How to Know If Your Job Is a Good Fit For You

A recent study done by Harvard Business School and Stanford University shows that work stress can be just as damaging to people's health as second hand smoke exposure.

Does that statement frighten you a little bit when you start thinking about the stress you experience from your own job?

No matter who you are, where you live, or what job you have, you are going to experience stress in life.

Stress can even be a positive thing sometimes if it motivates you to grow and progress, but excessive distress can become harmful to your mental, emotional, and even physical health. That is when it becomes a major concern that needs to be taken seriously.

The point of this hub is not to tell you whether or not you need to change jobs. Every person is unique and handles the stresses of specific jobs and situations differently, so discovering what kind of job is the best for you is really a personal decision.

Rather the point of this hub, it is to give you some guiding questions that you can ask yourself in order to help you figure out whether or not you feel the job you are in is the best job for your health, your quality of life, and your personal growth right now.

That might sound like a crazy question to some of you who wonder if it is possible that anybody enjoys starting work in the morning, but the truth is that there are a lot of people that are so passionate about their jobs that they can't wait to get to work.

When your job is something that you are passionate about rather than something that you dread, you will see your job satisfaction shoot through the roof.

This is one reason that I know that jobs involving writing are a great fit for me. Rather than dreading having to sit down in front of my computer, often times I have the opposite experience of having a hard time stopping to eat or do the other essentials of life.

It would be awesome if every single person was able to find a job that truly stirred up passion and excitement inside, but as many of you are probably thinking, that's not always a realistic possibility.

Hopefully, we will all get there someday, but sometimes, you just need a job that is going to help put food on the table and pay the rent whether you are super excited about it or not.

Even if you are in this situation, I think it is important for you to feel like you are making a difference in the world when you go to work.

When people don't feel like they are making a valuable contribution to society, it is easy to fall into a state of depression where it feels like life is being wasted. That's not where you want to be.

Every job has a purpose. Nobody would pay you to do a job if there wasn't someone who needed the job done, but if you don't see any value in the job that you are accomplishing, it might not be a place that you should stay in for a long period of time.

You don't want to go through your whole life feeling like your life's work was a waste of time.

Alright, so what if you not only lack passion about your job, but you honestly don't feel like doing your job makes any valuable contribution to the world? Does that mean it's one hundred percent, without a doubt, time to find somewhere else to go?

If there is another job option available that will fulfill your financial needs and provide you with valuable opportunities to make a difference and do the things you are passionate about, it could very well be time to switch jobs, but what if there's not?

That's when this third guiding question becomes extremely important to ask yourself.

Sometimes a job that is stressful and even feels meaningless could be worth hanging onto if you can see that it is a temporary fixture in your life that is going to help you accomplish your future goals.

Here are a few examples of when that might be the case:

• You need a job to earn money for your education-You might spend a few years doing custodial work at the university until you can finish your degree and get the job you really want. It might not be your end goal, but you can see that it is helping you get the education you need in order to achieve that goal.
• You need a job to sustain you until you end up with your dream job-You might be someone like me who dreams of being a writer, an artist, or whatever your unique dream may be, but you recognize that you need to do some other kind of work to supplement your income along the way as you work to make your dream into a career that can support you.
• This job will give you the means to achieve your financial goals-Whether you have a goal of getting out of debt or becoming independently wealthy, sometimes the job you are in might be just what you need to get where you are trying to be financially. For some people, working in a job that they are less than passionate about is worth it as long as they know it is a means to an end.

Obviously, it is your choice whether you want to stick with your current job or find a new one, but answering the following questions that were discussed above, can give you guidance about whether or not your job is a good fit for you if you aren't sure whether you are going in the right direction or not.

• Are you excited about your job?
• Do you feel like you are making a difference?
• Will this job help you to accomplish your future goals?

I'm not recommending that you go out and quit your job immediately with no means of replacing your income just because you feel less than satisfied at work, although whether you do that or not is a personal decision you will have to make for yourself.

What I am recommending is that if you feel like the job you have right now isn't a good fit for you, it might be worth it to step out of your comfort zone to find a job that provides you with a better quality of life rather than becoming comfortable in a job that is less than satisfying to you.