There is no perfect job, dear.

Sorry for busting your bubble.

But when we love each other, we need to present the truth. Even if the truth sounds more bitter than the sugar-coated fakery you somehow have gotten to wishfully believe.

How dare I say the L word?

Certainly, I don’t know who you are, what your struggles, your heart desires, and your purposes might be. Regardless, I can say with soulful confidence — I love you for who you are.

I ache to see beautiful and ambitious souls compromising their dreams and conforming to achievement norms. Because it’s like seeing the past version of myself, whom I love so dearly.

You may not see how ambitious you are. Soon, I believe you will. As soon as you untie the rope of fear and doubt suffocating your ambitions, even the sky is not the limit.

But for now, let’s settle this.

Perfect employment does not exist.

I’m not concluding that out of a textbook. I have had my share of experiments.

In the last 6 years of my career, I have worked 6 full-time jobs and a dozen of freelance gigs. I have started my consulting business and became an entrepreneur who coaches.

I failed. Over. And. Over. Again.

So that I could reinvent my career and succeed on my own terms — moving to a beach town, running a purposeful business from a garden house, and living a life of freedom and fulfillment.

It was not supposed to happen by default, but by design — my design.

This principle has become the cornerstone of my agility.

When you’re agile, you enter ‘designing’ mode, instead of ‘following’ mode — and start to shape your career the way most aligned to you.

Principle 1: Recognizing the illusive perfection about employment & taking radical acceptance of your imperfect career reality 

You may pull back and say, ‘I don’t have a perfectionist’s expectation about my job’. That’s great news, really.

Still, I invite you to examine it a little further.

“My job/boss/company/colleagues/clients should have been more (or less) ＿＿＿＿＿.”

Can you fill in the blank? What about this?

“I don’t need no perfection, but if my job/boss/company/colleagues/clients could be juuuuuuust a little bit more (or less) ＿＿＿＿＿, I’ll be fulfilled”.

Guess what? That’s a perfectionist’s mantra. “Just a little bit better here. Then a little bit there. And a bit more”.

Here’s the truth.

More or less of reality is the opposite of reality. Reality is what currently is.

Wishing the reality to be different is what frustrates you. Not reality itself.

This reality-opposing mindset deprives you of clarity about insights, lessons, and opportunities of your circumstances.

It deprives you of the power to control what you actually can. And effectively deactivates you from inventing intelligent solutions to rise beyond this reality toward achieving what you want.

Therefore, if you hold on to a should-have-been version of reality, that’s a trickier episode of perfectionism. Because you are trying to perfect what can’t be controlled.

Don’t argue with your reality. Embrace it.

Get curious, “What intelligent solutions can I devise to manage this reality?”.

So that you can move on to effectively adapting to it, negotiating with it, and thus, modifying it in your favor. Or, sometimes, at the least, you can remove yourself from that reality with minimal damage.

But what does exist: career fulfillment.

Not only realistic, but fulfillment is also essential to flourishment.

I wholeheartedly desire a career of freedom, authenticity, and impact.

Whereas my previous jobs required me to work 9-to-5, electrically shock my introverted personality in networking rooms and cheesy meetings, and contribute to impersonal causes.

There was a gap between my heart’s desire and my reality. As long as that gap is fulfilled, I am fulfilled (that’s why it’s called “fulfillment” — aha!).

Principle 2. Fulfillment is created when the exterior (reality) and the interior (desire) align.

The question is — are you aware of your intrinsic desire — your heart’s desire?

Many of us confuse it with the brain-originated definition of success, a.k.a what our monkey brain produces in its fight-or-flight mode to survive, instead of thrive, in our achievement culture.

The brain’s desire only fills us with egoistical superiority and material security. Whereas the heart’s desire fills our hearts with deep joy, satisfaction, and contentment.

Your best life and career might be different than what you have thought or been told to be. It’s your authentic vision of success, uninfluenced by social norms.

When you honor your authentic success vision, your default success definition subsides, your career goals vary, and your career development strategy alters.

That’s when your career reality begins to shift.

Understanding your heart’s desire might be the first disrupter to your dysfunctional career development patterns.

Ask yourself, “What does my best career look like? What fills my heart with deep joy, satisfaction, and contentment?”

Close your eyes. Visualize the answer vividly.

Here’s 4 simple steps to envision your authentic success.

So how to fulfill the gap?

How to align your exterior and interior?

Architects don’t control the climate (you know the climate, it’s freaking changing; and it takes at least one whole generation to reverse such a catastrophic process).

They get together and ask, ‘What do buildings need to become to be more durable and safe?’. So they build floatable and rollable structures that sustain floods and earthquakes.

Because agility is what constructions need to become to “align” with the increasingly hostile climatic situation.

If you too are the architect of your career and life (well, you practically are!), how about asking, “Who do I need to become to build a fulfilling career?”?

The hints lie in your challenges and your frustrations.

Having an unhealthy relationship with your boss? You may need to become an assertive protector of your boundaries.

Having a compulsive need to achieve? You may need to develop authentic confidence.

Principle 3. You get to embody the internal transformation you desire in order to forge an external alignment in your reality.

Many of my clients needed to become purposeful pathfinders to unfollow the prescribed career path and create their own.

Others determined they needed to heal their confidence to become effective communicators or efficient decision-makers.

Instead of looking for better employment, realize that the only thing we can change is our ability to respond to any given adversity.

Instead of compulsively getting one qualification or degree after another, realize that the quality for success is mindset before skillset.

Once you transform into the person of your vision, your reality shifts in the same direction.

Your evolution has the answer to the question you ask at the beginning, “What intelligent solutions can I devise to overcome this challenge?”.

These principles construct and sustain your career fulfillment — like the pillars of great architecture.

Missing one and your career foundation is bound to be shaken by any external or internal tremors.

​Here’s a simple worksheet to help you exercise these principles.