Can career success make you feel empty?
We often measure success based on the achievement of a goal such as a promotion, a bonus, or a degree earned but sometimes that success is still missing something. Have you had the experience of achieving a goal but then asking yourself, “What’s next?” Does it feel a bit like checking off a list? Or do you feel dissatisfied even after goal achievement? Maybe it is time to re-think success. Ron Carucci, in his article “Why Success Doesn’t Lead to Satisfaction” (Harvard Business Review, January 25, 2023) describes a situation where he is reviewing with a client his tremendous accomplishments and the client says, “You know, I was almost happy.” I suggest success without satisfaction can leave us empty.
A starting point in changing success to satisfaction is determining the original reason for setting that specific goal. For example, setting a goal to earn a 25% bonus at year-end in and of itself could make us feel empty upon achievement. However, if the reason for earning the bonus is to fund a scholarship at your alma mater, then you can feel satisfied with achieving the goal of the bonus.
If there is no underlying reason for the goal of a 25% bonus, then I would challenge you to find a meaningful reason. Link the goal to a specific outcome. The intended outcome does not need to be altruistic but can simply be something you have wanted such as a vacation in Hawaii. The idea is that you will feel satisfied having achieved the goal when you are sitting on the beach in Hawaii.
Another obstacle to feeling satisfaction in the wake of goal achievement could be your sole focus on the goal and neglecting all else. In the end, you achieve your goal but to the detriment of health, relationships, and other activities. To guard against this, combine your big goal with other goals. For instance, if your goal is earning your master’s degree in two years, establish other goals including monthly get-togethers with close friends and weekly yoga sessions. Even in doing this, you might prioritize the big goal over the others. So, it will be important to equally focus on all the goals. In the end, you will have a sense of satisfaction in achieving the master’s degree because you will have grown in other ways too.
Goals that further career success are important but so are goals that lead us to living a fuller life such as taking a class in French cooking because you just love to cook or an art history class because you love art. No one will argue that setting and meeting goals is important, but figuring out what our goals should be and how we go about achieving them is equally important to ensure that the achievement of a goal is accompanied by a feeling of contentment or pleasure.