AttitudeLatitude

It’s funny how my next blog (this one) was inspired by a hip hop song. But let us not judge, Hip Hop is a career too!

The other day I was listening to a track by Rhymefest featuring Kanye West, titled “Brand New”, and one particular line caught my attention; they say your attitude determines your latitude… Now focus on this line (the rest of the verse is pretty irrelevant)…

On Saturday night I was out with a couple of friends to celebrate a friend’s birthday. A majority of the guests were recent grads and former classmates of mine. We hadn’t seen each other since our last varsity exam so this ‘do’ also doubled as a mini reunion. Spirits were high as we exchanged our experiences of the working world, music was blaring from the speakers and this old white man (who looked like he was ready to walk to his grave) at a table next to ours was dancing like a grasshopper with epilepsy with the ten young (black)girls he had taken out for the night. Concerned.

Our table grew larger and so we had to move to a secluded section. Now most of us are in the marketing industry and one or two are in financial services. There were mixed feelings about work life, some loved their jobs others hated, while others were already experiencing office romance *clearing my throat*. And so the conversation flowed:

“The women outweigh the number of men at my office”

“There are way too many men at our office”

“People don’t dress up! What’s up with that?”

“There are so many things that I have to learn and remember”

“I’m everybody’s skivvy”

“I’m giving corporate a year and I’m out”

“I hate my job”

“It’s all so mundane”  

“We go drinking with the bosses…”

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I love my job, sure it has its ups and downs but I’ve realised that that is something that comes with every job, period. Quitting your job in the hopes that the grass is greener in the other office may not always be the best solution, sometimes you just have to stick it out and turn your complaints into opportunities. Now I’m no motivational speaker but one valuable piece of information that I can add here is that an adjustment in attitude can sometimes make a world of difference. If you are always negative about things, you might just miss the good ones while you’re busy wallowing in your sorrows. Yes it won’t be easy but sometimes you just have to look at the bigger picture; where you want to be and what you need to get there. If your job is boring, think out of the box – how can you put an interesting twist to it? Change your attitude, smile more, make a friend at the office, sign up for gym(and actually go), take up a hobby, look for how you can make a difference in the organization no matter how small. The way I see it, life is like sour worms, if you want to get to the sweetness, you have to bear with the sour part first.