The grass is always greener and that’s ok — go take a look.

For much of my career I’ve spent too much time worrying about what it’d be like working in another job. Whether that’s within my organisation, in the sector or something altogether completely different. The reason I do this is because we only ever see the highlight reels of other people’s roles.

It’s natural that the perspective we put out to the world is our best one. It takes a great deal of trust and self confidence to discuss anything but the absolute best about what we do. How many times have you really delved into what makes you unhappy about work. You may well be keeping it from yourself, let alone other people.

For me, that’s why it’s so tempting to look at other jobs and think, “Ooh, I could do that and it’d be way better than what i’m doing now”. We know all the intricate difficulties of the job that we have, but we’ve no idea about them for a different role. The more different the role is from our own, the less we know about it and the more romantic it seems. As positively minded people, we fill in the gaps, with our imaginatively rose tinted glasses.

If you’re in house, you probably see all the benefits of working in an agency. If you’re in a small agency you might long to work in a big, globe spanning team. If you’re in the world of 9–5 we probably all have our version of running away to the countryside to start a pub and become an award winning chef.

All of this is fine to think (and possibly fantasise about) as long as it doesn’t distract you from enjoying the here and now of your role. There’s no doubt plenty about what you’re doing which is great and fits perfectly well with your skills, ambitions and personality. If there weren’t, you wouldn’t be doing it.

When it comes to making career decisions, you should try and see as much of the other bits of grass as you can. If you don’t, you’ll always be wondering and you’ll have a misguided view of what another area / industry / organisation is like. If you do, then no matter where you end up, you’ll have a deeper level of understanding and a higher degree of empathy for those that are in that type of role, which brings a greater diversity of thinking which is always a good thing.