CAREER CHANGE · NIV NICOLAS NOWBAKHT
You’re successful. Good salary, respected title, solid career. And yet on Monday mornings you catch yourself thinking: “This again?”
- Success and fulfillment are two separate measures — one says nothing about the other
- Germany’s own workforce data shows this gap at national scale, not just in your head
- A 15-minute exercise makes the gap visible before you can even name it
- Seeing the gap is step one — closing it takes a system, not a resignation letter
The Pattern — Backed by More Than a Feeling
In more than 12 years of coaching professionals and managers through career transitions, I hear a version of this conversation constantly: someone sits across from me and, on paper, everything works. The title is right. The salary is right. The team respects them. And still, the same question surfaces: “Is this really it for the next 20 years?”
What it actually feels like, day to day:
- Waking up Monday thinking “Again?”
- Sitting in meetings, mentally somewhere else entirely
- Celebrating wins that feel hollow
This isn’t a rare case, and it isn’t ingratitude — and it isn’t just anecdotal. Gallup’s 2026 State of the Global Workplace report found the same gap at national scale: only 11% of employees in Germany are actively engaged at work, while 48% rate their overall life as “thriving.” Germans are, in Gallup’s words, thriving in life but not at work. That’s the success-fulfillment gap showing up in the data, not just in your head.
The underlying confusion is between two different systems: the success system (what counts from the outside) and the fulfillment system (what feels right from the inside). A raise optimizes the first. It changes nothing about the second — which is exactly why national engagement scores stay low even as life satisfaction holds steady.
The Exercise: Two Columns, 15 Minutes
Take a sheet of paper. Two columns.
Left — Where am I successful? Title, salary, responsibility, skills, recognition.
Right — Where do I feel fulfilled? Five concrete moments from the last six months where you thought: “That was good.” Not “should have been good” — actually good.
Now compare: how wide is the gap between the two columns?
That gap is your starting point — not a problem to fix, but the first honest read on where you actually stand.
What the Exercise Shows — and What It Doesn’t
The two-column exercise makes three things visible:
- Your energy sources — what gives you strength instead of draining it
- Your value conflicts — where you’re living against your own convictions
- Your hidden patterns — what kind of impact makes you feel alive
What it doesn’t hand you: a finished plan. Seeing the gap is the easy part. Closing it — without blowing up your life, without starting from zero, without a financial leap in the dark — is the actual work. An exercise alone won’t get you there. That takes a system.
A Pattern From Practice
A client — let’s call her Lena, 41, department head at an industrial company — almost didn’t do this exercise. When I first suggested it, she pushed back: “What if I do it and there’s nothing on the right side?” That fear — of finding an empty column — is often exactly what keeps people from looking in the first place.
She did it anyway. The left column filled up fast: twelve years of title, budget, headcount. The right column stayed almost empty — except for two moments where she’d mentored younger colleagues.
“On paper, I should be satisfied.”
That wasn’t the solution. But it was the first time she stopped dismissing her own dissatisfaction as ingratitude and started reading it as information.
Composite example, not an individual client — this pattern shows up often with professionals and managers in their mid-30s to mid-40s.
What This Means for You — Depending on Where You Stand
If you just did the exercise and the gap is wide: That’s not a reason to quit. It’s a reason to look more closely at what’s actually in that right column — and why.
If your right column was nearly empty: This is especially common among people who function very well. The ability to notice fulfilling moments gets harder to access when you’ve spent years optimizing purely for performance.
If you’ve been living with this feeling for years: The right time for this exercise isn’t “when it becomes unbearable” — it’s now. The gap grows every year it’s left alone, and — as the Gallup numbers show — you’re far from the only one carrying it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a wide gap mean I should quit my job?
No. The gap shows you where to look more closely — not that a radical step is required. Many people close the gap within their current role, by shifting responsibilities or priorities. Others do need a change. The exercise doesn’t decide that for you; it only shows you where you stand.
What if I can’t think of any “fulfilling moments”?
That’s itself an important finding — and more common than people assume, especially among those trained for years to function rather than to feel. In that case, it’s worth looking further back than the last six months.
Why isn’t it enough to just see the gap?
Because seeing isn’t acting. The translation from “I see the gap” to “I know what to do next” is where most people get stuck on their own — largely because your own perspective has blind spots that are easier to spot from the outside.
Is this just a German problem?
No — but Germany’s numbers make an unusually visible case for it. Gallup’s 2026 report found German engagement stuck near the bottom in Europe (11% engaged) despite comparatively strong life satisfaction (48% thriving) — a pattern that shows up wherever success and fulfillment are quietly treated as the same thing.
I’m Niv Nicolas Nowbakht, career and business coach based in Berlin and Barcelona. For more than 12 years I’ve worked with professionals and managers navigating career transitions — ICF Certified Coaching Education, M.A. in Communication Studies. If you want a second, outside read on your own gap between success and fulfillment — and whether it’s closable where you are, or a sign to move — let’s talk.
Figure out whether your gap is closable where you are — or a sign to move. No pitch, no commitment.
Niv Nicolas Nowbakht
ICF-educated Career & Leadership Coach, Berlin · 12+ years of experience · M.A. Communication Studies
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