What Makes a Fulfilling Career & Life?
I realized that a good life isn't an easy life. There's an enjoyment that you're cheated out of when you take the easy route. - Stuart Semple, Artist
As we grow in our careers, many of us stop enjoying what we are doing. One reason is the equivalent of the money paradox: money can make you happier, but only if you don’t care about it.
So too is the same for postings: you can truly enjoy postings only when you don’t care too much about pursuing them! The “posting-happiness” quotient depends more on the type of relationship you have with postings, than the actual number of high-in-demand postings you get.
The problem comes from wanting to get posting for particular motives: social comparison, seeking power, showing off, or overcoming self-doubt. Put simply, if you are seeking a posting to feel superior to others, or because you’re trying to boost your self-worth, your efforts will lower your happiness.
There’s a term for it: the arrival fallacy. This is the reason we sometimes still feel “empty” (have everything, but feel nothing) even when we get the posting we want. Achieving a position rarely feels like arrival because it’s not the end we imagined. In fact, your well-being depends on what you do in the post, and happiness is a by-product of getting things done by developing a purpose and meaningful relationship with work.
Purpose is something of a chemical reaction that takes place when your skills meet the needs of the world. A purpose in life is not just any big goal that you pursue. According to researchers, purpose is a long-term aim to make a difference to the broader world, like fighting poverty, creating art, or making people’s lives better through technology. Knowing your skills and your interests - and in a larger sense, your identity - seems to be key to pursuing purpose. Purpose is not a one-off thing. It’s a work in progress, always.
Meaning is a practice to be lived, not a machine to be perfectly constructed. Instead of looking for the perfect formula, you need to learn how to grapple with uncertainty, like working with politicians. The wrestling never stops, but it need not be a perennial battle.
Meaning slips away slowly, without you noticing, and then all at once. The posting that once energized you will become routine. The relationship that once completed you will face challenges. The identity that once defined you will evolve or end. This is the human condition.
In concrete terms, what do you do to form purpose and construct meaning?
1.Seek out meaningful problems
You don’t wait for a perfect posting. Uncomfortable postings are seen as opportunities, not setbacks. You start to ask uncomfortable questions, notice failing processes or stuck projects and get curious about why. Effective administrators I’ve worked with have sharp instincts for this. They look at a tough problem and quickly size up whether it matches their strengths, teaches them something useful, and points where they want to go.
2. Execution builds reputation
Pursuing form (optics) over content doesn’t build lasting influence. Solving meaningful stuff does. Real visibility happens when you’re relevant at crucial moments. When you step into unclear situations repeatedly, own them, move them forward - people connect your name with getting things done. That’s how influence develops. Remember, unglamorous grind builds reputations.
3. Jettison the ladder, follow the learning curve
Decades ago, we used to have a linear career progression in a few departments, like land revenue and magistracy. The best course was to avoid surprises and keep the machine running. This isn’t the standard anymore. Career paths zigzag between postings in different domains. Seek out postings by asking yourself, “Is there something difficult I’m ready to tackle and learn from?”, instead of “What posting comes next?”
4. Redefine ambition around contribution
Measure your career by problems solved, not coveted postings collected; by walking into unclear situations and creating clarity; driving progress when others are paralyzed and delivering under pressure. This requires building on capabilities that transfer across positions and domains. You develop these by repeatedly tackling complex, unclear problems that others avoid. You gain a reputation of a doer no matter what role you’re given.
5. Notice your progress
Shift your focus to finding meaning in the doing by embracing the grind. Set small, doable goals. Search for delights in little work, like celebrating the daily interactions with diverse people; helping people without waiting for praise (and thumbs up). These micro-wins will do wonders for your happiness. You realize that the “arrival” feeling you expect isn’t the end. It’s just one of many experiences to come.
These five principles will give you a series of small advantages, which will build over time. In stock markets this is called compounding, and scientists refer to this effect as “accumulative advantage.” If you do the right things, the more consistently the "slight edges" will store up and give you disproportionate benefits, leading to a more fulfilling career and life.
