Introduction: Finding joy in your career
Feeling stuck in a mid-career rut can be draining and disheartening. But you can break free of that and rediscover joy in your work for more career fulfillment, whatever you are doing.
In this article, we’ll explore my ‘Career Joy Prescription’ – designed to help you transform your mid-career rut into a fulfilling journey of growth and success.
Understanding your current situation
Before we dive into the Career Joy Formula, let’s take a moment to understand what a mid-career rut looks like. It’s that feeling of being stuck in a repetitive cycle, lacking motivation, and feeling frustrated and unfulfilled despite years of experience.
The importance of joy for career growth
Joy isn’t just a nice-to-have in your career; it’s essential for your overall well-being and success. Research shows that joy can help you be more productive, creative, and resilient in the face of challenges.
Choosing joy helps you be more productive, creative and resilient in your career and beyond.
The Career Joy Prescription
Use this prescription like a checklist to help you stay on track towards greater professional growth, fulfillment and job satisfaction:
Step 1: Self-reflection
Step 2: Clarifying career goals
Step 3: Taking action
Step 4: Seeking support
Step 5: Cultivating gratitude
Step 1: Self-reflection
Start by looking inward and reflecting on what brings you joy.
What are:
- your strengths?
- your passions?
- your values?
By gaining a deeper understanding of yourself, you can align your career path with what truly matters to you. You can also start to figure out from this what things in your current job bring you joy.
Ask yourself how you can structure your time to maximise these things and to be mindful of and savour the small highlights in your day that these represent.
Step 2: Clarifying career goals
Set clear and meaningful goals for your career:
- What do you want to achieve?
- Where do you see yourself in the next few years?
If you can’t think of concrete places and events, focus on the needs you want to be fulfilled or the feelings you want to have. e.g. I want to travel more, I want to feel valued.
By having a clear vision, you can make decisions, plan your focus and navigate your career path with purpose and direction. Focusing on feelings helps you to zero in on what will bring more joy for you.
Step 3: Taking action
Take small, manageable steps towards your goals.
Whether it’s updating your skills, networking with industry professionals, leaning into the parts of your current job you really enjoy, or exploring new opportunities, every action you take brings you closer to finding joy in your work.
Making a weekly or monthly list of very small, realistic steps to tick off can be rewarding and motivating.
Step 4: Seeking support
Don’t be afraid to ask for help along the way.
Whether it’s seeking guidance from a mentor, coach, or trusted colleague, having support can make all the difference in overcoming challenges and staying motivated.
Don’t forget the support you get from those family and friends on your front row, too, in the form of encouragement, love and even positive (joyful!) distractions.
Step 5: Cultivating gratitude
Practice gratitude daily and appreciate the small wins along the way.
By focusing on the positives in your career, you’ll develop a mindset of abundance and resilience, making it easier to navigate through tough times.
Keeping a gratitude journal over time will also reveal to you patterns in what you enjoy, value and appreciate at work.
Your support network can massively help your career growth AND be a source of joy.
My clients’ career success stories
Feeling trapped in a job you don’t like causes loads of negative emotion. That impacts you and those around you. Frustration at work was impacting Soumya*’s relationship with her family.
In sessions, we shifted the focus to the existing positives at work, and an action plan for career growth toward her goals helped shift her into feeling energised and optimistic – and improved the family dynamic, too.
Then there’s Jay*, who was ready to quit his job due to frustration and lack of momentum.
After working together to assess the areas he did enjoy and could maximise, he managed to negotiate with his boss around his work responsibilities to focus on his strengths, skills, and areas of interest. Finding the shift successful, he didn’t quit his job, after all.
*names changed at clients’ request
Overcoming common career fulfillment challenges
While the career joy prescription provides a checklist for finding joy in your career, it’s not without its challenges.
From fear of failure to resistance to change, there will be obstacles along the way. But with a mindset of determination and strong self-belief, you can overcome them and create a career that brings you true fulfillment.
If that sounds difficult, then remember Step 4 and reach out for help (it’s ALWAYS a sign of strength, as far as I’m concerned). If you are looking for a like-minded community to support you, you are very welcome to join my free group: The Break Room with Beth – just follow the link below!
Conclusion: Embrace the joy of your career journey
So there you have it, a prescription for finding joy in your mid-career journey. I hope you feel inspired to take action to maximise the joyful bits to get greater career growth and career fulfillment.
