Less than a week into my latest job search I repeated one fatal mistake, a mistake I’ve made over and over again over the years. You probably have, too.

Except this time I took a step back, recognised it, and put it right.

What am I talking about? That relentless career/salary progression thing, that’s what. The idea that your career, while it may not follow a beautiful straight line, is somehow meant to keep pointing up, keep getting better.

You know, that ‘Supervisor’ to ‘Assistant Manager’ to ‘Manager’ to ‘Director’ to ‘Senior Director’ to ‘C-suite’ progression thing. And the better and better salaries that go with it. There’s an insane expectation, and sometimes pressure, for us to try and steer our careers along this path. And it makes no sense, no sense at all.

The mistake I made after just a few days into my latest search was to focus my time on well-paid, senior roles. You know, ticking that top tier salary box on Guardian Jobs, then selecting the most senior job categories, and then seeing what comes out – and realising that all of the results are the kinds of jobs I’d never, ever want to do any more. I’m just being honest.

Years ago I’d have probably just gone with it, and most likely ended up working somewhere I’d find deeply frustrating, overly bureaucratic, and a creative thinking graveyard. But hey, the salary would have been good, so the price is worth paying, right?

Wrong.

Since early March I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. Dangerous, I know. Never before have I given myself this much time to seriously ponder what a late career/life reboot might look like for me. But I’ve been reading a lot, hoping to get a few ideas. ‘Four Thousand Weeks‘ (by Oliver Burkeman) and ‘From Strength to Strength‘ (by Arthur Brooks) have been two of the best books I could have ever read. Few recent books have altered my thinking more than those two have.

The end result of all of this is that I’ve stopped chasing senior roles, stopped chasing titles, and stopped chasing big salaries. In my case at least, it’s really not worth it. I want to jump out of bed in the morning with a spring in my step, to do work that makes me sing, and do the kind of work that my kids would be proud of. And if the money doesn’t quite stretch to all the things we used to be able to do, then so be it. We’re doing okay. I’ve always been nothing if not resourceful.

Despite the uncertainty, I’m probably more excited now than I have been in a long time. I’m taking control of the huge chunk of my life that I’d usually hand over to an employer. As Buddha tells us, we really ought to seek the ‘right livelihood‘, work which doesn’t do harm to ourselves or others, and is ethically positive,

Too many people are unhappy in their work, and in my book that counts as harm – to themselves. We keep hearing that we should ‘bring our authentic selves’ to work. But how many of us really do?

“Knowing others is intelligence. Knowing yourself is true wisdom” – Lao Tzu