Did you ever wonder how you ended up where you are? How did it come to this?
Here's the secret: you aimed for it.
You always hit what you aim for.
Coaching clients often wonder how they ended up in a great paying job that sucks their energy at a massive bureaucratic organization. The truth is that's what they aimed for, consciously or not. They wanted great pay and stability regardless of (or, perhaps, more than) work quality.
But don't get discouraged. The principle works to your benefit as well.
Want something better? Aim for something better, then use the same tactics that got you where you are today to get you where you want to be tomorrow.
It may take some time, but you'll always hit it.

You can't say 100% about many things. It's so definite. Final.

100% of water is wet.

100% of the sun is bright.

100% of bacon is delicious (except turkey bacon, so I guess 99% of bacon...).

Here's a 100-percenter you can bank on:

100% of career dissatisfaction comes from values incongruence.

If you're not satisfied with what you're doing, it's because what you expected it to be and what it is are two different things -- they're incongruent. You have a set of values -- core beliefs -- that are so much a part of who you are that they drive every decision you make. And when those values are disregarded, trampled on, ignored, or threatened the result is dissatisfaction.

I meet with lots of career coaching clients who are dissatisfied with what they are doing and the answer, 100% of the time, is to diagnose what about their currently reality is misaligned with what they thought it would be.

Save yourself the headache of jumping jobs and looking around for something that's more satisfying and start by getting crystal clear about what in your current reality is incongruent.
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HINT: It's not only values, but also talents that are dormant or environments that are misaligned.

At this point I've met with hundreds of people one-on-one to help them through their career journey. Each is person is unique, but the pattern is the same:

• Person chooses job based on extrinsic factors like money, prestige, peer pressure, well-meaning parents' or friends' advice, benefit packages, lack of clarity about what to do next, etc.
• Person wakes up dissatisfied and tries to suppress it. It bubbles up again and again before they decide to do something about.
• Person expresses dissatisfaction to me, which is always the result of incongruence.
• We diagnose what is incongruent, which is always values, talents, or environment (or a combo of the three).
• In the process, the person shares what they've actually always wanted to do -- often in a hushed tone as if they're not allowed to dream -- but quickly begins doubting it and or shooting it down as a viable option.
• We build confidence to do it by getting clear about who they are and then identify the first step to actually doing it. For some, it may be quitting. For others, it may just be starting.
• They begin to do it, build momentum, and the universe shifts to provide them with an opportunity to do more of it.
• They do it and can't believe they ever spent so much time doing something different.

But wait, did you catch it? Did you see the solution to getting out of the funk and moving forward? It's ACTION. They did something. It might have been talking to someone, writing something down, taking the first step, or something else, but every RESET always starts with ACTION.

So DO SOMETHING.

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When you've figured out that you can no longer live with your career the way it is, you really have three options, in order from most risky to least:
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1. Leap. Jump to something new. This could be starting your own venture or simply finding another job that aligns more with who you are.
2. Craft. Make the job you have the job you want. This may require you to raise your hand and own some talents you've suppressed for awhile. You might have to stick your neck out and be a little more bold.
3. Supplement. Continue doing your day job, but do more of what you love in the morning, at night, and on the weekend. You may even be able to start weaving some of it into work hours, like when I used to use my lunch break to lift weights at a nearby gym or take a 20-minute break to disappear and read a book.

It doesn't matter so much which one you choose as long as you choose. Pick one and do something about it. The worst thing you can do when you discover you career isn't working (pun intended) is to do nothing at all.

Ignoring it won't make the dissatisfaction go away. Address it head on and choose to do something about it.