Make your job more exciting

The year was drawing to a close and, for some reason, work wasn't a place you wanted to be. Going to work every morning was just another part of your daily routine that brought no excitement to an already boring day.

Rather than concentrating on your work, you found yourself daydreaming about the holidays. You were happy all year long, but at this stage, your job didn't have as much appeal as it had previously held. You might have put it down to the end-of-year blues, but it's January now and nothing seems to have changed. Right now, you may feel that your job is not challenging anymore and you need something to spice things up in your life.

Are you bored?

If you think you are at this stage in your life, the first step towards changing things is to actually acknowledge where you are. With any problem we have in our lives, the hardest, yet most crucial, part of solving it is to acknowledge that it exists. Once you've done that, you need to step away from the situation and identify whether it's your job that's boring or whether your perspective on your job has changed, and learn to recognise the difference. After you tackle that hurdle, everything that follows is, as they say, a piece of cake.

Next step is...

Now that you've acknowledged that there is a problem, there are a few things you can do that can help you pinpoint what the problem is. Jo-Anne Doyle, life and career coach at The Worksquad, says, "We have a wheel of life that has five elements to it: health; social activities; family, friends and personal relationships; finance; and career. In order for a person to be happy with their life, all these have to be good." So, when you are feeling bored with, or worn out by, your work, re-evaluate your life, taking these elements into consideration because they are all interlinked. Slight changes in each of these will have an effect on the others.

"You may find that sometimes it's not the work itself that's giving you problems, but something at home. If you fix that, you'll find that the rest of your life balances out and you're happier with all aspects of your life," says Jo-Anne.

With regards to your work, you need to figure out whether you are reaching your personal goals. Have you accomplished what you set out to do last year? Do you have enough work to do? Or perhaps you have too much on your plate and need less work?

Work under Pressure?

According to Mark Fraser-Grant, people who work under pressure are the ones who tend to get more worn out by their jobs, not because they are boring, but because of the pressure. "The pressure of work is a heavy load on people and sometimes they think they can't handle it," says Mark. If you're in this type of situation, you don't actually need to quit your job; choose to delegate. This is a solution that is beneficial to others as well as you. By delegating, you are easing your workload while, at the same time, you are opening doors for others by giving them a chance to show what they can do.

Challenge yourself

Santha Jacobs, the finance operations manager at Discovery Health, says she looks at each day and year as a new challenge. "No day is the same, but there are times when I feel a bit worn out,I pull myself out of it by trying to motivate myself." She does that by taking on different projects and doing things differently.

Karen McKenzie, executive, leadership and life coach, says avoiding routine is a good way to ensure you don't become bored with your work. Says Karen, "A lot of people fall into routines easily and this day-to-day repetition ends up getting boring. No matter what job you have, you need to find a way of bringing variety into your work."

Furthermore, you can make your job different by creating options for yourself by going on a course that could give you the opportunity to do different work. You could also try taking on different projects in line with the work you do to add some variety.

"People need to learn to get out of their comfort zones by getting exposure, learning to network and meeting new people," says Karen. Networking gives you the opportunity to learn new things from others, which you may be able to apply to your work.

According to most life coaches, different things will work for different people. But if you feel that making slight changes won't actually help you, you might want to consider consulting a life coach. They may be able to help you see things from a different perspective and steer you in the right direction.

 Here are a few points to consider before you go out looking for a new job: