By: Nicole Spector – nbcnews.com – January 25, 2018

According to a recent survey, more than half of us are suffering from ‘career FOMO.’ But is the grass really greener on the other side?

Any of us who uses social media has probably experienced some degree of FOMO, aka, fear of missing out. You know, those little darts of anxiety you get when you scroll through your friends’ feeds and suddenly feel whatever you’re doing is inadequate? It happens in our professional lives, too, and it has been coined “career FOMO.” In my life, it manifests as the need to take advantage of each and every journalistic assignment that presents itself, even if it means canceling a weekend trip, because I’m scared that if I don’t, I’ll have missed some pivotal opportunity to advance.

According to a recent LinkedIn survey, this sense of panic is incredibly common, with nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of professionals stating that they “fear they will miss their opportunity to succeed if they don’t keep their options open.” In my experience, it’s somewhat duplicitous: it feels like ambition and drive, but more often than not it just leaves me exhausted and unable to recognize my own my successes. How can we cut through the emotional clutter so that we can truly assess our professional paths with confidence? From conversations with several career experts and coaches, we created a five-step list to help you do just that.

1. Take Everything On Social Media With A Grain Of Salt — And Dig Deeper

First, we need to recognize that what we see on social media is only a partial truth at best. That goes not only for people, but jobs and companies, too.

“We see these great images of awesome office spaces or cheery colleagues or business perks that this person says they’re getting or that this business is purportedly offering, but we don’t dig deeper than the surface image in many cases,” says Gretchen Skalka, senior manager of content and creative services for TBC Corporation, who notes that career FOMO

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Source: Happier, Healthier, Smarter, BETTER: Life tips