Dilemma Between What You Like Best and What You Do Best: What Happy People Choose

Abstract

When making career-related decisions, do you prefer pursuing work that you love or work that you do well? Four studies provide evidence that when two intrinsic characteristics—the feeling of liking work versus the feeling of doing it well—are pitted against each other, an individuals level of happiness plays an important role in the career decision-making process. The results of Studies 1 and 2 show that happy people are holding their job because they like doing their work compared to unhappy people and putting more efforts on what they like rather than on what they are competent at. The results of Studies 3 and 4 also show that happy people prioritize the work they love over the work at which they excel, even if they were told that they would perform it poorly. Together, these findings demonstrate that happiness leads people to value doing work they like best more than doing work they do best. Our discussion focuses on the implications of this dilemma for psychological well-being and career decision-making.