You are the problem and the solution.

The reason you don’t love your job isn’t because of your boss, or your organization, or your job description.

It’s not your salary or your benefits package, or lack thereof.

The reason you don’t love your job is because of incongruence, and that’s a you thing. You control whether or not your job is congruent or incongruent with who you are.

Have you taken the time to get clear about who you are and then intentionally create a plan for more alignment with your authentic self?

I was talking with a former marriage counselor recently who said an interesting thing. He got out of the industry decades ago because he said that most clients came into his office wanting to fix the mess around them but weren’t interested in fixing themselves. He found it too difficult to work with people who didn’t realize that they can only control themselves. I told him the same is true of career.

The solution isn’t out there. You are the problem and the solution.

Here’s how you solve your dissatisfaction:

1. You can’t recognize incongruence until you can pinpoint it, and that ability comes with self-awareness. What is it about your job that rubs you wrong? It is rubbing up against a value? Are your strengths dormant? Is the environment all wrong? Do you know your values, strengths, and environments to even be able to do this assessment?
2. What would the ideal look like? Draw a picture and label it. What would satisfaction look like?
3. What opportunities exist around you? Can you stay put and job craft and get more energy? Is the gap wide enough that you need to change jobs? Is it time to start your own thing?
4. What’s the next step? Is it talking with a manager? Starting a side project? Getting your resume ready for distribution?

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Start with this analysis and see where it takes you. It may simply be that you haven’t been asking the right questions.