Raise your hand if you love every single part of your job.
Yeah, we didn’t think so. Even the very best jobs have frustrating aspects — stuff we wish we could push off on someone else. And most of us have slogged through roles that could politely be described as “not the very best”.
But hey, if it was all fun and games, it wouldn’t be work, right?
Well, here at Dental Rift, we’re big fans of following your passion to build a career you do feel genuinely good about. That’s why we’re both entrepreneurs: We love coming up with a vision and then waking up every day and working towards it.
We also feel, though, that the frustrations we face along the way — the work we don’t want to do — can have a lot of value.
First off, one of the keys to figuring out what you are passionate about is learning what you’re not into. Especially if you’re relatively new to the workforce and are genuinely unsure about what you want to do with yourself, finding a bad fit can be a great way to say, “Well, I can cross project management off my list for sure,” or, “Never again, sales.”
That can be a heck of a gift in the long run. Every time you’re able to firmly put one option behind you, you’re creating space for something new.
But there’s also something to be said for learning how to grind. For learning how to say, “No, I don’t love this, but I’m going to show up for what’s in front of me and do my job anyway.”
Life is never exactly what we want it to be and the sooner we make peace with that, the sooner we can get better at letting it roll off our backs while we keep moving on through.
That kind of resilience is incredibly useful (although, as entrepreneurs, we’ll also be the first to admit too much of it puts you on the fast track to burnout). It can also help you get through the tough jobs faster — and on to the more interesting ones.
And hey, if neither of the above perspectives floats your boat, consider this. Maybe sometimes, the value in a frustrating work experience is the chance to practice walking away.