hooo). You see the investment here?
Make a list of the cool parts (and don’t judge it). If you can’t think of any, don’t worry it’s normal, schedule a clarity call with me. I’ll help you do some heavy lifting here.
Here’s my list: Checks in the bank (woop woop!), Cute kiddos(mostly), Cool people to work with, my own desk to get my work done, wearing jeans and sneakers sometimes, listening to podcasts on the drive in , doing therapy and loving on my students, providing health care coverage for my family (like a boss), slowly knocking out that mortgage, my little space heater I sneak in, a sink in our room, running water… Pretty awesome stuff right?
Be honest here: Does your brain argue and answer with yea but,…MY job reeeaaalllyyy sucks. You have no idea. See next tip.
3. Know that if you are a human being, it will be much easier to elaborate, commiserate and expand on the shitty parts.
Your brain will start saying things like, I shouldn’t be feeling this way, this is wrong, I shouldn’t be so anxious about my job. I shouldn’t dread going to work. This is too much. There’s no way I can do it. Go easy on yourself, Of course you feel that way. Your brain is set up to scan for problems and make them bigger. It’s a non-productive, protective mechanism in our brain that no longer serves us in this stage of evolution. The mental spinning, over-thinking, and judging… then mentally beating up on yourself for feeling terrible. Double bummer.
4. Understand that liking something takes practice and is a skill.
About 8 years ago, I told myself, “I just don’t like SLP my job” (and there’s nothing I can do about it). It’s not my fault, I just don’t like it. I literally saw no other options, but to hate it. Then I would list ( in my mind) all the very true and legitimate reasons further proving my problems right- dammit! Clearly I should escape this situation, I should quit. That was the only solution my mind allowed me to see. I made myself the victim of my job, which completely took all my power away.
Yes, liking something CAN be a choice. You will need to be consistent. Retrain your brain to focus on the positives and then learn to tolerate things that aren’t your favorite. Not just tolerate, but actually enjoy… I teach a step by step process on learning how to do this.
Learn to like it, THEN, quit if you want to. That way you will like your reason for leaving. You will also have built up a skill you can use in your next job.
Schedule a clarity call with me for help
