In that case, stop looking to your job for fulfillment. There's so much more to life than work. Fulfillment, joy, it's all there if you look hard enough, but if you rely on your job for it, then what happens when the job goes away? You lose the joy and fulfillment? I don't want anything having that much control over me personally.
Now, if you have an active distaste for the work you do, that's another story. I used to say I wanted to leave the business I was in and go work at the local mini mart selling slurpees and hot dogs. I was only partly kidding. Turns out I just needed out of that that employer. I love the industry though. But my true fulfillment comes from elsewhere.
For me, the tell-tale sign that I need to make a big change is because I've never liked any job I've ever had which involves being sat behind a desk. Although my employer is _challenging_, I've felt like that about five or so different employers and even working for myself.
On your first comment about not looking for your job to fulfil your life. I agree and disagree. I think that's fundamentally right and you need more in your life than your job and, honestly, right now I get a lot of my identity from my job and money and all that. Which I'm not proud of.
But the 'no' part is that I work hard and I always have done. 40 hours minimum and usually more like 50. And I work in the best part of the day when it's sunny and light. To squander all that time through my working life just seems horrendous. It's not like a couple of hours a day, it's the best hours in the best days in the best years of my life being spent switching pixels off and on in a grid using little buttons.
it's the best hours in the best days in the best years of my life being spent switching pixels off and on in a grid using little buttons.
Oh, this thought has crossed my mind so, so many times. It's usually a sign that I need to get out more. I now live where it's beautiful and sunny all the time, and yet I still find myself holing up like I did when I lived in the Pacific NorthWet.
At the end of the day, I'd say work on building your identity outside of work. Work a little bit less, schedule more time to be outdoors, and see after a few months if you still feel the way you do now. If so, then you know what you need to do. At that point, cut down your income to the level you'd be at otherwise, and see how it feels. If it's fine, then... do your thang.
