英文版本，请见下方。

在职业成功这方面，你相不相信，做自己喜欢的事或者自己感兴趣的事可以让你有更大的可能性取得成功？这么说很合理，对吗？但你身边又有多少人一边做事一边深陷沮丧、麻木、不开心的状态中。又有多少人觉得自己目前取得的成绩没有发挥自己全部的潜力？出现这种情况多是因为他们在做重大职业抉择时，总是先考虑外部因素，再考虑内在因素。

现在的中国不乏职业良机。正如我有一次在人力资源会议上听到一位发言人说的那样，“相比人类历史上的其他时代，在过去的20到25年里，有更多人在相对更短的时间内取得了更令人瞩目的成功。所以，如果你对职业环境心存不满，十分沮丧，你要知道职业环境不会比这段时期更好了。”

 应在考虑内在因素的基础上追求外部因素

当然，在做出职业抉择时，行业、公司、工作职责、老板、头衔、福利、薪水、地点等外部因素当然也非常重要。但是据我了解，那些事业最成功的人，都是先考虑主要的内在因素的。所谓内在因素，即以下这些问题的答案，比如你真正喜欢做什么？你最在乎什么？你觉得什么最重要？还有，你对什么充满激情？

成功是相对的，与什么对你最重要有关

这是因为绝大多数职业和工作决策不是区别好坏对错这么简单。一切都是相对的。也就是说，所谓好的职业选择，其实是选择最适合自己的机会。例如，有些人喜欢架构清晰、久经考验且前景光明的工作环境，比如一家大的跨国公司。有些人则喜欢没那么成熟、灵活度更高且充满挑战的公司，比如刚刚起步的公司或者小中型公司。有些人更在乎头衔和薪水，有些人则更在乎工作满意度和工作/生活平衡情况。这些完全因人而异。

当然，要取得巨大的成功，一定要努力工作。但愿你在这方面才华横溢。但如果你喜欢你的工作，要做到持之以恒、努力工作、积极进取会更加容易。所以，为了让自己发挥所有的潜力，取得事业成功（也更开心），请在做重要职业抉择时，首先考虑清楚什么内在因素对你更重要，然后再考虑外部因素。

How To Weigh Internal vs. External Factors When Making Key Career Decisions

When it comes to achieving success in your career, do you believe that what you enjoy doing or are more interested in is what you have a better chance to become more successful at?  Actually, that makes basic sense, right?  But how many people do you know who are frustrated, indifferent, or just unhappy doing what they’re doing.  Or, how many people do you know who don’t feel as successful as they believe they should to be?  A big reason this happens is that they often put external factors before internal factors when making key career decisions.

When it comes to career opportunities, China is the place and now is the time.  As I once heard it put by a speaker at an HR conference, “Over the past 20-25 years, more people have achieved more success during a shorter period of time than any other time in human history.  So if you have any complaints or frustrations about your career situation, it doesn’t get any better than this.”

Pursuing External Factors Should Be Based On Internal Factors

Of course, external factors, like industry, company, job scope, boss, title, benefits, salary, location, etc., are extremely important when assessing the career decisions you make. But among those I meet who are the most successful, they determine key internal factors first.  These include answers to key questions like, what do you really enjoy doing?  What do you care about most?  What’s important to you?  Even, what are you passionate about?

Success Is Relative To What’s Most Important To You

That’s because most career and job decisions are not choices between situations that are good or bad, or right or wrong.  It’s all relative.  Meaning, making good career choices for yourself are all about what kind of situation or opportunity is the best fit for you.  For instance, some people like more structured, proven, and predictable working environments, like a large multinational.  While others prefer less mature, more flexible, and challenging situations, like a start-up or small/medium-size company.  Some care more about job titles and money, while some go for job satisfaction and work/life balance.  It depends on the person.

Of course, to be highly successful at anything you do, you have to work hard at it.  And hopefully, you have some basic talent for it.  But it’s much easier to be persistent, work hard at something, and care about becoming really good at it if you enjoy what you’re doing.  So to give yourself the best chance to be more successful (and happier) in your career, figure out the internal factors that are most important to you first before considering the external factors when making important career choices.

（责任编辑：职场达人）