How to ensure a satisfying career

Amongst us there are those who have completely fulfilling careers, both professionally and personally, those who have satisfactory careers and lastly those with careers that are disappointing from both a professional and personal level. The question that needs to be answered is how do you achieve option 1 rather than option 2 and definitely not option 3.

The start of the career path for each of us starts from a different place due to a number of factors; family wealth, educational background of parents, socioeconomic status etc but this does not guarantee you have a satisfying career. There are many people coming from a background of wealth and privilege who are underachieving, unmotivated and not satisfied with their career and career path. Likewise there are those from ordinary and disadvantaged backgrounds who would say they have fulfilling careers.

From what I have studied the responses given may or may not be based on expectations but we may have to consider that has some influence but it is also important to note that purely considering financial rewards does not result in a guaranteed positive response or likewise a negative response if the financial reward is low. It appears the key drivers to a satisfying career are; having control over the career path, having your personal goals satisfied, feeling useful, receiving meaningful benefits, and knowing why you are undertaking the career you are in. It is also known that if you consider your career satisfying your performance will be high and you should receive personal benefit. High performance will be achieved simply because you want to perform well and this will ensure your focus and dedication is strong.

So what this means is that you have to be clear on why you are undertaking your job and what you are gaining from both a personal and professional perspective, not just undertake a role for the sake of it and assume it will provide you with what you want. It is up to you to take the time to identify what aspects of a job are important to you, from a principle point of view, and ensure you align these with the career you undertake. The consequence of not doing this is dissatisfaction and lack of motivation, perhaps not initially but over time when you are not achieving what is important to you - however at that time it might be too late to change.

Assess your life's purpose

A major source of stress in society today comes from sources that when broken down in more detail do not deserve the importance attached to them. Stress is also caused by the feeling that you are not living a life of meaning or there is no purpose to what you do - combined with the fact that you do nothing to change this.

Look at society today, how complicated and meaningless it has become for many - focus on making money, getting to top of career for nothing more than to say you were the boss, becoming fit just to look good and better than the rest of society....truly meaningless in that you have added nothing to the human race and when you are dead what good is your money, your fitness or your career. Now I'm not saying there isn't good in these things; you need to make money for your family, achieve in your career for personal growth and be fit/take care of yourself to ensure a healthy life. However we need to truly assess what the purpose is of each thing we do and make it count.

How many of us live a life of excess and consider the less fortunate simply a topic of conversation. That the phrase 'social enterprise' sounds great but that is it. Could you honestly assess any meaningful contribution you have made to society in the past year, three years, 10 years? Do you accept life for what it is and focus solely on yourself? It is obvious we as a race are looking for more - online dating trying to find the perfect solemate, online personalities and avatars to live a life you dream of but do not have in person. The fact it is becoming 'fashionable' to give your time to charities through social enterprise activities. The evidence is there that our society wishes for a more meaningful and exciting existence but struggle to live it in the real world.

My advice is take a look at your life and look beyond the next promotion, pay rise etc and consider one thing you can do for someone else or for society's benefit. From a psychological stand point personal growth and development is one of the underlying needs of humans, though many of us do not openly recognize it as such, therefore by undertaking deeds to benefit others you will also benefit yourself and add some real purpose to your existence.

Financial wealth may not equate to a wealthy life

The first thing for many people when asked what wealth means to them is to turn immediately to money, material items and a lot of assets. Our society has pre-packaged wealth into monetary terms only and this perception has caused the greed that we all see evident in society today. Many of our occupations are geared to produce wealth for the wealthy, increase numbers on a computer screen and do whatever it takes to gain an extra dollar, pound etc. When we choose our careers, and let’s not kid ourselves, the majority of us want to know how much we will earn, bonuses, share schemes rather than giving a s**t about what it is we are actually doing. Forget producing goods, undertaking research and manufacturing….much of our industry is financial services which in fact produces nothing and adds no real value.



It is no surprise that the whole self help and actualization movement (SHAM) has evolved exponentially over the last 20 years – this is the time where our society truly began to focus on financial wealth rather than wealth through creating. SHAM is still in part a scam but the point remains that it wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t at least partly accepted. Society, even if it had money, has become depressed and unmotivated because financial wealth cannot be touched and instead after a period of time the human subconscious starts to evaluate what it is we’re actually doing with our lives. At a basic level self-development is crucial and simply earning money doesn’t provide any development. I don’t have $10million but if I did with no family, a worthless job and no real life would I be happy? Can I die happy with $10million in the bank?



Society has to stop evaluating wealth from only a financial aspect and start considering what wealth means to them individually. I’m not saying money isn’t important, you need it to live and your personal finances must be managed, but too much emphasis is placed on financial, rather than relationship, career, spiritual, emotional wealth etc. If you value ‘emotional wealth’ at the subconscious level, which I will define as living an emotionally fulfilling life, your focus on financial wealth because society tells you it is important will cause stress and frustration. Same will occur if you focus on financial wealth rather than prioritising satisfaction from a career or relationship independent of financial gain. Unless you define, recognise and accept your own definition of what constitutes wealth you will find your focus is distracted from the life path you should be taking and instead pointed in the direction of focusing on financial because you continually read about how important it is. Your life has to be defined wealthy based on your terms, not on what you read or hear in the media.

Identify your life needs

Everyone has been told at some stage of their life that there are wants and needs.....this has most likely been passed on from a parent when they say you should focus spending on needs first and then wants. I used to think wants were more important as they appeared to provide me with a higher quality of life then needs - needs being defined as the basics you need to survive.

However upon further reflection perhaps it is the needs that should be focused on if we look at our needs in respect to satisfying our core values. If we redefine needs as those things that are necessary to provide us with a fulfilled life and wants as a short term influence from the social environment in which we live then it appears that needs are more important.

An example and one that relates to myself is the desire to lead a life with financial independence. This means having the finances to not have to work for money ever again if I choose not to. What will it take to achieve this? Well apart from winning Lotto it will take hard work, dedication and good investment principles over a period of time. However because of the social environment I live in I am influenced to party, eat at good restaurants, drink at expensive bars for the purpose of enjoying life. However the life to lead to fulfill my needs and my wants are not aligned so in some way are in conflict. You may want that expensive jacket, flashy car or to stay in a six star hotel.....but you need to ask yourself what you are getting from that and whether it is aligned with your personal needs (thus values). The law of diminishing returns exists here - if you do not live life according to your personal values then the activities you think you enjoy will become less enjoyable over time.

The answer is simply to know yourself, know your values, know your purpose and be disciplined to do what is necessary to achieve.