Here’s what eases my anxiety about job fulfillment:

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (see the triangle below), our needs fall into tiers:

🔮Basic
🔮Psychological
🔮Self-fulfillment

I learned this idea in a career workshop with Jared Scheinberg, LCSW CASAC

It’s unrealistic to expect a job to fulfill all of our needs. Once we identify each of our needs, we can seek out opportunities that fill out our triangle.

Then, we fulfill the remaining needs elsewhere. For example, maybe we find a job that pays our bills and provides a network of friends but leaves us without the satisfaction of giving back to our community. Once we recognize the missing need, we can either:

💀Resent our current role for not providing or
🌱Search out volunteer opportunities in our neighborhood

When we recognize jobs, people, and experiences for the needs they CAN fulfill, we appreciate them more and it empowers us to take charge of fulfilling the rest. Then, we end up with a rich and diverse circle of people and experiences. For me, the anxiety is a clue that I need to investigate ways to fill out my triangle.