I think my generation was raised with this mentality that doing what you love, and what matters to you is paramount. My personal journey and that of many of my friends has been incredibly different. I currently do something that I love, but five years ago, I would not have been able to tell you this was a job I wanted, or a job I even knew existed quite frankly.
For me, the sweet spot to professional happiness lies in what you are good at. What are the skills you bring to the table, the things you consistently do better than anyone around you? For me, professional happiness and professional success are nearly synonymous. When I am doing well at work, I am happy. It means that my skills are of value, my ideas are being implemented and I am looked at as a high-performer. These things translate into what I love. For example, I am an excellent communicator. I can write, teach, facilitate and verbally construct ideas that make sense for whatever work I am doing.
Don't get me wrong; I absolutely think professional happiness is important. But I think, like any goal worth achieving, there is a strategy to even figuring out what you love and perhaps more articles should be written about that. Think very carefully about what you are good at, what you default too at work and what people notice. Figure out ways to do more of that. Find a new job that lets you do more of that.
When I really stop to think about what got me to professional happiness, it was never doing what I loved. It was always, having the self-awareness to recognize my strengths and working to put myself in situations where those strengths were evident.
Perhaps what doesn't sit well with me, what is really wong with all of these articles is the perscriptive nature of their guidance. "Do what you love!" sounds rather easy but really, professional happiness takes quite a bit of effort to get to. Perhaps the largest lesson I've learned is to do the work. Professional happiness may not just come, but you can absolutely build it.
