For me career happiness translates to these:<p>time freedom:
as an employed guy I know I'm exchanging time for value. But I also get time during the weekends and a few hours outside work. These allow me to think about things outside work, like dabble in learning new things, work on side projects, read a book, do non-career related stuff etc.
This is the most basic, and I'd do everything in my power to avoid getting in a situation where I absolutely have no/minimal time freedom. Got bitten by this in the recent past: I simply said yes to people close to me; committing to doing certain things ("I'll build you a shopify store") and then realizing I'd put myself into a hole. Never again family person.<p>maximizing every chance to be useful to others at work:
It's a great feeling when I could help someone and them thanking me for the help. It's silly, I don't need validation to do the work for which I get paid. But when a big part of the work you do goes unnoticed, your ears perk up when the occasional praise comes your way. So that's why I try to teach my juniors some coding trivia at least once a day.<p>close the week without any debt:
Even if there's enough time for a task next week, if I could find the time to do the core work needed for the task this week, then I'd do it. Even if it meant spending an hour or so on the weekend. I just don't like work piling up for the next week.<p>extract more out of the transaction:
yes I get paid for the work I do at my job. But if I choose to, I can get <i>more</i> out of the work.
Things I learned at the project, access to specific tech/hardware that'd be difficult to get all by myself etc.
Translate these bits into things that can help you. Make them as blog/linkedin posts, learn some new tech with your laptop etc.