After a slow morning of sleeping and recovering from last night’s early birthday celebration escapades, Chris and I finally made it out of the apartment mid-afternoon to have lunch at a favorite neighborhood Turkish spot. Then, we took a leisurely walk in Central Park. As part of our traditions as a couple, we also discussed our goals for the year. Pretty much every aspect of my life is as good as it could be for me personally, but it’s hard to get away from the bad work situation. I guess I am the typical American that Marcus Buckingham talks about: when you have ten things in your life and nine of them are going really well, but one is not, I focus on that one bad thing. What can I say – I want everything to be great. But I just got complacent last year and settled due to laziness and ease of the overall job. Sometimes, that really comes back to bite you in the butt.

Given my unfulfilling job situation, I think we all knew last year that 2017 would be the year to look again — but we needed to narrow down what I was looking for. We outlined the requirements for my next position to be “ideal.” And now that I have somewhat of a plan, I need to carry this out and move forward with life in the direction I want. I need to start being intellectually stimulated at work again, and that frankly has not happened in years now. I’ve been trying to rely on outside of work activities and reading to keep my brain going, but that is no longer enough. I’m at what most people say is the prime of my life now when my career should be flourishing, so I need to get at this to not waste my 30s away.