Benjamin Todd

This means the picture looks more like the following graph.

Having a very undemanding job is bad.

That's boring.

Having demands that exceed your abilities is bad too.

They cause harmful stress.

The sweet spot is where the demands placed on you match your abilities.

That's a fulfilling challenge.

This is a graph that plots ability on the x-axis against demands on the y-axis.

It shows anxiety increasing as demands increase, and boredom increasing as they decrease.

But there's a line showing a zone where demands and ability are evenly matched, and it's labeled the stretch zone, challenge.

Instead of seeking to avoid stress, seek out a supportive context and meaningful work, and then challenge yourself.

What should you aim for in a dream job?

We've applied the research on positive psychology about what makes for a fulfilling life and combined it with research on job satisfaction to come up with six key ingredients of a dream job.

These are the six ingredients.

1.

Work that's engaging.

What really matters is not your salary, status, type of company and so on, but rather what you do day by day and hour by hour.

Engaging work is work that draws you in, holds your attention, and gives you a sense of flow.

It's the reason an hour spent editing a spreadsheet can feel like pure drudgery, while an hour spent playing a video game can feel like no time at all.

Computer games are designed to be as engaging as possible.