It feels like everybody else landed their dream job except you and your friends. That’s because the Internet is full of unbelievable stories on how a simple person scored the best job and lived happily ever after.

However, these stories are just the tip of the iceberg. The peak looks shiny and bright on the outside, but below sea level, there’s darkness. Today, we’ll go ahead and see how to make ourselves comfortable in a miserable job beneath the sea level.

Don’t Let the Job Define Who You Are
Analyzing everything from your own personal point of view is normal. However, this may make you feel as if everything is your fault, and you will end up believing that this miserable job is who you are.
However, the truth is never that simple. If the present job requires a set of skills you don’t have, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have any skills at all. It’s important always to be in control of the bigger picture that goes beyond your current job. And this image shows you that your capabilities go beyond the eight hours spent at the workplace.

So, there are definitely other elements that define your personality, like the way you act with others, the books you read, the people you hang out with, the choices you make every day, and many others.

Keep Your Job and Personal Life Separated
These two parts of your life should never meet one another. Having a miserable job doesn’t mean that you should feel miserable during your spare time too. On the contrary, this is the time to heal the damages caused by work stress and refresh your depleted energy.

Of course your friends and family should know all about your job and the reason why you look so disappointed. However, talking about your job all the time won’t be of much use. This will summon the same work mood in your spare time to the detriment of your personal relationships. On the contrary, if the job isn’t part of your desired professional career, you should focus more on personal projects, and even leave the office earlier.

The best thing to do is to make a list with your passions and the things that make you happy. After working hours, try to practice a few of these. Spending time in front of the TV or playing video games are indeed things that can relax you. However, usually, screens don’t provide a powerful disconnection from the work schedule. Thus, putting a passion of yours into practice will clearly differentiate quality personal time from your job.

Find the Silver Lining
Instead of blocking the reason why you feel miserable and accepting the things as they are, try to understand what’s really going on. Other jobs would make you feel uncomfortable, but each of them poses a different kind of challenge. Moreover, it is easy to realize that a miserable job is better than dealing with an unsuccessful job hunt. However, even the anxiety of job rejections has its silver bullets.

Make a list with all the tasks you are in charge with and circle the ones that make your life difficult. Try to name the reason why these tasks are particularly unpleasant for you. Maybe you need to learn new skills to help you cope with them. Maybe all you need are some Excel functions or other applications that can take care of some of your responsibilities by themselves. Maybe the reason why you can’t sync with the job is that everyone else seems to solve their tasks easily while you need to put in more effort.

It is time to erase all opinions and preconceptions you made about your job and see things as they truly are. Approach this introspection with an open mind and adopt a positive attitude. You can also try to remember the reasons why you were excited on your first day of work when the multitude of tasks hadn’t buried you under pressure yet.

For example, there are many stressful factors in restaurant jobs; working with the public can be challenging. But the silver lining here is that you have the chance to be of service and develop a successful career - see Cracker Barrel careers for example.

Create Purpose
There’s only one thing that wakes people every morning with a positive attitude despite major life obstacles, and that’s purpose. Some people stay in unbearable workplaces just to have somewhere to start their ambitious careers. Others are happy to provide for their families. Sometimes, all you need is to give a certain meaning to your miserable job to make it bearable.

So, if you really can’t change it at the moment, don’t swim against the flow, but embrace it. If 90% of your tasks give you a hard time, focus on the 10% that put a smile on your face. Accomplish the demands of your manager without overdelivering to impress, and take the rest of your time to be the best at what you like about this job.

Try to avoid thinking that all of it is nonsense. A majority of occupations out there have been created to improve the community we live in. So, find the true purpose of the job that was buried under tons of corporative rules. Try waking up each morning with a little more excitement that today is the day you improve the community and, consequently, your life a bit more.

Learn Everything You Can
The chances are that you won’t stay in this miserable job forever. So, consider investing most of your efforts in your future, instead of concentrating on the negative aspects of your present. You never know what job opportunities will come your way. However, no matter what they will look like, recruiters will see the job experience from your resume and will have certain expectations about your expertise.

So, you should build a solid body of knowledge while you are there.
Ask your colleagues to help you out with the notions you can’t seem to crack. Learning new facts about your job will make you better understand why things work the way they do, and your life will become easier too. You will also come to grasp the system that keeps the company running better, which will surely help you in the future. Don’t let anger or indifference block the process of learning.

Understanding the incomprehensible is the first step to tolerance.
So, this concludes our trip to building a comfortable life despite a miserable job. It is important to take control of the situation before letting it consume you.