5 Big Warning Signs Your Job Isn’t Right For You
Do you wake up each morning dreading going to work? Do you experience boredom or even a sense of emptiness at work, be it sometimes or all of the time? In that case, there are clear warning signs that your career is not aligned with your higher life purpose. If we aren’t working on something that feels meaningful to us, we can find ourselves feeling empty, having no drive, and feeling unsatisfied.
It is always important to know when a career is not the right one. Just the career-hopping alone can be a scary process. But the right kind of work will energize you, make you happier, and fulfill you.
Here are 5 big red flags (warning signs) that could mean your job is all wrong:
Red Flag #1: You Feel Drained, Not Energized
It’s one of the most obvious signs that your work does not fit your purpose. It burns you out physically, mentally, and emotionally. Instead of coming home from work energized and excited, you feel like you’ve gone round after round with a heavyweight.
On the contrary, when we do inspiring and meaningful work, it is quite the opposite: it really energizes us. Sure, we could be physically tired from the effort, but it would leave us with a sense of accomplishment and quite fuelled by the purpose.
The right kind of work will energize you, make you happier, and fulfill you.
The alarm bell, though, is if your job always leaves you running on empty, no spare energy left over. Life purpose should reenergize, not deplete us.
Red Flag #2: If it’s not something you’re passionate about
Another big red flag is when you feel ‘meh’ about your work. It’s not that you hate it exactly, but you’re not on fire about it either.
We could not help but feel some passion while doing something associated with our life’s purpose. The work becomes exhilarating. We feel that it is worth giving the highest effort we can.
This would be a red flag when we feel absolutely indifferent to what we are doing and accomplishing, while we should feel neither very negatively nor very positively about our work. Our life’s purpose is supposed to ignite passion and drive us.
Red Flag #3: Your Values Clash With The Company’s
Our values, ethics, and principles should be part and parcel of our life purpose. If, therefore, your personal values conflict with your employer’s values, that shows a deep disconnect.
It could be that your organization acts in ways contrary to your moral compass. Or perhaps their priorities and how they treat people are at odds with what you feel is right. In other words, any values disconnect can leave you feeling uneasy, conflicted, and disgruntled at work.
If you are constantly at crossroads with the ethics and practices of your employer, take it as a clear sign. Doing work that is not in line with your values will never make it possible for you to live your purpose fully.
Red Flag #4: If It Doesn’t Make Sense To You
A stronger sign would be if you feel your work is just not significant or purposeful. You may think, “Sure, it’s good enough for a paycheck, but it doesn’t really matter much in the grand scheme of things.”
Then, when your work is an expression of your deeper life purpose, the work itself—large or small—is phenomenally important and meaningful to you. The tasks and results become much more significant.
This is a clear signal that meaning doesn’t attach itself to your day-to-day work. We all need to work if it’s to bring about the feeling that what we do is positive for the world.
Red Flag #5: Your Strength Goes Unused
Our unique gifts, strengths, and talents form a great part of the meaning of our life. When we do not use the skills given to us in a meaningful way, it can leave us feeling unfulfilled.
That’s an instant red flag: if your job doesn’t tap or utilize your greatest natural abilities, you probably feel you waste away a big part of the whole self.
In a career on purpose, you will use your main strengths all the time. You get to do your best, what you do best, and love to do most every day. If your job doesn’t let you put your greatest strengths in the service of something you believe in, then chances are it doesn’t let you live your purpose. Observing The Signs No job, of course, is perfect; there will be some things about any given career that are not a 100% seamless fit with your life purpose.
That’s okay. However, if you find that you can check several of these major red flags off, then that is a flashing warning light. Chances are, you have a big misalignment between your job and your deeper purpose and values. Don’t avoid those signs—they are nudging you toward a better direction for your life.
Even if it’s hard to do something different, you’ve got to be able to do work that lets you live on purpose daily. It’s when you are engaged in work which gives you lots of energy, sparks off your passion, lives by your values, feels meaningful, and utilizes your key strengths — in other words, that’s where you get fulfillment, satisfaction, and success. Listen to those gut feelings and if a job fits your purpose or not. Your life’s calling depends on it!
