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The Dangerous Illusion of the “Dream Job”
And other magical myths we hold on to at our own peril
From time to time, I will hear someone talk about their “dream job”. It used to be that when I heard mention of that magical thing, I would almost involuntarily start wishing for that mythical job that I could one day wake up ecstatic to do every single day — with each email and phone call resulting in a cascade of joy and happiness.
And then I realized that there is no such thing. A dream job — defined in that way — does not exist. The thing about a “dream job” is it tends to always have one distinguishing property: it’s a job other than the one you have. And you know what? For most of us, it remains that way.
If that is the case — if the grass is always greener on the other side — why don’t we just decide to focus on appreciating what it is that makes our lawn pretty good, even though we don’t think it’s the greenest?
The answer is that we do this for things other than jobs. We do it for relationships, sex-lives, kitchens, friends, bodies, and so many more things.
The dream house tends to be one other than the one you live in.
The dream car tends to be one other than the one you drive.
The dream partner tends to be one other than the one you’re with.
And so on…
