Is it money? Family? Prestige? You genuinely enjoy what you do?
Working remotely, almost perpetually stuck in COVID lockdowns/restrictions in Canada for the past 2 years, not having many friends/family and not being able to visit them (they’re all over 10,000km away) for nearly 3 years now, and a partner who’s recently been diagnosed with depression is all taking its toll.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs
I get some self-actualization and transcendence, enjoy a lot of aesthetic pleasure. Right now I am thinking about the physiological need of hunger and will go eat after, feel pretty safe, I feel good about myself in most respects but have a certain hole in my self-image that needs some worth.
Unlike a lot of people I see my current job as a solution rather than a problem and side projects as a answer to growth.