The Complete Career Happiness Continuum
Do you ever ask yourself this simple question: Am I happy? I guess it isn’t that simple of a question becuase I sometimes struggle to answer it. For many people happiness is most directly tied to there jobs. When they struggle with happiness they might ask question like:
“Do I like the people I work for?”
“Could I be making more money?”
“Is the work I am doing rewarding/meaningful/fun/important?”
This can’t be an original idea, but it struck me that if a person could be satisfied in all three of those areas (people, money, projects) then they would have reached complete career happiness. I sketched the following diagram to illustrate the Complete Career Happiness Continuum™.
As you can see there are three factors that contribute to career happiness: good co-workers, good projects and good money. If you are short in one area then you fall into one of the three gray areas of misery:
1. You like the people you work with and you enjoy your work, but the pay stinks.
2. You make good money and like the people you work for but the work is terrible.
3. You love your work and the pay is good but your co-workers are losers.
For me I have a hard time complaining about any one of those factors. I like the people I work with. I am getting paid to do something I love. I am making decent money. So why can’t I just say, “Yes, I am happy!?” I think this is where my diagram falls apart. It doesn’t take into account the “grass is greener” part of human nature. You are always going to want to make more money. You are never going to get along with everyone you work with. No matter how great your projects are, there will always be times when it is just work. I guess the challenge of being happy is learning to be content with what you have. Unfortunately, that sounds more like a fortune cookie than words to live by. I wonder if I could be happy writing fortunes for a living. Hmmm.
October 18th, 2007 at 6:15 am
Stephen Covey uses something similar in his text “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”: Knowledge, Desire, Skills are the three big circles. The middle result is Habits. Jim Collins, your neighbor in Boulder, uses a similar thought in regards to companies overcoming mediocraty (check spelling) and becoming great: What are you the best in the world at, What drives your economic engine, What are you deeply passionate about are the three big circles. The middle circle is what he terms “hedgehog concept”.
While these are not exact replicas to your thoughts, they do parallel at some level what you are describing. One thing you may want to think about is Luther’s use of the word “vocation”. Where does this fit in?
February 4th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
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