Are you happy and healthy in your current role? Often dissatisfaction, burnout, and stress are what stand out most strongly as you take your New Year’s reflection on the year behind you. Every year in your career should lead to personal growth, another step on the ladder of success; but also fulfillment and well-being. You can’t enjoy your wealth if you’re sick with stress, and you won’t feel fulfilled in your job if you’re in a corporate dead-end. Starting the new year with a happy new chapter of your life includes seeking work-life balance and personal well-being.

How could a new role make you happier, healthier, and more fulfilled as a professional all at the same time? This isn’t asking too much, it’s just a matter of searching for your new job with the right priorities in mind.

Ultimate Happiness = Healthy Career Choices

They say money can’t buy happiness, and it’s true that a paycheck alone doesn’t make a complete and fulfilling life. To achieve ultimate happiness year on year, you need to make healthy career choices. Healthy for you, and healthy for your career. If you’re in a role that has no upward mobility and no new skills to learn, you will eventually grow bored, dissatisfied, and burnt-out doing the same thing day-in, day-out. If your job is too demanding or even if the company culture just doesn’t suit your needs, you may find yourself sick with stress and unable to be happy no matter how well it does (or doesn’t) pay.

To achieve happiness, you need to make career choices that are healthy for you. And sometimes, that means seeking a new job when you realize the current role can’t make you happy and isn’t allowing you to grow.

Know Your “Why” – Live to Work or Work to Live?

Unless you’re independently wealthy from birth (or won the lottery), we all work to live. But do you live for your work? It’s important to find your passion – to know why you do what you do. Maybe you’re good at accounting or working with clients, but is your current role fulfilling? Do you believe in the mission of your current employer, or do you feel that you are doing good and important work?

Some people are totally fulfilled by working for a great paycheck, but it’s always important to know your “Why”. Why do you work, beyond paying the bills and putting food on the table? You don’t even have to change your type of job to fulfill your why, maybe just find an employer that shares your values and passions.

Changing Jobs for a Better Cultural Fit for Work-Life Well-being

Cultural fit is extremely important for job satisfaction – something that the business world is only recently acknowledged as a major factor in new hire success. If the cultural fit doesn’t match, you may not be happy in a role even if everything else seems right. Do you need a team who likes to crack wise or people who are calm and professional at all times? Would you be happiest in a dog-friendly office or a space where everyone has their own space? Do you like working in the sunshine or would you rather share a schedule with your fellow night owls?

There are many aspects to company culture, and it’s important to find the right fit with your next employer. Because if the company culture rubs you the wrong way, you’ll build up stress and soon be looking for another role.

Seeking Better Pay and Career Opportunities

It’s also important to look for opportunities for growth in your finances and career opportunities. No one deserves to be stuck in a dead-end role with a salary that never rises and no opportunities to develop your skills or take on greater responsibility. Naturally, in a new role, you should be seeking better pay for your years of experience and the expertise you bring to the table. But it’s also important to make sure the job you are taking has career opportunities in the future for vertical and even lateral growth in your career track of choice.

Are you hoping to rise in the managerial and executive track, or are you seeking to rise from technician to engineer in the future? Don’t hold yourself back with another dead-end role. Let your future employers know that you’re looking to grow for your work-life.

Seeking Jobs That Match Your Interests and Lifestyle

Finally, look for jobs that match your need for interesting work and flexibility that suits your lifestyle. After the pandemic, everyone is more acutely aware of their lifestyle needs – and that employers are capable of meeting that desire for flexibility. If you have children at home, you may need a hybrid role or a parent-friendly schedule. If you’re a night owl, maybe you need hours that can reflect your most productive times of day.

Right now is the best time – in history – for employees to ask for and get the schedule flexibility they desire in roles they find interesting and inspiring. If you know how to ask, you’re more likely to find ultimate happiness and career satisfaction in the year to come.

Create a Healthy Work-Life Well-being

Ready to start the new year with a happy new chapter of your career? So are we! Contact us today to find the ideal next role that will allow you to achieve work-life well-being and to grow as a person in the next year of your professional life.