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The most important person not to fool is you. Be realistic and honest with yourself. If you need security be aware of that. If you need excitement and challenge know that too. If you want to work alone, if you need lots of people-all of these things are important to know. Be ruthless on yourself. It gets tougher and tougher to make changes in life and early choices matter. So try as hard as you can to keep asking yourself what really matters. The answer to that question will help you be as happy as is possible with your career and work choices. To the extent that you fool yourself you will be frustrated and angry about work as well as your personal choices.

In this country the most lucrative careers are in entertainment, financial services and many types of sales, brokering and consulting. With a little effort one can figure out the types of job that pay well and go after them. There is really not much mystery here. It is not about luck; it is about choosing a career that pays well. Now there are other ways to be wealthy and other ways to keep wealth besides being in a high paying career. But if what someone wants is to have a great deal of money there is absolutely nothing wrong with pursuing that. The key is being clear about priorities. Will money compensate for a boring, stressful or otherwise unfulfilling job? Only you can answer that question.

Although it might be easy to dismiss this strategy out of hand, there may well be something to the idea of making lots of money for a certain amount of time and then later, once secure financially, doing things for fun or self-fulfillment. No one can make this choice for anyone else. This is a strategy that more likely works for those who are young and who have the strength, endurance and flexibility to work the long hours and meet the tough standards of work that pays very well. Of course there are exceptions, but overall, the decision to "go for the money" is a tough one to make in middle or late middle age.

Personal Fulfillment

One of the most likely ways to find career success is by finding something you love and doing it. There are many relatively low paid people who just love what they do and have no regrets. Whatever happens they know they are doing what they love-teaching, working in a bank, being a tailor, a nurse, a police person, a corporate trainer or a social worker.

But what if you don't have a real dream job? What if you went to work for a large company not quite sure what you wanted, but knowing you liked the idea of working with an established company that did good work for example companies like Wal-Mart, Lucent, AT&T or Johnson & Johnson? Then the dream job becomes being part of the solution to make these places better-to make them more efficient, better for customers and employees. If your work isn't doing that it will likely be neither satisfying nor fulfilling.

Personal fulfillment comes from doing work that is meaningful. And that meaning does not have to be profound to anyone but the individual doing it. All types of work can and are meaningful if they provide help and support to people, and if they are done in a quality way. Personal fulfillment comes from doing one's best work and doing it consistently. Here the reward is in knowing that the efforts you are taking are making a difference in a way that is meaningful for you.

People who find this fulfillment do not allow themselves to be affected by petty politics and other natural parts of working with others. Their satisfaction comes from internal rewards, not external rewards such as power or money.

One step at a time

Different than either of the first two strategies, is the approach that sees one's career as a series of steps and developments that all lead to greater knowledge, personal professional power in terms of knowledge and experience and increased responsibility. This type of strategy works best for two types of people. The first are people who might be interested in management and leadership. The skills and abilities to manage and lead are often developed over a number of years. In this case a person may see their career as a series of positions some better and more enjoyable than others, but essentially geared to gaining experiences and practice in a number of ways to gain strength to do an ultimate job like being a CEO or a CIO.

This strategy is also used by professionals from technical consultants to doctors who see their career in stages based on years of experience, exposure to a variety of challenges and learning increasingly difficult competencies. For most professionals this is one of the most likely roads to feeling satisfied about one's career. By definition this strategy brings perspective. Individual successes and even failures are all seen as part of a larger tapestry of learning and acquiring new skills and abilities. One looks ahead to varied challenges, which are the result of gaining new and broader perspectives and abilities. One doesn't expect to run the hospital or the company at 28, rather one expects to grow and acquire greater responsibility and challenge over time. In many ways it seems that this approach is the sensible or most traditional road to success.

One of the dangers of this approach is the possibility that as one grows and ages, opportunities may diminish. Where once the goal of taking on more responsibility and challenge seemed real, the reality is that one has been "passed over" or is now seen as "irrelevant and no longer useful". But, if an individual has set his or her sites on growth and development, and has developed the personal qualities mentioned earlier in the article, it is likely that if the original plan doesn't work, there will be new and different opportunities available. The point is that this strategy works if and only if the individual is truly growing and developing and keeping track of him or herself. This growth leads the person to see new opportunities as they present themselves and to avoid pitfalls that may come to those that are less developed and aware.

This type of career may find someone beginning at a series of corporate jobs, then becoming a consultant and finally working for oneself at home. All the time this person has been gaining ground, learning new things, adapting to changes and grasping opportunities wherever they presented themselves. This is in contrast to the person who is convinced that there is only one way and then find they are at a dead-end and unsure what to do next.

This, that and something else again

There are those who never really have a career at all. They work, they earn a living, but rather than finding a type of work, or an industry to specialize in, they simple work to live rather than the other way around. Early on they work at a corporation just because their Dad worked there. After an early success and some good job moves, the company goes out of business and they drift into a new career in real estate since their old high school friend has an agency and they think it would work out. After sometime at that there is a move necessitated by a spouse's job and the next spot is opening a boutique or working at home on the computer.

In every job there are challenges and fun and even some substantial financial rewards, but no real career. Is this a mistake in terms of satisfaction and feelings of success? Not necessarily if the person has really spent time knowing him or herself and has selected this career approach. Again, that self-knowledge becomes critical. Work itself can be very rewarding no matter what it is. Just the act of socializing, earning money and belonging can be enough for some people. Not everyone should have a career. But, be aware that the lack of a career can mean that the passion and excitement that some people have doing work that is very important to them will very likely not happen for this person.

This is the least likely way to achieve work satisfaction, but not necessarily the least likely way to a happy and contented life. In the end, one's overall satisfaction with life will stem from many things and, for most people it will be from relationships, family and friends. The person that has achieved career success without any form of love and connection will very likely experience less satisfaction than the person who has found love and continues to struggle professionally.

The importance of reflection and action

If finding work that is satisfying and meaningful is important to you, then commit yourself now to finding it. There are jobs out there that matter and that could provide you with work that would be powerful and satisfying. This is especially true for professionals like those for whom this article is written that have education and options. For these people the issue really is one of making a commitment to finding the right place, and giving oneself the time needed to find the best strategies for success.

Begin with reflection. Think about your current work and what it means to you. Consider the pros and cons. Ask yourself how much you like to go to work and what really excites you. The answers should begin to form a pattern. The key is not to rush into anything, but to let the answers come to you slowly and quietly.

When you are ready to act in some way, here are some ideas based on the article. There is no right or wrong way to this process. The key is to proceed at your own pace and discover the ingredients that will lead you to the right work and the right focus.

	Develop yourself, especially your self-knowledge, which is your guide to everything else. Remember to seek not to judge yourself, to listen to your heart, to learn about yourself and your true heart's desires.
	Become a learner-obtaining knowledge and skills in the needed areas--from technology to people excellence. Keep at it.
	Be flexible and open to ideas and possibilities that you may have rejected in the past. "Never say never" should be your rule. Maybe a new career, a move to a different part of the country or an expansion of your responsibilities would be just the right thing for you. Think about all your options.
	Understand the world around you and your relation to it. Get in touch with the new and changing world of work. Read about different companies. Try to find out the trends in your own industry or in industries that interest you. Learn what is going on in your area of the country. Be open to information that might help give you insight into the workplace that surrounds you.
	Choose a strategy and work with it to achieve your own unique form of work satisfaction. Don't model yourself after anyone else. The experiences of others can be helpful since they can provide ideas and thoughts. But ultimately it is your career and your life. Choose wisely.

I firmly believe anyone can achieve a large degree of satisfaction in their work if they are committed and persistent. Achieving success has never been easy. To create a meaningful work life, it is important to understand what is truly important and to maintain a course to achieve it utilizing one's creativity and flexibility along the way.