Have you ever felt stuck in your job? Employee stress and burn out can account for a lot of dissatisfaction in your life. After all, the average individual devotes 8 hours a day or more to wrk. That’s 1/3 of your day if you don’t count sleep. That’s a long time to be dissatisfied.

If you feel stuck and want a change, here are 5 great ways to find your ideal job:

1. Brainstorm on a sheet of paper – With technology as advanced as it is, wee tend to forget how effective it can be to write things down with a pen and paper. Take a pad of paper and write down at the top your objective in question form. Then, simply list out 20 answers to your question. For example, you could write; If I were to paint a picture of my ideal work environment what would it look like? Then stay seated for a half hour to an hour coming up with answers to that question. The key to this exercise is coming up with 20 answers – don’t quit until you have 20 answers. You can repeat every day until you get the answer you seek.

2. Ask 3 close friends – Sometimes our friends know us better than ourselves. While meeting with one of your friends, mention you are at a crossroads in your life and job. Ask what they think you’d enjoy doing and where it might be. You might be surprised at how easily they can zero in to your strengths and abilities and report a perfect solution. Plus, some friends may even be able to set you up with a new gig!

3. Ask your trusted coworkers – much like your friends in the example above, your coworkers most likely see you in a way you do not see yourself. In fact, they are likely most familiar with your strengths and weaknesses technically and in the work environment. Compile all the answers you get from them and see if there are any common threads you can explore.

4. Take a career assessment test – There are several sites on the Internet you might be able to take one of these tests for a fee. I’ve used BrainBench, http://www.brainbench.com, in the past and there you can find technical and non-technical tests. The tests usually take an hour or two, but they are thorough. They ask you to answer a series of questions about what you are good at, what you like to do, what you prefer doing over what you don’t. If you take one, you will likely see some new exciting areas to explore in your life.

5. Keep a journal – Do you keep a journal? If so, read through, looking for common threads in your writing. Keep your eyes peeled for trends and activities you like as well as don’t like. In fact, finding examples of what you don’t like and what frustrates you is almost as important as finding what you do like. For example, if you hate an overwhelming boss, you’d probably like a self-directed position. If you hate nosy coworkers you’d probably prefer your own office.

Discovering what you really want to do with your life is the most important decision you can make. We spend 1/3 or more of our lives at work. So figuring out the right job is important to keeping that 1/3 of our lives happy and productive.