Being dissatisfied with your job is a cycle, a very long and undesirable cycle. Here’s how it goes:

-You start to lose interest in your job. Next thing you know you start to dread Monday’s and long for Fridays. Your energy, confidence, creativity and excitement feel like they are being drained from you.

Then you start to think maybe there is a better job out there for you. You begin to envision what that job might be, but then you get scared or feel like it will be too much work to move on from where you are.

Now you think things could be worse and the money is good, so you’ll stay. You seem to have more energy and you start finding things you can be interested in. Your confidence, creativity and excitement start to build again.

A couple of months later you wonder why your energy and interest have dropped, Monday’s are terrible, and your confidence, creativity and excitement are no more.

And so begins the cycle again. You remain in this cycle because as we reviewed in previous articles:

-You believe the myths -You give away your power -You put your attention on what you don’t want

And the final reason…

-You try to go it alone

Why is it so important that you get help getting unslumped and moving towards work that will REALLY satisfy you? Because you have probably been in your slump cycle for years and haven’t been able to get out of it on your own!

I was in one for 15 years. My clients on average have been in theirs for at least 5 years. Being in a slump wears on your confidence and belief that there is work out there that will really satisfy you and that you can find it.

The crucial time to get support is the point in the cycle where you start to envision a better job and before you get scared and talk yourself out of it. Having the right support at this time can help to break your cycle!

Support comes in many different forms. Here we will look at three:

1.Friends and family – We all have them, the ones that say they are in our corner but seem to talk us out of what we say we want most. These folks must be avoided during this time because you are in a place where you can easily be talked out of going in the direction you want to go. You want to seek anyone who will just say, “That sounds great!” You also want to seek people who are ten steps closer to where you want to be and seek their support when you need it.

2.Mentors – Clients have said, “ I wish I just had a mentor that could guide me.” Mentors are great and we can all use them, but not until we know what we need from them. It is not a mentor’s job to tell us what we want and how to get it. It is our job to know what career we want so a mentor can lend us their expertise in getting it. So seek your mentor when you know what it is you want and match their skills and experience to your achieving it.

3.A Career Coach – A good coach will help you get clear on the career you want and teach you the skills you will need to achieve it. They will help you to overcome your negative beliefs, teach you how to make the most use of your power to get what you really want and how to put your attention only on what you want. A good coach will teach you how to become a “Career Creator”, not a job seeker. They will guide you to find your right job, not just your next job.

We are all very capable of being our own worst support. Seeking the right support when you have hope that you will find your right career is critical to your moving out of your slump and towards work you know will really satisfy you.