From quite a young age, we are conditioned to believe in an idyllic future when it comes to our careers.
This is usually depicted as a timeline that follows a familiar pattern of events. Graduate from high school, follow your dreams pursuing your education at college, get hired into an ideal position, receive gradual raises and promotions, and live out your life until retirement.
But for many, this turns into the “go to school, get a good job, work 40 to 50 years, and be happy when you retire” grind.
Unfortunately, the stark reality for many is a scattered future based upon uncertainty and frantically collecting advice from those around us. Sadly, this often includes getting an education in a field it turns out we have no passion for. Or the reverse, loving our chosen degrees, but working in totally unrelated fields after graduation.
You may end up following ill-advised guidance that leads toward a profession that is not suited well for you or your personality. Conversely, you may find yourself in a job that pays a great salary despite your clear indifference toward the work. Or even pursuing a career that leaves your energy depleted and your outlook disappointing at the end of each day, perhaps suffering from stress or even burnout.
This article will provide you with useful tips to ensure that you find a career that brings you job satisfaction and a sense of personal fulfillment — even if it is just a paycheck to better enjoy the rest of your life!
Why Is It Important That You Love Your Career?
Do you have time for some simple math? On average, you will spend one-third of your life working. Another third is spent on sleeping. This equates to half of our waking hours being spent on the job. This doesn’t even take into account the time spent on education, studying, and extra activities (think webinars, lectures, conferences).
Considering this, enjoying what you do for a living carries more weight than you may initially realize.
When you love your career, it delivers satisfaction, purpose, and excitement into your life. Finding a vocation that matches your personality makes the workday less draining. You will still have the energy to pursue tasks and interests such as hiking, the gym, a recreational class, or a hobby after a job that does not tax you.
If you aren’t sure what your personality is, we can help you do some soul searching.
Feeling satisfied with your job is correlated with being true to yourself. If a job aligns with your personal work values, it will intrinsically create a sense of happiness for you. Enjoying your work also affects the amount of effort you apply to the tasks, directly impacting how well you perform. Performing well at work has many benefits, such as monetary gains, promotions, and social connections with your coworkers.
When you clock in for a job you do not enjoy, the payoff will be that it drains your energy, taxes your mental and physical health, decreases your overall life satisfaction, and creates a sense of heaviness. This can impact your relationships, affect your motivation, and decrease your sense of satisfaction and fulfillment in life.
However, there are exceptions.
There are a good percentage of people for whom “a job is just a job.” For this group, work is simply the means of making money and their life satisfaction comes from what they do outside of their jobs.
If that’s you, that’s perfectly okay — as long as you are finding joy somewhere within your life!
Can You Be Happy If You Don’t Love Your Job?
Money is a motivating factor for everyone, in one way or another — we do need a roof over our head, don’t we?
However, your values are not necessarily the same as the next person’s. For some, wealth and reputation are extremely relevant. You may choose to have a job that you are not necessarily in love with as long as the salary is above a certain threshold. For others, that may not be enough to motivate them.
Perhaps your personality and values may not be career-driven. If you prioritize your time spent outside of your career, any job that provides enough to pay the bills and maintain your anticipated lifestyle will be sufficient. However, a toxic workplace creates negativity and stress, so it is still important that you do not hate your profession.
You may find a job that you do not adore, yet it gifts you with experience or perspective in your field. A security job may be the perfect stepping-stone for a desired career in law enforcement. A fast-food worker may have their eyes on a coveted chef position in the future, so such a job may be enough while they are attending culinary school.
On the other end of the spectrum, one can be overly zealous about a career they are passionate about.
Ignoring the importance of work-life balance can be detrimental to your health, potentially leading to increased stress, burnout, or even depression. Some professions can become overwhelming if you do not create aseparation between the workplace and your home life. For instance, therapists, healthcare workers, or doctors may find it difficult to leave work where it belongs— back at the workplace.
Admittedly, it is not a necessity to love your career.
Many must stay the course of a job because they have family obligations, they are limited due to disability (mental or physical), or some other personal circumstances. However, the positive outcomes of a great career match are undeniable. Health, happiness, energy, and fulfillment are quite appealing.
How to Find a Career You Love
Now that you understand the importance of having a career or job that you enjoy, you are probably asking yourself how do you figure out what you love? There are many ways to go about detecting the perfect job for you.
One extremely useful option is to take personality and career-related self-assessments. For example, a Holland Career Test will help discover your career interests and identify matching career ideas. Another valuable tool is a personal work values inventory, which will help you determine what matters most to you in terms of job fit. A general personality test will help you to better understand yourself as a whole.
Some people are lucky. They fall into the perfect job and find a career they love the first time around.
But for most, truly finding a career that they are not only passionate about but also provides them with a sense of purpose and life satisfaction takes time — and often a bit of personal insight. To help with this process, BrainManager offers a free, How to Find a Job You Love Self-Exploration Exercise (available in the free member’s area).
Here’s a list of other things you can do to help ensure that you love your chosen job.
- Identify your intrinsic skills and abilities
- List activities that you enjoy, your hobbies, things you like to do even without pay
- Think of achievements in the past that made you feel accomplished
- Identify your personal goals, then follow the path that aligns with them
- Brainstorm a list of potential careers – nothing is too crazy for this list!
- Research the list of potential jobs to see if they really are a fit
- Find a mentor, a friend, or a family member to ask for advice and be there to cheer you on
- Conduct informational interviews – take a professional in your intended field out for coffee and ask them so many questions
- Gain experience by volunteering or doing an internship
- Join clubs in the profession of interest, go to lectures, or take a relevant online class
- Build a network of those already in the profession
- Constantly evaluate your list and eliminate poor matches based on what you learn with these exercises
It is important to remain open and flexible during this process. Do not place limits on yourself because you never know when a new, surprising option may present itself. Your path forward may not yet be visible to you.
Once you find a path that seems right for you, apply to everything. Every opportunity is a chance to learn.
Once you get some interviews and offers under your belt, you may need help deciding which job to pursue. We can help you with that. Remember that failing or learning that you do NOT like something is actually a good thing here.
Learning what you dislike is just as valuable in finding a career that you love. Thomas Edison found failure to be an essential part of the process, stating that he did not fail but rather found 10,000 ways that wouldn’t work.
