Frustrated at your current job?

Do you hate Mondays?

Are you tired of a toxic workplace?

Do you find yourself saying phrases like, “I just can’t anymore” or “I am so done with this.”

You hate your job. You find yourself complaining about it daily to your family and friends. Every Sunday night, you tell yourself that you’re going to finally quit and find a new job because you just can’t take it anymore. … But you don’t.

Instead, you go to work, come home, complain, and start the whole cycle over again. You’re completely miserable in your current job, but you’re absolutely terrified to find a new job. But why?

You’re afraid of the unknown.

Starting a new job can be scary. You have to adapt to a whole new environment, make new work friends, and maybe even learn some new skills. You don’t know if you’ll even like it after everything’s said and done. What if it turns out to be worse than your last job? What if they don’t like you? What if you don’t fit in? What if you don’t perform on the level they expected? It’s similar to starting at a new school where you don’t know anyone, where anything is, or how your teachers are going to be.

Starting a new job can be intimidating. You’re walking into a new situation and you’re not sure what to expect. The best thing you can do is get to know the company as much as you can before accepting a job there. Learn it inside out, make an effort to get to know people you’d be working with over Facebook or coffee, and ask questions that can give you insight on the company culture.

You’re not confident in what you have to offer.

Don’t feel like you’ve got what it takes to make it anywhere else? Afraid to find a new job because you don’t want to look like an incompetent employee? If you think you’re lacking the skills to succeed elsewhere, take an inventory of your skill sets then compare them to the skill sets that are required for the jobs you’re considering. What are you missing? Where do you need to ramp up your skills? Do you have additional skills that could lend themselves to the job? How and why?

You’re not really sure what you have to offer.

You need to understand what you have to offer so you can market yourself effectively to employers. Again, go in and take a look at your skill sets. Think about past accomplishments at work. What have you achieved? What are you proud of? What problem do you solve at your current company?

You don’t know what you want to do next.

You want to find a new job, but you have no idea what you want to do. Perhaps it is in the same profession, but with a different company. Maybe it is the same company in a different division, or it could be a change of professions altogether. All you know is that you hate your current job and you want out. If you’re having trouble figuring out what you want to do next, you need to take some time to explore. Research different jobs, industries, and companies. Talk to people about their work, why they like it, hate it, and what excites them about it. Take some time to figure out what interests you and what projects energize you.

You’re afraid of the financial repercussions.

What if you don’t get the benefits you have at your current job? What if you have to take a pay cut? What if it takes too long to find a new job and you run out of money? Research the companies you’re interested in to learn about what kinds of benefits they offer employees.

It’s important to understand what your priorities and must-haves are in your new job whether it is daycare, flexible hours, working on-call or from home. The last thing you want to do is accept a job knowing that it won’t meet your needs because it will just result in you looking for a new job in a few months. However, understand that you might not necessarily make the same paycheck as your current job. Research so you know what to expect.