by Mark Jones

Created on: July 12, 2008   Last Updated: December 19, 2009

It's the same old routine isn't it? Wake up, shower, eat breakfast with a feeling of impending doom about the day ahead, step wearily into the car/bus/train and make your way to the place where you will spend a substantial part of your life. You've just arrived at work yet again and are already counting down the minutes until you can leave to return home and be yourself again.

Working five days a week on a full-time basis for forty years of our life equates to being in the workplace for over 76,000 hours. That's before you include any time traveling to work and any overtime you undertake. Imagine spending 76,000 hours doing something that exhilarated you. Hours that could be spent turning you into a happier person with a positive feeling running through your bloodstream and giving you an unquenchable quest for life. We know we're unlikely to win tonight's Lotto and spend the rest of life doing exactly as we wish. But by changing our approach to our working life, a brighter future awaits us.

The journey to work can be the same each day if you wish it to be. The same radio station seems to be playing the same music as it was the day before and the day before that. The traffic ahead is crawling along or your train is delayed yet again. We wake up each morning expecting everything to be the same with no obvious changes on the horizon.

If the same journey was to be made on a non working day, you will see different things. Your will unconsciously be looking at things in a better light. You may spot things that you wouldn't when your mind is crammed with worry regarding the day ahead. A garden that looks beautiful in full bloom, an amazing cloud pattern in the sky, happy and vibrant children playing without a care. All small things that are uplifting when you see them, but very easy to miss when your mind is on other things.

Spend ten minutes thinking of all the things you have worried about recently. It should become apparent that the majority of these matters did not transpire to be as bad as you may have expected them to be. If you were to consider the amount of time spent worrying about work matters that actually turned out to not worth giving a second thought to, you may be able to see that work is not as bad as our mind tells us it might be.

The only thing that matters is what's happening now! We have no control over what has happened in the past and in future days, months and years, we will have little or no control regarding other peoples words and actions. We can clear our mind and concentrate on what we have to do individually and not worry about over people's opinions and situations that may occur during our working life. The power we have is over ourselves so why should we spend so much time thinking about things that are probably not going to happen?

It matters not about the job you hold but the attitude you take to it. Negativity will make everything seem so much more difficult. A change of approach can make work pleasurable and rewarding. Take pride in the small tasks and show passion and determination when carrying out the larger ones. Don't let other people's despondency or grumpiness affect you. Keep your mind firmly in positive mode and make the whole day your personal project to do as well as you possibly can.

Whatever job you are doing now or may take in the future, carry the same clear mind and determined attitude into it. Your job can become the most pleasant hobby you have found. The only person who can stop that happening is you and why on earth would you want to do that?

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