What Does It Actually Take to Carve Out a Career You Love?

Whether we like it or not, many of us spend the majority of our lives at work. We need to live, after all, and income plays a key role in that. Yet, though work is a universal truth, our experiences of the career path can be incredibly varied. For instance, while some of us wake up with a feeling of dread about the coming work day, others wake up feeling energized and excited for the challenges ahead.

The difference? Some of us love our jobs, while others can’t stand them. And, if you fall into the latter category, then you’ll likely admit yourself that things need to change. After all, passionless make-do jobs might suffice when you’re working summers in your teens, but your lasting career is such a pivotal part of your life in general that you deserve something which sparks joy.

Unfortunately, if you’re stuck in the humdrum, loving your job can seem like an impossible goal. But there are some surprisingly simple steps to ensuring a job that you truly love, and we’re going to break them down here.

Step 1: Follow Your Passions

Your career takes a lot of your time and energy, and if you’re dedicating those things to a job that you personally couldn’t care less about, then it’s unlikely you’ll ever find career joy. Instead, it’s worth following your passions when pursuing your career of choice, and that’s a reachable goal no matter your age. Whether it involves continuing as you are so that you can fund a much-needed college course, or putting yourself on the line by applying for a position that you’ve only ever coveted from afar, the career options that get your heart beating are usually the ones that you’ll end up loving in the long run.

Even if you’ve never thought about it before, really taking the time to work out which career allows you to incorporate, say, your love for drawing, and the path you’d need to take to get there, can see you following your passions at last.

Step 2: Be Picky About Employment

Even if you’re in a so-called ‘dream’ career right now, your performance and general enjoyment for the job will likely be at rock bottom if you’re under the wrong management or company. That doesn’t mean that the dream career doesn’t exist, but simply that it’s important to pick the right employment prospects, even if that means taking a few risks.

Let’s say you love books – working at the heart of a big publisher could see you forgetting that love in place of endless paperwork, faceless production, and processes that take you away from your passion. By comparison, a job in a smaller press could see you with the option of picking which manuscripts or authors you work with for a far more tailored, enjoyable job overall. Employment really does make that much of a difference. Never stay stuck in the wrong place just because you feel that it’s a job you’ve technically always wanted.

Step 3: Seek That Satisfied Feeling

Often, true love for your career will come down to achieving elusive ‘job satisfaction’. By this, we don’t just mean the feeling that you’ve done a good day’s work (though that plays some role), but rather the feeling that you’re achieving something worthy with what you do. This doesn’t even have to be a major achievement, but something that satisfies you on a personal level, like helping people or producing a product you believe will make a difference.

Let’s say you have a love for numbers. Someone using that love for something like work on the stock market is never going to achieve the same satisfaction as online math tutors might when their students pass their exams. Equally, someone with a love for art might struggle to feel truly satisfied working in a gallery compared with showing their own stuff and seeing how viewers react. It’s this satisfaction, paired with your passion as we’ve discussed, that will make your career truly worthy of your love, time, and effort.

A lovable career will look a little different for everyone.

There’s no set path to truly being happy with your work. But that’s by no means to suggest that this is an impossible goal. Passionate, satisfied work with the right team of people really can transform you into one of those annoying individuals who head to work with a smile on their faces every day. You might just need to take a few risks to make it happen!