If you are not enjoying your career, research suggests that you are well within the norm in that regard. In an article for Forbes, Louis Efron reported how a survey from Deloitte’s Shift Index revealed that 80% of people working do not like their jobs.

Even more alarming is that research from the firm Ignite also said that 95% of workers are spending their careers in the wrong roles for them.

So is it just normal and expected that most people will hate what they do for work? Or is there something you can do differently to get into a job you love?

Efron asserts that part of this is due to America’s mentality regarding work. Our culture frequently extols the notion that if you want to be rewarded, you must work hard. So people plug away at jobs that require frequent overtime, require handling more responsibilities than what they were hired for, and leave them developing unhealthy habits.

And those people are often still just scraping by. But complaints about this often lead to accusations of laziness.

Another factor mentioned is buying into the idea to just follow your passion. But you could very well be passionate about something you are not good at.

Pursuing something you do not have an aptitude for will leave you stuck at a low level with little hope for advancement. The recommendation is to instead examine why that thing makes you feel passionate. What about it do you actually enjoy, and how can you still do that thing in an activity that you are actually good at?

The job search has also been compared to romantic relationships, where people make the mistake of committing to something based on a fantasy they have built up in their heads.

Are you actually seeing what’s in front of you clearly, or are you creating some idealized version that will leave you disappointed when the reality does not measure up? It is the latter for many in both marriages and jobs.

The common denominator in these mistakes is putting faith in an abstract concept rather than reality. It might not be as fun, but a job search works better when you ask concrete questions. What excites you? What are you good at? What would you be doing if your goal wasn’t just to make money?

Having solid answers will better guide you towards a job that you actually enjoy.

To learn more about what leads to people winding up in jobs they do not enjoy, read the article from Forbes here.

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career change strategist Scott Dinsmore TEDTalk offers advice on how to find and do a job you love.

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