From Stressed to Blessed: 5 Tips to Find a Career That Brings You Joy

You spend a lot of your life working at your job, and if that job leaves you feeling uninspired or constantly stressed, it can take a toll on your well-being and happiness.

If you’re feeling dread before Monday, that’s often a signal that your job isn’t aligned with your values and passions. But here’s the thing: work shouldn’t be a cycle of surviving until Friday just to start it all over again. There is another way: finding a career that energizes you and adds to your overall happiness. While it’s not an easy ride, and it will take time to discover your own path, it’s undoubtedly worth it. Here are some practical steps to help you break free from a job that drains you and build a career that brings you fulfillment.

Find your Ikigai

Ikigai is a Japanese concept that combines the joy of living with a sense of purpose. The term is made up of the Japanese words “iki”, which means to live, and “gai”, which translates to reason. Together, these words mean “a reason to live”. Ikigai is deeply rooted in Japanese culture and history, holding the belief that happiness can be achieved when one lives in alignment with one's purpose. It is a philosophy that has helped many people lead meaningful lives.

At the core of Ikigai lies the Ikigai diagram, a visual tool that enables you to explore the intersection of four elements: what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. Reflecting on these elements is key to uncovering your Ikigai and living a life filled with a sense of purpose.

Visualize your desired future

Your career should align with the bigger picture of your life, which is why you should take some time to figure out the kind of lifestyle you desire in the future. For this purpose, visualization can be very powerful, which essentially means creating a mental image of what you’d like to achieve, but also focusing on senses to make it as vivid as possible - really feeling into the experience, as if it’s already playing out for you.

According to studies, your brain can’t tell the difference between what’s imagined and what’s real. So, tricking your brain is a way to condition yourself to reach the outcome you want. Of course, it’s important to be realistic and take action, because all the visualization in the world will never help you achieve your goals if you sit on the couch and wait for it to just happen.

Identify your values

Think of your values as your personal GPS, guiding your decisions and actions in life and allowing you to pursue a path that is meaningful to you. Unlike goals, they are the foundation of your life, and they impact everything from the way you spend your time to how you treat other people. Values are also deeply personal, meaning that no two people will have an identical set of values. To discover your values, reflect on the moments in your life where you felt the most alive. What was happening then? What were you doing, and who were you with? How did you feel? Also, think about the people you look up to or admire, as often, they reflect the qualities that matter to you the most.

Understanding your values is important in the work context, not just because it will help you find a career that feels meaningful, but it will also help you stay motivated, even if things get tough. For example, let’s say you value independence and decide that pursuing entrepreneurship is better for you than working for someone else. There will be lots of challenges along the way, and you’ll have to be very resilient. Running your own company means building systems, utilizing tools that make your work easier, such as a business password manager that keeps your operations running smoothly and protects your security at the same time. It also involves learning how to manage time effectively and developing problem-solving skills, among other key skills. If you didn’t know your values, you would likely feel unmotivated and give up when facing an obstacle. Knowing your 'why' helps you stay on your path even when the road gets bumpy.

Know your strengths

There are things you do pretty well, which are referred to as your skills. And there are also things that you love doing, and make you lose track of time, which are your strengths. Finding your strengths is just as important as knowing your values, because it gives you clarity on what comes naturally to you, and allows you to align your work with your true self. When you know your strengths, you are more likely to feel enthusiastic about what you do, which leads to a greater sense of purpose. An excellent way to find out more about yourself is to ask people around you, whether family members or friends.

It's also helpful to reflect on a time in your life when you felt most proud of something you achieved and ask yourself what qualities or skills you used that helped you succeed. Another way to identify your strengths is to consider the activities that make you feel joyful and energized, as if you are in a state of flow. Once you gather information from others and your own self-reflection, take the time to identify recurring patterns, and keep an open mind - you may end up feeling surprised by what you discover in the process.

Identify your obstacles and look for ways to face them

Here comes the hard part: identifying your worries, fears, and self-limiting beliefs that stand in the way of pursuing a career that brings you happiness. These things can stop you from evolving and achieving what you really want, so it’s essential to name them first and then look for ways you can stop them from taking control of your life and choices. For example, you may hear a little voice inside your head that says you’re too inexperienced, too young or too old, too unqualified - you name it, to do something that you want to do.

In this particular situation, what you can do is approach that inner voice with curiosity and notice what it has to say to you and then challenge it. Ask yourself what this inner critic is telling you, where it comes from, and whether it is really true. This way, you will ensure that those limiting beliefs won’t keep you stuck and prevent you from taking action.

The bottom line

Finding a career that brings you joy isn’t about waiting for the stars to align so you can finally achieve what you want - it’s about getting to know yourself and consciously aligning your choices with your values. Each of the steps explored above can bring you closer to a life where work fuels you instead of draining you. While there will certainly be obstacles along the way, understanding your 'why' will keep you moving forward.