On the Brazen Careerist blog, Penelope Trunk has a post on money’s relationship to happiness.  She quotes Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard University, who says once you have enough money to meet basic needs – food, shelter, etc. — incremental increases have little effect on your happiness.  According to Gilbert, a key factor in determining happiness levels is satisfaction with your job, and that one has a better chance of finding a fulfilling job if he or she chooses a field in which most employees seem happy.

As I complete my interviews for the new book on dream jobs for twenty and thirty-somethings, I’m discovering that most of the people I speak with – from the oceanographers and the landscape architects to the boutique owners and the forensic analysts – actually do have the kind of career satisfaction most of us envy.  But when I talk about my book to friends who have more run-of-the-mill jobs, they say things like, “well, I would love to work with zoo animals/be a writer/cook for a restaurant, but I could never get that job.”  Worse are the unfulfilled people who consider switching to a field that would make them happy, but prefer just to talk about it then to take the plunge. 

In my experience so far, people who hold their dream jobs are special for one primary reason: instead of talking about it, they go out and do something.  They’re willing to take calculated risks, survive on an income that provides for their basic needs and not much more, and will work long hours in exchange for a job they’ll enjoy getting up in the morning for the rest of their lives.  The point is, finding a job you enjoy is not rocket science, and it’s not out of reach.  But you have to look deep inside yourself and try different things until something clicks, even if it isn’t the safest of most financially rewarding option.  It seems that this and this alone is the formula for finding your true calling.