Do You Love Your Job, or do You Just Do It for the Money?   

Are you really happy in your career? Do you love your job, or do you just do it to re-fill your bank account very couple of weeks? Is working for money alone bringing your personal satisfaction? Do you feel fulfilled? And are you ready for more?  It is helpful to check in and ask yourself questions like these every so often to ensure ongoing job satisfaction.

That feeling of being satisfied – professionally and personally — can lead to happiness.  And most of us want to be happy. The challenge is this: there’s no universal definition of happiness. The messages we are fed daily about external sources of happiness is further muddies our thinking: one day, getting a new car will make us happy. The next day, it’s a new house. But are we happy after we get these things? Maybe yes and maybe no (and now we also have house and car payments to make!).

So what is happiness? It’s different for everyone. You may love to write and see yourself on the cover of a novel someday, but perhaps you also love to cook. Both of these may provide a pathway to being happy. The question is, which one can turn into a possible career choice?  It should be one that will bring fulfillment and a great paycheck – the goal is always to have both.

Why both? Money may make you happy for a while. However — and I’m basing this on conversations I’ve had with many of my clients who’ve made a bundle of money while in a humdrum job – you may nevertheless wonder down the road, “Why am I still so unhappy?” The answer is, in the long run, making money in a job you do not enjoy will not bring you happiness.

Money is the secondary reward for your honest efforts to pursue what is sincerely in you. Remove money and its effect on your thinking, and you can free yourself up to start down the path to inner wealth. Seems odd, doesn’t it? Going in the direction of money for money’s sake will make you miserable, and lacking in satisfaction. Whereas going in the direction of your true purpose will make you rich, inside and out.

Some people have told me they refuse to tweak their lifestyle even if their current job makes them miserable. I respect their choice and wouldn’t try to convince them otherwise. But if your job drains every ounce of your energy and you’ve got that nagging feeling that you could be doing so much more with your life, ask yourself this: “What’s more important?  Where I live today — or being happy tomorrow?”  Only you can decide this.

So…how do you decide? Do a bit of soul-searching.

Take an Inventory of Your Values

Start with your values. What are they? Write them down, and look at them for a few days. Then evaluate them. What are you starting to realize about yourself?

If your values conflict with your lifestyle, your happiness will be compromised. If you are working eighty hours a week but your value system says that spending time with your children is the most important thing in your life, then being away from them for long periods will make you unhappy.  This is not to say that life isn’t full of hard choices. Every decision, every lifestyle, offers a reward and requires sacrifices. It’s up to you to determine which rewards will make you truly happy and which sacrifices you can live with.

Yes, sometimes, you may experience a small drop in income as you move into a new profession, but in time, your income will increase. You don’t necessarily need to quit your present job to start a new one. You just need to do what feels right to you. You can take a part-time job or do some freelance work to make more money. Or maybe you can save until you are ready to make your move. There are always options if you are open to finding them.

Most important: whatever you choose, get your finances in order so when you are ready to begin your new job, money won’t be the thing that stops you!