Your entire life is not about your job and career, but what you do professionally will probably impact your happiness a lot. If you have a job that makes you miserable, that’s not going to do you any good, since you’ll have to spend many hours every week doing something you detest. By contrast, if you have a job you love in a field that inspires you, you’re going to have higher mental contentment levels.
You might come to a point where your career feels a bit stagnant, though. To avoid this, there are some particular actions you can take.
Get a Degree
Maybe you started in a career field or industry where you did not necessarily need a college degree. Perhaps you got into it right after high school, and it might even pay you a decent salary with no higher learning required.
You may be in a financial position where you can work toward your college degree during your downtime. If so, you might take evening classes even as you continue working at your current job. If you can get an accredited university degree, that might be what it takes to land a more profitable position within your niche.
Set a Yearly Monetary Goal
You can also sometimes push yourself to go further in your career by setting a particular monetary goal. Maybe you want to make more money in one calendar year than you have ever made before.
In order to do that, you might accept overtime whenever your boss offers it to you. You can take on a second job if one becomes available and you feel like it won’t be too much for you.
This sort of self-motivation can help you a great deal. Even if you don’t quite reach your goal one year, just striving to attain it is a way you can show your boss your dedication.
Take Supplemental Classes
You can also take classes or courses within your field. These might be technical rather than academic. If you’re in a niche where there is always new technology emerging, for instance, you can show your superiors dedication by wanting to learn about and master that tech.
You might be able to get your current job to pay for these classes or courses. They might be looking for bold, self-motivated individuals who they can promote from within instead of doing outside hiring. The more knowledgeable you are within your field, the more attractive of a candidate you are.
You Can Actively Hunt for a Better-Paying Job
You might decide that you want to make more money than what you are right now, so you can ask your boss for a raise. If one does not seem to be forthcoming, though, you can actively hunt for a new job, even as you keep working at your current one.
If you do this, you’re operating from a more powerful and safer position than if you’re job hunting and you’re currently unemployed. If you already have a secure position, then it’s not the end of the world if you don’t get a new job to which you apply.
If you land a new job, you can either take it if the prospects seem better, or else you can go back to your boss and inform them of the offer. You might leverage the possibility of leaving to get them to promote you or pay you more money. If they won’t do so, you know they don’t value you enough, and you can simply take the new job.
You Can Enter a New Career Field
Pushing yourself to greater heights might mean getting out of your current field eventually. Maybe you feel like you’ve reached the apex there, and you have nothing more to prove. You also might feel like you can make more money or get better benefits in a completely new niche.
You might get into an industry that’s tangentially related to your current one. That way, you’ll already have some or all of the skills you need to make the change.