Finding the balance between stability, excitement and fulfilment
To find long-term happiness in your career, it is essential to find the right balance between stability, fulfilment, and excitement.
We all have different needs when it comes to our careers, and life as a whole. You might love having a routine, knowing what to expect and what others expect of you. Or, on the other side of the spectrum, you might thrive on taking risks, and seeing life as an adventure. Alternatively, your priority in life could lie in doing meaningful work, finding deep fulfilment in what you bring to the world.
While we all have different needs and priorities, I believe we need all three elements in our career. When one of them is missing, something will feel off. The amount of each element we need, and the one we prioritize, is unique to each of us.
Here´s what it means to feel sability, fulfilment and excitement in your career, and what it feels like when they are missing.
Career stability means knowing what to expect, and what is expected of us in return in terms of responsibility, money, and the rights we get from our work.
It means feeling physically, emotionally, and financially secure. With stability we often get a routine, where we can build the rest of our life around our work as we know what it looks like.
Not all of us have the same need for stability. Some of us crave the routine of knowing what their week looks like and doing the same tasks over a longer period of time. Others thrive on variety, on having an element of unexpectedness in their everyday life. While for some of us the 9 to 5, long term contract fits best, others are meant to be self employed or work on temporary projects. But even then, we want to be able to count on certain clients, and a certain amount of money.
The right balance for you might change over the course of your life, with periods where you are more open to taking exciting risks or where you need a little more stability.
If any form of security and stability feels boring to you, it might be because you are so used to chaos that your nervous system feels that something is off when things are stable.
As a result of your upbringing or life experience, having adrenaline pumping through your veins can feel like second nature to you. You might always be looking for the next big thing, feeling unsatisfied when the newness of something wears off. This can result in being ungrounded, hopping from one job to the next. Doing nervous system work allows you to be a bit more anchored, without sacrificing who you are.
On the other end of the spectrum, you might feel such a need for stability that you are willing to sacrifice feeling inspired by your work.
If you haven´t built the resilience for a certain level of risk or uncertainty, you might feel stagnant and rob yourself of meaningful growth. Depending on where you are at, taking a risk can look like giving a presentation to a group, applying for a promotion in your line of work, or doing an exciting new project on the side. Doing things that feel new and exciting without overwhelming your nervous system allows you to gently feel more comfortable with doing the uncomfortable, while honouring your need for security.
Career fulfilment means finding meaning in your work beyond receiving a paycheck.
It could be about helping others, working for a cause that matters to you, or inspiring others with your creativity. What is meaningful to you might not be meaningful to everyone, but what matters is that you find a sense of greater purpose to the time you spend working.
For some people, fulfilment is their number one priority, they cannot imagine doing work just to pay the bills. Others might feel like work is simply work, a way to pay for the rest of your life.
Fulfilment does not have to come from a job, it can come in the form of volunteering, activism, spending your free time doing art projects, or simply supporting your friends and family the best way you can. There are no rules to what a fulfilling life looks like, you are the only one who gets to decide what it looks like to you.
Fulfilment is connected to our values, and what we find truly important in life. It is the deeper feeling of knowing that what you do feels right, regardless of whether it looks good on paper.
When fulfilment is lacking from your work or life as whole, it can feel like a nagging feeling that something is a bit off. Everything might be going well for you, and yet you don´t feel satisfied.
When you lack fulfilment for a longer period of time, you might lose your motivation for your work. It also leads to feeling less joyfull in general, and missing meaningful connections with others.
As I mentioned before, you can find fulfilment outside of your work. If you find it hard to know what makes you feel fulfilled, reconnecting to what you enjoyed as a child can be a great start.
Since work is such a big part of our lives, it can be helpful to find some meaning in your career. This can be a side project that you enjoy, switching to a company that aligns with your values or choosing a role that can influence the direction of the company.
On the other hand, lots of people doing meaningful work feel that they have to give up a certain level of stability to do work that lights them up.
You might believe that the choice to do fulfilling, meaningful or creative work means less security, accepting financial or job uncertainty. Our society does not always value the ones that bring the most value in the way that they deserve. But there are ways to find a middle ground.
If you are neglecting your own needs for a fulfilling job, it will make you feel frustrated over time. Not everyone needs to make a ton of money or has money as a priority, but when you are not able to live your life in the way that you enjoy it, that is not true fulfilment.
It is important tot be honest about your own needs, both financial and otherwise. When your needs are met, it becomes so much easier and more joyful to dedicate your career to the greater good.
Career excitement comes from that rush of trying something new, of having an adventurous element to your everyday life.
Whether you are a natural risk-taker or not, we all need some level of excitement. What this looks like is unique to you, as not everyone has the same need and tolerance for it.
It could be a big, bald move like quitting your 9 to 5 to start your own business, or speaking in front of a group. It might mean signing up for that new project that is slightly outside your expertise but definitely interesting to you. Perhaps you want to take on more responsibility for the first time, or go to that networking event by yourself.
Feeling excited means you are paying attention; you are fully engaged in what you do. Excitement feels a lot like nervousness, they are closely related. Often, excitement comes when you feel great enthusiasm, with an element of nervousness. The scary part often comes from it being something new, from not knowing whether you can do it or not. As a result, the more stability you feel in your career, the less likely it is that you still feel excited about it.
But stability and excitement can coexist, and for long term satisfaction in your career it is important that they do. When you feel secure enough to take a risk, your reward is meaningful growth.
When your career no longer feels exciting, it feels stagnant, like you missing that spark.
See where you could take some healthy risk, learn new skills or challenge yourself a bit. Excitement is the juice of life, and seeing where you lean into excitement more brings another dimension to your life.
If you are currently on the opposite end of the spectrum, seeking excitement and adventure in everything you do, you might be living off that rush of adrenaline and dopamine.
Constantly seeking excitement can result in feeling ungrounded and unsatisfied, always looking for bigger and better things.
Doing nervous system work and finding healthy ways of adding adrenaline and dopamine to your life while also finding satisfaction in your daily life as it is will bring you a more stable form of happiness.
If you would like to find the right balance for you and could use some guidance, plan a free introduction call with me here.