Go to any search engine and type in the term, “I hate my job”. On Google the term returns some 320,000,000 hits. Thus, it's fair to suggest that hating one's job is not exactly a unique problem to be facing.

But do we really hate it? This issue, “hating one's job”, is exasperated after New Years and Christmas. It could be the time away that gives individuals the ability to think clearly. It could be that our New Years resolution is to finally “be happy”. It could be that last year in review seemed entirely miserable. It could be that the emotional weight of looking down the barrel of another year is just too hefty to contemplate. We could elect to hate our jobs for any number of these reasons but the interesting thing is that a larger number of people come back from the Christmas break and decide, all of a sudden, that they now “hate their job”.

It also seems that the problem, “hating one's job”, provides a terrific opportunity for career coaches, academics, bloggers and anyone seeking to profit from the flurry of activity that is carried by those who hate their job. After all, it’s our right, we are told, to pursue a career we love. We should never, ever settle for anything less and if you don’t love your job, then it’s obviously not the right job for you. It’s here that the real dilemma is born. If I don’t love my job, I must hate it. From, 10 signs you hate your job to exciting stories of entrepreneurs who up and left their “slave job” and now run fortune 100 businesses, the stories are many and they all promote the same idea. It’s a subject that elicits comment and interest from all walks of life and highlights just how many of us have failed to land our dream job and are therefore, for some reason, been robbed of our innate right to “love what we do”. As Miya Tokumitsu wrote in her viral 2014 article for Jacobin, the do-what-you-love mantra can end up devaluing necessary but unglamorous labor—as well as the working-class people who perform it. (Nassim Taleb, Alain de Botton, and Mark Greif have offered up their own criticisms, too.) But I’d take this a step further and say that the do-what-you-love mantra is built on a poor mindset and sold by snake-oil salesmen who know the easiest sell, is the one we all want to hear! And we all want to hear that a job we love is out there. If only we could find it!

In my experience, having met and interviewed thousands of job seekers, very few actually love their job. In fact, I’d estimate that possibly as low as 1 in 20 people are lucky enough to truly love what they do. Interestingly, most of those are paid rather poorly and tend to perform in positions that are in low demand. They have, in essence, traded the financial reward for the job satisfaction reward. In short, these people have identified what they feel is important and it isn’t the money. To be honest, I respect people like this and value their contributions however, that life isn’t for me and it certainly isn’t for most - after all, we have a family and bills to pay!

Let’s be honest with each other. If you could earn exactly the same income that you earn today and instead of having to do your paid work, you could choose to do anything at all, would you ever go back to work? I’ve asked this question thousands of times and the answer is usually the same - “no, of course I wouldn’t”. So why then do we work? The answer is one that you may never speak of in a job interview but remains the same for all of us except those who still live with Mom and Dad, or those fortunate enough to be born with a silver spoon or are happy to be poor and happy! It’s the money. Oh money is important I hear you say, but it’s not all that matters. OK, I can respect that and frankly, you’d be right! The other thing that is critical to how you feel about your work is how you choose to think about your work. But let's go back to the money….

In short, you’ll find highly paid individuals receive a great salary for one of two reasons. First, they have unique skills that demand higher salaries due to the nature of employment economics, or secondly, the work is so absolutely awful that no one wants to do it except for a very few who are prepared to “hate their job” for the financial benefits of the work. Stress, unrealistic timelines, horrible managers, organisational chaos, the list of reasons why you should hate your job are endless. But sadly, “what you focus on grows” and if you concentrate on all the things wrong with your job, you’ll quickly grow to hate it. Further, the idea that doing something you are passionate about is all that is required to be successful is simply and absolutely untrue. As Dan Lok bluntly states, “Business success is not about doing what you love. It’s about doing what it takes.”

So what makes some people hate their jobs more than others? How is it that some people continue to love their job even when their peers are miserable? Humanity it seems has a number of universal flaws that have, since the dawn of time plagued us in our decision making. Take the story of Adam and Eve who were granted with a perfect world. Yet in spite of its perfection, it wasn’t enough for them to remain content. Over time they became ungrateful for their paradise and expressed this by doing the one thing they were not permitted to. They ate the fruit and thus wrote their fate. I am also reminded of stories about eating ice cream every meal for the rest of our lives. Apparently over a very short period we would quickly grow to hate it. If testing this theory would not cause me to stack on the pounds I’d love to give it a go, however, I have no doubt it holds true.

Over the years we have placed many individuals who are desperate for an entry level role. At the time of the selection process they are intent that they will do anything to secure the position we have available. At the time that they secure the role they are immensely satisfied and for the next six to twelve months remain aptly so. Then it starts. The whinging, the complaining, the dissatisfaction with their role. From where I sit, you’d be easily forgiven for thinking that you are now dealing with an entirely different person. No longer does the glamour of the position hold its appeal. No longer does this once-in-a-lifetime position cause anything except bitter grief. They’ve gone a full one-eighty from loving their job to hating it and absolutely nothing has changed except the way with which they perceive their role.

I’ve seen and worked with some of the most incredible personalities one could ever wish to work with. I’ve witnessed them thrive where their predecessors failed. I’ve seen them take situations and bend them to their will where others would have thrown up their hands and insisted on a quick exit. So what is the reason that they are able to endure the very same situations that others could not? Why is it that they stick it out and manage to succeed where others have not? In my experience it is one simple thing. They chose to focus on the positives. Let’s be honest, it’s mentally more difficult to remain positive than it is to remain negative. It’s really easy to focus on all the things we dislike and forget all the things that give us satisfaction. It’s really just a matter of mind and those who are the most successful, have a tight leash on their thoughts. Some I know even spend time alone each day ensuring that their mind-set is where it needs to be in order for them to excel in their daily grind.

In my opinion, one of the greatest flaws in western civilisation is our propensity to embrace a throw-away lifestyle. If it’s hard, if it’s difficult, if it’s not fun, it should be replaced with something else. We see this applying to cars, the latest gadgets, our marriages and of course, our job. Especially when we are looking for that extremely well paying job that we love which I’m here to tell you is as rare as the guy who pedalled into work this morning on his electric powered unicorn.

Sometimes a job really is terrible. Sometimes difficult personalities make achieving our objectives impossible. Sometimes there is absolutely nothing that can be done to improve or change our situation. Other times however, we need to look internally at our own way of thinking. We need to accept that life is not easy, work is not supposed to be fun and through the gradual progress towards meaningful objectives and focussing on the positives, that job we hate, may just turn into a job that we love, or at least, one that we can appreciate.

In truth, deciding you “hate your job” is really just the easy way out and nothing good ever comes easily.