Should I stay or should I go now....

A career can be a vicious cycle. You get promoted or you get a raise, you now have discretionary income and then you increase your spending and you are once again unhappy with your pay or other aspects of your job. You work for a promotion or switch jobs to just repeat the cycle. Many times you can find satisfaction in your current situation. Here are a few things that may help break that cycle.

Stop comparing yourself. “Comparison is the death of joy.” ― Mark Twain

This may be the best piece of advice anyone can get, but it is difficult to follow. This has been increasing difficult with social media. Your “friends” post about their vacation to the Caribbean, their new car, their new home, or their fancy wedding. This creates an unreal view of life. People generally do not post their car was just repossessed and they are in bankruptcy, that they eat bologna every day so they can afford that house payment or that they have not saved a penny for retirement. Have your own goals set by you and not driven by comparison.

The grass always looks greener

All jobs have dissatisfying factors. A new job may give you different ones but I have yet to find a job where everything is perfect. First look to find satisfaction in your current job, talk to your manager about aspects of your job that could change your satisfaction level. Over my years in HR I have seen many people quit over things that could have easily been changed without changing employers, many of those same people come back just a few months later.

Find cheap and/or long lasting joy

Don't be overly money driven as it has a very short impact on satisfaction. That does not mean allow yourself to be grossly underpaid. Instead of just trying to keep up with the Joneses, find things in your life that give you great joy and cost you little to nothing. Search for free things to do where you live. Since they are free they are not well advertised like paid events so you need to seek them out. You can get great joy from not having a car payment (if needed they sell new car smell spray freshener) or in never worrying about being able to pay a bill because you choose to live well below your means. If you splurge, studies have shown splurging on experiences (unique vacations, skydiving, or a great concert) have a longer lasting effect than splurging on material things. Also giving to others (charity) has a much longer lasting positive effect.

Find goals outside of work

Many times our goals are more about obtaining material goods. This can lead to unreal expectations and dissatisfaction at work due to the financial requirements to achieve the goals. Make goals to spend time with family and friends, goals to get exercise, goals to do volunteer work, or to make it to you children’s events, then work hard to meet them.

If you do feel you need to pursue greener grass for your career

Make sure you know what you are looking for. You want to run towards a great opportunity, not just run away from a bad one, so take time to evaluate the role and the quality of the employer.

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