1. Choose a career for the intrinsic rewards, not the financial ones. The biggest career mistake people make is selecting a profession based only on potential earnings. A sense of purpose and passion for one’s work beats a bigger paycheck any day.

2. Don’t give up on looking for a job that makes you happy. According to the experts, persistence is the key to finding a job you love. Don’t give up easily.

3. Make the most of a bad job. If you find yourself in a less-than-ideal work situation, don’t waste the experience; many experts learned invaluable lessons from bad jobs.

4. Emotional intelligence trumps every other kind. Develop your interpersonal skills if you want to succeed in the workplace. Even people in the most technical professions have their careers torpedoed if they lack emotional intelligence.

5. Everyone needs autonomy. Career satisfaction is often dependent on how much autonomy you have on the job. Look for the freedom to make decisions and move in directions that interest you, without too much control from the top.

I can summarize this as:

1. Find a purpose that you care about.

2. Be persistent in finding a job that satisfies #1.

3. Find lessons in whatever you're doing.

4. Learn to interact with other people well. <---- also the key to winning Survivor

5. Look for jobs where you have more freedom.

A few weeks ago I actually asked my parents what they would do differently in their lives if given the chance.  My mom's answer?  "I would not sell myself short.  I would develop many more of my natural gifts rather than to just settle."  Both of them said they would take more time to smell the roses.  I think this is very much aligned with the advice in the article.

Yes! My question is why it's so hard to do even when we know we should be doing it!