Even if you have been enjoying your career, constantly building new skills, and you’re relishing all the challenges that your current role throws up, you can still become a little job weary. This happens to nearly everyone at some point in their lives. Sometimes, it is a mere blip, and you realize that you need to seek opportunities elsewhere as you’ve outgrown your company or job role. However, at other times, the niggling dissatisfaction can be a sign of something more significant; you may need to take a sabbatical. Take a look to discover if you need to take a break from your role to allow you the chance to recharge your batteries and return to your position more motivated and enthused with your chosen profession.

Things Get On Top Of You

If you find yourself succumbing to bouts of depression, you dread getting up in the morning to face another day in the office, or you simply find work situations are causing you anxiety, you may need to take a break for your own health and well being if nothing else. With the added pressures of working 9 to 5 and meeting endless targets, it’s not surprising that people can become weary of their career choice.

Take a step back and take some annual leave to assess your current situation. Make a list of the pros and cons of your current job and try to clarify your thoughts. Do you need a change of job or do you need a bigger lifestyle change? While you may think that taking a sabbatical will cause you to lose your current job, you need to remember that there is a big difference between a job and career. Taking time out to volunteer or do something else worthwhile can be an attractive quality in candidates and could result in enhanced prospects on your return to the job market.

You Are A Daydreamer

If you’re constantly sat at your desk at work dreaming about trekking through the jungles of Brazil or taking a jaunt along the Great Wall of China and this is impacting on your performance, you may need to get the itchy feet out of your system. If the wanderlust travel craving doesn’t subside, you need to bite the bullet and start planning an adventure. Ask your employer if you can take six months unpaid out from your job. You never know they may keep your position open for you. On your return, you may find that your travel itch has been well and truly scratched and you return to your role performing better than ever.

You Are Dissatisfied

Sometimes you may be crushed by the feeling that there must be more to life than what you are currently doing. It’s hard to rationalize these thoughts when you see you’re so-called ‘friends’ on social media showing off their sun-soaked selfies from their time building a school in Uganda. If you feel dissatisfied with your lot, do something about it. You can spend some time working abroad, working in the charity sector or exploring new cultures and meeting new people.

If you’re gnawing feeling of dissatisfaction is more than a fleeting thought after a bad day at work and is something more sustained and constant, then it might be time to think about the direction your life is heading and do something about it.