Here are five signs it might be time for you to switch careers:

• You try to visualize your future — and can’t. People who are at least satisfied with their jobs tend to think of their careers strategically: What do I want to accomplish in my career and with this company, what steps can I take to get there, and what skills do I need to achieve my goal? If you try to think about your future in your current career and draw a blank, it’s time for a change.

• You find yourself hanging with malcontents — because you’re one of them. We all know what misery loves, and nothing feels more temporarily satisfying while accomplishing nothing than complaining about work. If you’re unhappy, start looking elsewhere or go into business for yourself. It’s that simple.

• You’re not developing. One of the best ways to stay engaged in your career is to constantly learn new information and new skills. When you stop learning — or, worse, stop wanting to — your career is dead in the water.

• You bristle at directives. When you work for someone else, that person or group of people will tell you what to do, and sometimes you will disagree. That’s natural. But if you find yourself objecting by reflex, or getting hacked off at the most insignificant instruction or suggestion — “Hey, Bill, use an extra scoop of coffee, will you?” “Make your own, you lazy, mud-drinking so-and-so” — you’re chafing at your constraints like an animal in a cage lashing out at the zookeeper.

• You do the old pros v. cons exercise, and you have to use an extra sheet to make room for the cons. When you lay it out that clearly, the evidence is hard to ignore.