By Belinda Johnson

Paycheck jobs are great for paying bills. But, there’s a catch. Because these jobs leave you feeling flat, you may buy-buy-buy to give yourself emotional rewards. Pile on debt and don’t be surprised if you start working longer hours at a job that you hate just so you’ll have more money to buy more clothes, shoes, technology gadgets, furniture and more.

It takes more than money

Why? To be truly rewarding, work has to pay off in more areas than the bank. Good jobs strengthen your personal and career confidence. You can see how good jobs connect to higher levels within an organization. For example, if you work as a human resources recruiting coordinator and you love helping people connect with profitable, growing jobs, you could step into human resources specialist jobs then get promoted into human resources recruiter jobs.

Stick with it, and you could head up an entire human resources department one day. But, that’s only if you love helping others to excel on the job. If that’s not your passion, a big salary won’t be enough to graduate the gig away from being a paycheck job.

Finding the right jobs

It really is up to you to discover with jobs are best for you. Think about your hobbies, your passions. Consider your dreams, the activities that you think about engaging in during your free time.  For example, if you love building home designs, jobs in the furniture industry might be a good fit. Keep advancing. You could end up owning a chain of furniture stores.

On the other hand, paycheck jobs don’t excite you. Not only would you quit these jobs if you could had the money to do so, you may not find any jobs that are related to paycheck jobs that you work appealing. Feeling flat and lacking the desire to advance at work aren’t the only drawbacks to working paycheck jobs.

Downsides of working paycheck jobs

Additional drawbacks to working paycheck jobs include fatigue (it’s hard to feel energized when you’re spending eight or more hours a day doing what you hate), sleeplessness and headaches. Paycheck jobs could also find you:

• Easily irritated
• Dreaming about the future instead of enjoying living in the NOW
• Complaining about nearly everything at work
• Lowering the vibes and the morale of your colleagues
• Believing that your life is never going to get better
• Living paycheck to paycheck (as you buy products to try to fill up the empty feeling that seems to be controlling you)
• Aligning the lack of zest that you feel for paycheck jobs with how you feel about your friends, relatives, neighbors and other people around you

Keep going

The answer may not be to walk out on jobs that use your gifts and stir your passions. You could start looking for jobs that inspire you, that bring out the best in you. Keep searching until you find the right jobs for you. You may even decide to launch a new business in your passion field.

Stay open to change. You’re going to need to accept change to continue to advance in your chosen career.