Career Contentment

E. Carol Webster, Ph.D. 
Copyright ©  2009

The beginning of the New Year is a great time to evaluate your career and your contentment with it. Many people drift along from job to job and paycheck to paycheck, finally realizing after many years that they don’t like the work they’re doing. But others are quite content with where they are in life yet feel pressure to get a more impressive job, to be a mover and shaker, to make more money. How about you? Use the onset of the New Year to assess where you stand so that you don’t waste time and emotional energy reaching for something you don’t really want.  

Are you pleased with your current career? Do you feel fulfilled by the ins and outs of your present job? Even if every aspect is not a thrill, do you feel that the positives outweigh the negatives? It is very likely that you are feeling a high degree of contentment with where you are, so give yourself permission to be okay with this. 

If you are fairly content with your current career, take a close look at why you feel the need to do something else. Many people feel pressure to keep moving up but notice that they’re not doing very much to make this ascent a reality. Often this occurs because the interest isn’t really there. It feels like something you should do but if you’re really pretty happy where you are, you aren’t going to do very much about it. Don’t feel compelled to be hard-driving and super-ambitious if this is not you. There’s no need to aspire to the top job if you don’t truly want the responsibilities and challenges that go along with it. It’s important for you to personally define success for your life, and not to allow others to decide that holding a lofty job title or making a certain amount of money makes you a success. More than ever today, quality of life is proving to be more valuable to sustaining health and happiness. There’s reason to feel very content with career choices that enable you to fully enjoy work, family, friends, and recreational interests if you’re fortunate to find yourself in such a situation. 

Enjoy your contentment today. You can always seek something else tomorrow. Contentment isn’t guaranteed forever, nor should it be. Things change. You’ll change. And you may find that you want to take on more in the future. But don’t cheat yourself out of the good feelings you’re experiencing now simply because others around you are on the move. Good for them. But good for you too.

 Career contentment eludes many people. Far more are unhappy and looking to make a change than are pleased with where they are. Good for you if you’re one of the lucky ones. Enjoy the New Year without regret! 

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