No matter which stage of career we are at, we all likely have an idea of what career success looks like — a great salary, a prestigious job title, awards and accolades.

However, while these outer measures of success have their place, focusing solely on them often leaves people feeling unfulfilled, burnt out, and questioning if they’re on the right path after all.

This is where career fulfillment comes in.

Career fulfillment is the inner sense that your work has meaning, aligns with your values, makes an impact, and contributes to your overall well-being and happiness.

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking.”, as quoted by the visionary Steve Jobs, this accurately embodies what career fulfilment should look like.

In this article, we’ll explore what career fulfillment is, why it matters for your career success, and most importantly, how to cultivate more of it in your professional life.

What Is Career Fulfillment?

Career fulfillment refers to an internal sense of meaning, purpose, and satisfaction in your work. It goes beyond enjoying the daily tasks and responsibilities of your job to being passionate about the overarching vision and mission behind what you do.

• Meaningful Work: When your job duties and the company’s purpose align with what you find personally meaningful, you feel you’re contributing value through your skills, talents and perspective.
• Engagement: You feel focused, energized and absorbed in your work. Time passes quickly because you enter a satisfying state of flow.
• Progress: You have opportunities to continuously learn, grow and take on new challenges. In turn, you feel a sense of momentum in developing new skills and advancing toward career goals.
• Work-life Balance: Your workload allows you to also prioritize health, relationships and hobbies so you don’t burn out, eventually leading you to a successful career.
• Appreciation and Respect: Your efforts and ideas are valued by leadership and peers. You feel recognized as an integral part of the team. What else does one need beyond the acknowledgement and respect of the contributions they’ve made, right?

The Impact of Career Fulfillment on Career Success

Career fulfillment – or lack thereof – greatly influences career success both inwardly (in terms of your well-being and motivation) and outwardly (in terms of results, achievements and career growth). Here’s an overview of some of the key ways it impacts success:

• What’s Your One True Purpose?

  Knowing your life’s purpose can transform how you view your career — it’s like finding your true north — for the contributions only you are uniquely positioned to make based on your innate passions, talents and experiences. Without purpose clarity and career fulfilment guiding you, it’s easy to get pulled in different directions by parental expectations, societal norms or the next promotion dangling in front of you. But when you lead with purpose anchored in fulfilment, external influences and opportunities gravitate into alignment with your soul calling.

• Let’s Find the Missing Piece of the Puzzle

  There will inevitably be tradeoffs in any Career Path— something is gained, something is lost. But oftentimes you don’t realize a key ingredient is missing until you experience its absence and feel unfulfilled. This could be anything from not enough human interaction if working remotely, to insufficient autonomy if micromanaged, to inadequate community service if solely focused on profits. By tuning into feelings of dissatisfaction, the missing elements causing them can guide you toward more fulfilling roles or companies.

• Set the Right Career Goals

  Goal-setting from a place of fulfilment yields targets related to purpose and growth versus status and validation. Rather than chasing goals society deems impressive but that sacrifice your well-being, fulfilment-oriented goals have the power to enhance your vitality while driving impact. These intrinsically motivated goals also boost perseverance during challenges and failures since superficial rewards aren’t the chief reason you press on. The purpose is the ultimate intrinsic motivator that makes the climb worthwhile.

• Make the Right Career Decisions

  Career or job fulfilment is like an internal GPS guiding you toward the people, places and opportunities where you can uniquely thrive. With the right direction, you deliberately build a career ecosystem that allows your best self to flourish. This means saying no to roles that suppress strengths and saying yes to ones that expand your potential. It means cultivating collaborative relationships versus political ones. Every career-shaping decision becomes filtered through the lens of fulfilment to construct a customized career tailor-made for you.

• Empower Yourself to Take More Risks

  Fulfilment fuels courage to take smart risks, whether asking for promotions before feeling 100% ready, pitching bold ideas that disrupt the status quo, or confidently leaping into entrepreneurship. You feel secure jumping into the unknown because your sense of inner purpose anchors and steadies you through volatility. Taking risks also builds fulfilment by testing abilities, yielding exponential growth and bringing purpose to life through action. They form a positive interwoven cycle, each heightening the other over a fulfilling Career Journey.

Tips to Feel More Fulfilled at Work and Boost Career Success

Here are five research-backed tips for increasing career fulfillment day-to-day while also elevating your overall career success:

1. Set intrinsic goals focused on self-improvement and contribution over external validation. Intrinsic goals like developing skills, helping others and bringing ideas to life are inherently fulfilling to pursue.
2. Cultivate high-quality relationships with colleagues by being generous with support and acknowledgement. Strong social connections and feeling valued on a team fuels fulfilment.
3. Identify your strengths and reframe your job to apply them more. Leaning into activities using your strengths makes you feel more engaged and energized.
4. Give your brain a regular positive boost by noting 1-2 things you find meaningful or enjoyable about your workday. This simple reflection builds an ongoing sense of purpose

Conclusion

While career success can be measured externally in terms of titles, salaries and awards, these ring hollow without the internal fuel of career fulfillment sustaining you through the long haul.

Fulfilment comes from knowing your work matters, resonates with your purpose and allows you to grow while making a difference with unique talents. Using the tips in this article, you can evaluate and enhance your sense of career fulfillment.