Are you in this job solely for its badassery?

Ok, so “badassery” may or may not be a word I made up. But in this case, it’d be defined as such:

Bad-ass-er-ee | badassery: the extent to which something (or someone) appears like a badass; the epitome of “cool” or the like; 

There’s an extent of badassery to almost every job. Some have more of it, while others don’t lend themselves as readily to it. And many times, the more seductive the paycheck is, the more it lends itself to archetypal images of badassery.

Another way of measuring “badassery” is how Facebook-ready it is: a great lunch with the boss over-looking the beach, prepping a photo shoot, hanging with celebs, or having fun dressed up with colleagues in front of your company’s logo backdrop at the latest company party, etc. All these things may be legitimately “fun” and great perks for the work you do, and I know first hand that many of these aspects kept me feeling fulfilled for a while when I was knee-deep in it.

But later, when I would get home and finally lay down to sleep, I still had to face the truth that I knew there was more to me than this “job,” and even after some of the larger events I planned—even though they were successful both for me personally and for the brand at the time—I’d find myself lying awake wondering if this was all there was.

Those are the moments that echo the quietest. Because when you really know you’re not giving your best, it’s usually the ego that is keeping the whole charade going, since to everyone else you have an exciting job and a “picture perfect” life. But at the end of the day, is it enough to have the significance and not the fulfillment?