It’s OK not to love your day job | Aquarius feat. Dubai Counsellor Diana

By Angela Boshoff-Hundal, 1 Jul 2015 | Aquarius Magazine

…Diana Shammaa, counselling psychologist at the German Neuroscience Centre in Dubai, believes that, “Today a job is something of a cultural obligation, which is why it has become the main factor for life’s fulfilment. We have anchored the idea that the job we have defines our identity. For example, when meeting a new person, we often start with the question: ‘What do you do?’ and unconsciously expect a job-related answer.” We’ve all been there; answering that question when you’re in a job you’re not particularly proud of can make things awkward pretty fast

“While the perfect professional life may not actually exist, you can create one that’s pretty good.”

With that in mind, if many of us are choosing a job based on its ability to fulfil our basic needs over our sentimental or emotional ones, there are going to be times when we don’t like what we do and, according to Diana, that’s perfectly OK.

“Not liking your job is absolutely fine,” she says. “We should, essentially, have several pillars or anchors in our lives, including family, social life and hobbies. 
Work is just one of these pillars, but because many people allocate the majority of their time to it, it’s easy to become frustrated or let down when something goes wrong with it because the other balancing support pillars aren’t there to keep things in perspective.”

“While Aristotle believed that we cannot be happy when we are obliged to obtain money, 18th-century’s philosophers believed it was possible to feel fulfilled in a job,” Diana explains. “Passion-based or not, a successful professional life means being able to create a balance between the expectations we have of ourselves – which may include things like being creative or responsible – as well as our security, gaining a stable income and enjoying our freedom.