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Although Serena Williams has won more career prize money than any other female athlete in history, she admitted to CNN that she “actually never liked sports.”

SEE ALSO: Why Black Women Are The New Face Of The Weight Loss Industry

The 23-time Grand Slam title winner and part owner of an NFL team, continued:

I just want to be able to do other things that I’m doing and expand on that. I think that helps keep my motivation up … I don’t love tennis today, but I’m here. I can’t live without it.

It’s not that I’ve fallen out of love with it. I’ve actually never liked sports and I never understood how I became an athlete,” Williams continued.

I don’t like working out, I don’t like anything physical. If it involves sitting down or shopping, I’m excellent at it.

And Williams is not alone. According to recent polls, more than half of this nation’s population is unsatisfied with their jobs and more than 70 percent are “not engaged” in their work. The polls also reveal that there has been a downward trend in job satisfaction for more than two decades – no doubt exacerbated by the recession (one study showed that employee disengagement costs $300 billion in productivity a year).

Clearly, even Serena can’t turn her job into just “shopping” so here are nine tips for overcoming a job that has lost its luster:

1. CHART IT OUT

Take a moment to write down a long-term career plan and then visualize how the job fits into your grand scheme. [americasjobexchange.com]

2. MATERIALIZE THE VISION

Keep a tactile, visible reminder that this job is a stepping stone on your path by creating a Post-it note vision board. Many people post pictures of loved ones in their cubicles; perhaps now is the time to add yourself to the picture. [lifehack.com]

3. STAY FOCUSED

Avoid making “I hate my job” a mantra (especially when speaking with co-workers or supervisors) and consider focusing on aspects of your job that are enjoyable and fulfilling. Having a renewed focus gives you the agency to pursue greater opportunities that involve tasks that you do enjoy. If it’s difficult to identify these aspects, make an effort to compliment a co-worker on a job well done at least once a week, you may start to discover what you love by examining what you admire. [believedreamlove.com]

4. LEARN TO LOVE

Identify what you don’t like about your job – just one aspect for now – and then find something good about it. For example, if you don’t like writing a weekly report, maybe you’ll start to appreciate it as the one time a week that you get to truly reflect on and acknowledge what you’ve accomplished. [drzimmerman.com]

5. LEARN TO LOSE

If ideas No. 3 and No. 4 fail, see if you can “delegate, swap, or de-emphasize” the parts of the job you don’t like. [resumark.com]

6. FIND FREEDOM

If idea No. 5 fails, imagine what work you’d be willing to do for free and then consider what it is that you love about that type of work and determine if it can be applied to your current job. For example, one writer discovered that what he actually loved about playing soccer as a child was “quickly finding solutions to problems on the field and planning tactics before the game to get an advantage.” Now he applies this tactic to his work with tech companies.  [lifehacker.com]

7. HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY

If you are not learning anything new, you wake up every day dreading the rest of your day, you don’t get along with any of your co-workers, or you are not earning enough to pay your bills, it may be time to quit. Be as planned as you can in quitting, though, and make looking for your new job, your second job. Make sure you save several months of pay in reserve before you jump out there (even if you secure a new job, there will be a transition period before your first new check clears). [money.usnews.com]

8. KEEP GROWING

If it’s the field or the work that you love, but not so much the company or the title, pursue continued learning classes that your job offers so that your skills are sharp. It will boost your resume, which you should update regularly along with online profiles. When an opportunity to take a new position arises, you will be prepared. [americasjobexchange.com]

9. TAKE CHARGE

Realize that you are the boss of your own life and your job is a paid learning experience in your path to realizing your dream. If your job is in retail and your dream is to be a painter, perhaps you are learning a great deal about colors while you fold the new shipment of shirts or you are studying the faces of customers so that when you go home you can practice sketching new features. Williams is making her love of fashion a statement on the courts and has even launched her own clothing line, Aneres. [lifehack.com]