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Ensuring Your Happiness at Work

Posted by Jonathan Tannenbaum on July 21, 2008

Most people don’t realize that choosing a job is more about you than the job. When contemplating a future line of work, I think the number one thing to focus on is yourself. It’s essential to know the details of a job, and it can be helpful to find out if most people in a given field report satisfaction at work, but these things are of secondary importance to self-assessment. Only by having a realistic evaluation of your own personality, emotions, desires, tendencies, strengths, weaknesses, etc. can you find your calling in life. 

Often, when pondering the question of a profession, we conjure up a romantic idea, instead of examining if it would actually suit us well. Whether it’s being a doctor or a musician, we tend to focus on the potential rewards and block out the difficulties and possible failures. You may like the idea of treating people with heart disease, but do you have what it takes to get through medical school, or handle the responsibility of performing a life-saving operation? It sounds like fun becoming a rock star but when you’re on the road, living hand-to-mouth you might wish you had become an I-banker instead. I’m not telling anyone to scrap their dreams. I’m just saying you’ve got to be honest with yourself.

Besides struggle and possible disappointment, it’s important to really consider how much money means to you. Becoming rich may not be worth it if it means working 80 hours a week. At the same time, it’s foolish to pretend money means almost nothing when, in fact, you would enjoy a wealthy lifestyle. A lucrative job that demands incredible hours or one offering too little income may not be worth it. (That said, I understand the difficulty of finding a job that offers both reasonable hours and a nice salary.) 

Of course, selecting a job will definitely require some significant compromise. Even the position we’re best suited for will pose some drawbacks. But the goal should be to identify the one that gives you the least negatives and do whatever you can to make it a reality.


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