The Ultimate Dream Job

Jobs, some people have them these days but a great many haven't. As unemployment rises around the world I am often told that 'you're lucky to have a job'. With the daily commute getting worse because of gridlocked roads and travel chaos it is hard to believe it sometimes.

You probably know why it is that I think the way I do about my job.

Get ready for this........IT IS NOT MY DREAM JOB!

Are you surprised I should say that?

I often wonder what my dream job would or should be and I am not totally sure.

If I had the choice I would choose not to have a job. The thing that I have discovered over the years is that companies know how much to pay you just to keep coming back everyday.

You know what the definition of J.O.B is - it means just over broke

Like I say, if I could choose, I would forgo the job in favour of a Dream Business. A business which could benefit it's workers and not pay them just enough to keep them coming back everyday, but a job which could potentially make them wealthy. A pay structure which would pay for effort and results.All the workers would be satisfied with their lot and be happy to go to work everyday. Pie in the sky thinking I guess because as humans I suppose we are never happy. The grass is greener on the other side we often think.

So my ultimate business would involve helping people to achieve their full potential. For over twenty years I was a Store Manager for a national chain of D.I.Y stores and nothing gave me more pleasure than to see potential in someone and help them to rise through the ranks from shop floor to Management and very often into Senior positions.Very often it was a case of building their confidence and believing in them by giving them the responsibility level that they could cope with to start and then building on it with them until they had all the tools to do the job. When people know what they are doing it breeds confidence and they want more and can see the future ahead. They also see that they need to put in the effort and see the effort rewarded.

After many years in what was an enjoyable job most of the time I found it to be getting harder and more pressured due to economical troubles which seemed to occur every four or five years.

The need to protect profits and push for sales became all the more important and one thing had began to eat away at me. It was the fact that all the people above you in the company always believed that they could do the job better than you even though on many occasions these individuals had never ran a multi-million pound turnover store. It was all down to personality and whether your face fitted in or not. If you were outspoken or went against the flow, even if you were right it was frowned upon and you were seen by your immediate superior as a threat to their job.

This I found difficult to cope with and eventually it got to me. I couldn't carry on being criticised by people who couldn't manage a sweet shop let alone a 40.000 sq ft store with 100 staff.

It would appear that I would never be qualified enough to do the job even though I had done it for all the years I had. Needless to say it was time to find pastures new and to change direction completely. I will leave for another time the industry I moved into as it will peobably be the subject of another article.

The moral of the story is that we shouldn't settle for second best when we know we are worth more. One man's view of us doesn't make it reality. I allowed the views of other people to affect my future and you should not allow that, I have learned in hindsight. I settled for second best in my next position and potentially regret that because I haven't been as confident since. Success breeds confidence as I have said in previous articles. If you do a menial job just to pay the bills,over time it has a detrimental effect on you because you know in your heart of hearts that you are not reaching your potential and that you are going through the motions day in day out.

So don't settle for second best is my advice you are worth more than that.

Find your dream job. You will know when you have found it because you will look forward to going to work everyday, something which ninety percent of the workforce never appreciate. And that is sad and you must do something, anything to avoid this at all costs.

I believe that my dream job or dream business is out there. The only thing is, it hasn't found me yet. I say it hasn't found me because I have spent so much time over the years searching for that one thing that would make me say...yeah this is my vocation in life that I have stopped seeking it. I haven't given in by any shake of the imagination, I am just trying another angle. If it is out there the opportunity will present itself to me and I will follow it. When that opportunity comes I will know. And it is coming, it is just round the corner. The future for poshcoffeeco is about to change. At the moment I just don't know what it is yet.

You may feel the same, I don't know.

I just know that working twelve hours a day five days a week is not what I want to be doing forever. At the age of forty-seven I consider myself still to be young and have my most productive working years ahead of me.

When my Dad was living and I was still living at home before I got married he would often tell me about his dream job. He was an avid Angler and wanted to live by the side of a river and have a job as a water Bailiff. Patrolling the river banks making sure that the Anglers had permits to fish the waters.The job would come with a house as part of the package and he would be able to step outside each morning and be at work.Now to me that is a vocation. Sadly he never got to achieve his dream.I don't think he ever believed it would happen and so it never came true.

To achieve a dream you have to believe that it is a possibility and not just a pipe dream or a wish. I think it has to be a burning ambition and that way your mind will find ways for you to achieve it.

Maybe that is why many don't achieve what they set out because they don't want it enough.

For me the ultimate dream job would be...............Head Distiller in a Scotch Whisky Distillery.

The only problem is I would be scared that it would turn me into an alcoholic so I could never pursue that dream. I would take my work home with me also, which could not be a good thing.

Just imagine working in the Scottish Highlands on the banks of the River Spey with the smell of malt in the air and being able to drink whilst working. Heaven. I don't think that I would have the willpower not to get hammered everyday. It is such an addictive drink to me. It has such a quick acting 40% alcohol content and moorish flavour that I would not be able to trust myself.

A comforting, warming drink of superb quality I don't believe I have ever tasted a Scotch that I didn't like mmm.

So there you have it that would be my dream job if ever there was one.

I suppose I will just have to put up with the occasional dram at home and keep on dreaming.

My substitute dream employment is out there I know it. So much for me advising not to accept second best. That is what I am prepared to do in this case as I would like to stay alive. You sometimes hear people tell you that if you keep working at the rate you are it will kill you. That job really would for me!