Is Your Job Search Motivated by the Wrong Reasons?

Every job search is motivated by something. We all have our reasons for wanting a different job, and no one but you can say whether or not those reasons are valid. But there are certainly some job search motivations that are more effective than others.

Ask yourself if you've fallen into these common job search motivation traps.

Envy
It's one of the basics of human nature to look at someone else and compare your own life to theirs. But it rarely proves to be a sound motivation for a job search. When you allow your job search to be driven by the need to match up to some arbitrary rival you compare yourself to, you put your happiness and quality of life onto shaky ground. Basing your choices on someone else's life steals control from your life. And that rarely has good consequences. Start beating the envy monster by asking yourself what your own personal desires, needs, and possibilities are. Let those be your motivation instead.

Only for Money
We all need money. Despite all the talk of career satisfaction and fulfillment, the bottom line is that to some degree work has to support us financially. And that's where the hang up is. It's all too easy to make that the end-all goal of a job search. Unfortunately, that not only leaves you empty emotionally in the long run, it also tends to be counterproductive to making more money. Ask a top performer in any profession from pro sports stars to Fortune 100 presidents, and they'll almost always tell you that they got there by being passionate about what they did. The money is merely a reward for that passion. So by chasing money as the sole motivator, you can often sabotage your ability to make more money. Talk about cruel irony.

Anger
Lousy days can happen anywhere you work. And sometimes those lousy days stretch into lousy weeks and months. Yeah, if they start to go beyond a couple months, you should either look at trying to fix the job, change your attitude toward it, or just plain look to get out. But don't get hacked off one day and flee from what might be basically a decent position. And never make a major job search decision on a Monday, when everything looks darker.