The more time you’ve spent as an adult, the more you become aware of the fact that your work is your life. As much as we like to maintain some kind of balance between personal time and our days at the office, the truth is that the barrier dividing these modes of living is deeply permeable when it even exists at all. It’s very hard to fund a happy life when your career is just a “day job” that makes it all a giant drag. You are your life and your work, and while changing horses in midstream can be scary, it’s not ultimately as dreadful a proposition as selling your life day-by-day to a job you don’t believe in. So here’s a gut check on when it may be time to turn over a new leaf, career-wise.
1. Your Sunday nights are full of stress.– Your Sunday night ought to be the summit of the relaxation you’ve accrued over a weekend away from work, not the pit of despair you find yourself in when you start thinking about giving up your freedom for another week to a place you dread. This kind of dead end may have been unavoidable in sixth grade, but along with the added stresses of adulthood come some benefits, including the ability to choose with some degree of autonomy how and where you spend the days of your life.
2. You’re daydreaming of a different job. – If you’re fantasizing about something you could otherwise reasonably be doing, it’s a sure sign you’re stuck in neutral. If you find yourself yearning for the job your best friend or sibling or favorite TV character has, it may once again be time to take advantage of those benefits of adulthood – hoist yourself up by those bootstraps and find a job that fits you. Chances are you’re doing nobody any favors taking up space at your current position.
3. Professional growth is stunted.– You should never feel like you’re done growing, because the opportunities for change will never stop coming if you’re receptive to them. We stop growing when we choose to. If you feel as though you’ve hit a wall in your work life where nothing new or challenging is going to be expected of you for a long time coming, the choice is yours and so is the responsibility for your future personal expansions.
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4. The money isn’t enough.– We’ve all known people who make an enviable amount of money but never seem to be happy. Beyond platitudes about the exchange rate between money and happiness, the general lesson to be learned from this is that these people are putting in a lot but not getting much out in the way of real satisfaction. No amount of money will silence the voice in your head telling you that you’re not where you should be.
5. Your self-esteem is at a low ebb.– We gather our esteem from different sources in our lives, but feeling dispassionate about your job can be a huge drain about how we feel about ourselves on a daily basis. We all want to have a purpose, we all want to feel necessary, and you owe yourself a chance at gainful employment that you find engaging.
6. Exhaustion. – It’s emotional work to deal with the heavy lifting associated with soldiering on through a career that feels like it has stalled out. The brain drain can take a marathon’s toll on your energy reserves, and before long you’ll find yourself in a vicious circle of emotional exertion and numbness that will make a career rebirth seem like an impossible task.
