Are you fooling yourself Bored at work Is it your own fault -

Are you fooling yourself Bored at work Is it your own fault - In honor of April Fools day, members of the Career Collective community I co-coordinate with my colleague Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter are tackling a few important and timely questions! Todays post is one of many responses to the question, How are you fooling yourself about your career or job search? What can you do about it? I encourage you to visit other members responses, which are linked at the end of my post! Please follow our hashtag on Twitter: #careercollective. Are you bored at work? Maybe it is time to look in the mirror! Susan Cramm,   the founder and president of Valuedance and a former CFO and CIO, asks this question in a post I have been meaning to share. She suggests, Maybe Youre the Reason Your Job Is Boring for the Harvard Business Review. (Thanks to  @J2BMarketing for tweeting about this post!) Susan suggests you ask yourself these questions (points 1-3 are Susans, commentary is my own): Are you on autopilot? How often are you driving somewhere new, but you accidentally turn the wrong way because you usually go the same old places? Its tough to break out of routines that are monotonous. Think about how you can make a change. Otherwise, you are always going to wind up in the same place, and you will have no one else to blame! Your energy level is less than impressive. This is familiar to most people. We are tired, busy, overworked, have too much on our minds. It would be surprising if our energy levels were not much lower than necessary for active, productive work. What can you do about it? Break your routine. Get more sleep, exercise. Read a good book. Make time for yourself so you have more energy to give at work. Youve become a conformist. Susan says, Its not unusual for leaders to start sleeping on the job once they hit year three or four. At this point, they have molded the organization in their own image. They know their people, processes, and technology arent perfect, but have adjusted to their imperfections and lose sight of the opportunities for improvement. Are you sleeping on the job? Have you given up on making changes that you might have pushed for early in your tenure? Can you take one problem and think about how you may push for a solution? Is there ONE thing that really excites and interests you at work that you can take upon yourself to champion? What issue can you try to solve? Is there a strategy you can pursue that will engage and interest you? 4. I would add you are complacent. I have a friend who was thinking of looking for a new job, but realized how much work she would have to do to achieve the level of trust and flexibility that she maintained at her current (boring) job. Once we start to become accustomed to the way things are, it is difficult to take action that would challenge us and keep things interesting at work. So the question remains: Are you fooling yourself? What actions are you willing to take to grab the wheel and drive your own career bus? Is it time for a change? Maybe the change should involve a job search, but maybe it means re-engaging and re-connecting with your current job. Its up to you, but nothing happens until you take the wheel! Read what my #CareerCollective colleagues have to say on the topic: 10 Ways to Tell if Your Job Search is a Joke, @careerealism April Fools Day Whos Fooling Who?, @MartinBuckland @EliteResumes If Its Not You and Its Not True, Youre Fooling Yourself, @GayleHoward Dont Kid Yourself! (The Person You See in the Mirror is a Good Hire), @chandlee Avoiding the Most Common Blunder, @jobhuntorg Are you fooling yourself? Bored at work? Is it your own fault?, @keppie_careers Hey, Job Seeker Dont Be a Fool!, @resumeservice Job Search Is No Joking Matter,   @careersherpa Is Your #Career in Recovery or Retreat? (All Joking Aside), @KCCareerCoach 9 Ways You Might Be Fooling Yourself About Your Job Search, @heatherhuhman Dont get tricked by these 3 job search blunders, @LaurieBerenson Trying to hard to be nobodys fool?,   @WorkWithIllness Its not all about you, @DawnBugni Mirror their needs, not your wants in #jobsearch, @ValueIntoWords Stop Fooling Yourself about your Job Hunt: Things you may be doing to sabotage yourself @erinkennedycprw Same as it ever was @walterakana Dont be fooled. Avoid these @kat_hansen Job Seekers: You Are Fooling Yourself If...@barbarasafani photo by and_there_I_was