I recently listened to an insightful episode of the Harvard Business Review podcast featuring Marcus Buckingham, a renowned researcher on strengths-based leadership and head of the ADP Research Institute.
One theme he shared really stuck with me. The strongest link between success and fulfillment isn’t about loving everything you do at work. It’s about finding moments you love every day.
That idea hit home for me—because in every chapter of my career, I’ve seen how critical it is to find those daily moments that make the work feel meaningful.
Reflecting on my own career journey across military service, corporate leadership, and entrepreneurship, I’ve realized that one of the most common sources of misalignment occurs when we find ourselves in roles that don’t value our unique superpowers or bring us genuine fulfillment. This discontentment often reveals itself after the initial excitement of starting a new job wears off. Typically, it takes one to two years to really understand the nature of a role: what success looks like, how decisions get made, and what’s actually rewarded.
It’s during this period that we begin to recognize whether our strengths are being put to use or if we’re simply fitting into a mold that doesn’t suit us.
There’s no hard data that directly ties loving your job to measurable success, and that makes sense, given how personal and nuanced emotions can be. But after two decades of studying high performers across industries, Buckingham draws a powerful and encouraging conclusion. Successful people don’t love everything they do, but they consistently find daily moments they love.
This distinction is subtle, but it’s also empowering. It removes the pressure of having to find the perfect role or workplace. Instead, it encourages us to seek alignment over perfection. That shift in mindset can make a big difference, especially for emerging professionals still early in their careers.
Buckingham also shared two simple and powerful questions that help distinguish high performers from those who tend to struggle over time:
- Do I have the chance to use my strengths every day at work?
- Was I excited to go to work every day last week?
Those questions don’t require a long essay or performance review. They just ask for honest reflection. And early in your career, you may not be able to answer “yes” every day, and that’s okay. Your initial roles are about building credibility, learning how to work within different systems, and earning the trust that opens the door to more meaningful opportunities.
But over the long term, if the answers continue to be “no,” that’s a sign worth paying attention to. You might be on a path that leads to frustration, burnout, and underperformance. Not because you aren’t capable, but because the environment may not be built to bring out your best.
The goal is progress, not perfection. Little by little, we should aim to move toward environments where our strengths are recognized and leveraged. Where we can experience not just the satisfaction of doing good work, but those small, powerful moments of excitement and fulfillment that add up over time.
This doesn’t mean your job needs to be your life’s passion. It means you’re learning how to identify the work that energizes you and making room for more of it.
As I think about the leaders, mentors, and peers I’ve admired most over the years, they all seem to share one thing in common. They didn’t chase some mythical dream job. Instead, they paid close attention to the moments they loved and used those moments as signposts to guide their careers.
So wherever you are in your journey, stay focused. Stay patient. Stay committed to building a career that lights you up, not one that wears you down.
Because the goal isn’t to love everything you do. It’s to keep finding things worth loving along the way.
