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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is that all jobs have ups and downs, but

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Speaker 1: if you find yourself unhappy for a significant proportion of

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Speaker 1: your work week, it might be time to look for

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Speaker 1: something else. Ideally, you spend no more than the equivalent

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Speaker 1: of one day a week on things you really don't

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Speaker 1: want to do. That is, if you like all but

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Speaker 1: twenty percent of your job, you've got a keeper. If

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Speaker 1: you dislike more than twenty percent, you might want to

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Speaker 1: see what else is out there. So I started thinking

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Speaker 1: about this topic recently when someone asked a group of

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Speaker 1: us what we felt was an acceptable ratio of positive

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Speaker 1: to negative feelings about a job. In my younger years,

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Speaker 1: I might have said this ratio should be infinite. That is,

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Speaker 1: you should like absolutely everything about your job and dislike nothing.

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Speaker 1: As I have gotten older, I have realized that disliking

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Speaker 1: zero is going to be tough to pull off, even

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Speaker 1: in almost ideal situations. We are seldom one hundred percent

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Speaker 1: happy in life. You can be sitting on a tropical

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Speaker 1: beach watching a beautiful sunset while sitting next to the

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Speaker 1: love of your life and still be thinking hm, my

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Speaker 1: toe itches such as the human condition. You can love

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Speaker 1: your job and still find your weekly meeting with Dave

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Speaker 1: from Accounting tedious, but isn't quitting and neither are you,

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Speaker 1: and so here we are. I'll also note that sometimes

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Speaker 1: we think the problem is with the job, and it

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Speaker 1: turns out to be more internal. I have followed some

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Speaker 1: situations where people have quit jobs because they just can't

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Speaker 1: trust their coworkers and they're always crashing right before deadlines.

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Speaker 1: Then they find different jobs and it turns out that

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Speaker 1: you just can't trust these co workers either, and they

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Speaker 1: are still always crashing right before deadlines. And maybe, just maybe,

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Speaker 1: these two situations have something very specific and common, namely

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Speaker 1: the person experiencing them that said, you have to balance

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Speaker 1: the reality that nothing is perfect against the truth that,

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Speaker 1: as far as we know, you only get one wild

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Speaker 1: and precious life. As the at Mary Oliver would put it,

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Speaker 1: it would be one thing to be miserable day in

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Speaker 1: and day out if you were assigned a job at

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Speaker 1: age twenty and required by law to keep it until retirement.

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Speaker 1: But if you are listening to this podcast, then you

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Speaker 1: don't live in a society like that there are millions

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Speaker 1: of jobs out there, many of them are currently open.

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Speaker 1: Within any given industry, there are often lots of companies,

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Speaker 1: some of which have vastly different cultures from others. Within

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Speaker 1: any company, some departments are probably a lot better to

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Speaker 1: work for than other departments, to say nothing of individual managers.

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Speaker 1: And if you can't find a company or department you like,

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Speaker 1: there are lots of ways to start your own business,

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Speaker 1: many of which don't require a whole lot of capital

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Speaker 1: to begin. In other words, you are not trapped. I

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Speaker 1: know it can be hard to leave. Maybe you earn

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Speaker 1: a lot of money. Sometimes people who earn a lot

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Speaker 1: of money believe that they have to accept certain things

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Speaker 1: about their jobs. But the labor market isn't totally efficient,

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Speaker 1: and so most people haven't completely optimized on any dimension.

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Speaker 1: That means that even if you earn a lot now,

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Speaker 1: it is always possible that you will be able to

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Speaker 1: find a job you like more that pays more. Too.

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Speaker 1: You might be able to find a job you like

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Speaker 1: more that is more flexible as well. You might be

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Speaker 1: able to find a job that pays more and features

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Speaker 1: nicer colleagues. You just don't know until you look to

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Speaker 1: strike a balance between the truth that nothing is perfect

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Speaker 1: and the truth that no one deserves to be misera.

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Speaker 1: I will put twenty percent out there as a target

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Speaker 1: to aim for. You want to like all but the

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Speaker 1: equivalent of one day a week at your job, as

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Speaker 1: few people actually shunt all the work they don't like

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Speaker 1: to one day. In practice, it will be more like

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Speaker 1: an hour or two a day of stuff you generally

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Speaker 1: prefer not to be doing. You might try keeping track

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Speaker 1: of your time and seeing where the percentage lies currently.

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Speaker 1: If it is over twenty percent, that doesn't mean you

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Speaker 1: need to quit Jerry McGuire style. The first thing you

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Speaker 1: should do is see if you can craft your job

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Speaker 1: to spend less time on the things you really don't like.

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Speaker 1: Do they actually have to be done, Maybe they don't,

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Speaker 1: or maybe they can be done with less fanfare than

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Speaker 1: they are currently getting. Maybe the load can be shared

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Speaker 1: or delegated. Maybe things can be done more quickly or

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Speaker 1: more efficiently. You meet with Dave from Accounting for thirty

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Speaker 1: minutes rather than sixty. You can also try doing more

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Speaker 1: of the stuff you really do like, which at least

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Speaker 1: pushes the proportion down. I am not suggesting extending your hours,

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Speaker 1: but If you do have a lot going on, you

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Speaker 1: become less available for tasks that wouldn't be your first choice.

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Speaker 1: People start asking you less, or you find ways to

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Speaker 1: spend less time on these things. Time is elastic that way,

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Speaker 1: but if the proportion is quite a bit over twenty percent,

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Speaker 1: then it is time to really look at life and

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Speaker 1: figure out what you can do. There is no harm

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Speaker 1: in reaching out to old contacts and set up some coffees. Indeed,

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Speaker 1: people should be doing that regularly, even if they love

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Speaker 1: their jobs, but it might flush out some new opportunities

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Speaker 1: somewhere better. Work doesn't have to be a negative thing

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Speaker 1: in life. It can be a source of joy at

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Speaker 1: least eighty percent of the time. In the meantime, this

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Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the

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Speaker 1: most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear

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Speaker 1: from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

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Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four,

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Speaker 1: then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me

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Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts at ihart media dot com.

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Speaker 1: That Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters

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Speaker 1: thanks so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch?

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts

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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.