TL;DR
- Fulfillment is living according to your values and learning to appreciate your life, not arbitrary levels of success like vacations, money, or nice things.
Notes
People search for fulfillment in a myriad of ways. There is no one set path, no perfect philosophy, everybody is different.
The paradox, however, is that there *is *no path to fulfillment. It is the mountain that does not peak. The journey that does not end. People spend their entire lives chasing made up standards they create for themselves that, in their heads, symbolizes “fulfillment”.
The reality is, fulfillment does not lie in job satisfaction, a high salary, traveling, impactful projects, volunteering, or anything you can achieve.
It is simply a mindset. To be fulfilled in your life and career is not a matter of achieving your goals, it is how you think and act throughout the day, how you conduct yourself, upholding your values, and appreciating the moments, both good and bad, easy and hard.
Many people also realize this, but still get swept away by reminders of their “inadequacy” or what “could have been” if they had just stayed later at work, gone to more networking events, taken on more projects, quit their job.