A successful career is in the eye of the beholder.

Take Tony DeGregorio. A respected ad man -- he was co-creator of the award-winning "Coke Is It" campaign -- Mr. DeGregorio ran the show at ad agency Publicis Inc. in New York for six years. He left Publicis and went on to garner more industry awards as a partner at a Philadelphia ad agency, what is now Tierney Communications.

Despite his achievements, he still felt there was something lacking.

"Corporate life just wasn't rewarding, there's too much distracting work that interferes with being creative," he says. When creative differences emerged between Mr. DeGregorio, 56 years old, and other executives at Tierney, he launched his own boutique agency back in New York.

"I love the opportunity and freedom of working for myself," he says, "Your time is what you want to make of it."

Despite the slack labor market, there are plenty of people climbing the ladders of their fields every day. For these folks, the main issue is not avoiding the axe but taking their careers to the next level. (Read more in our series Pockets of Opportunity.)

No matter how successful you are in your professional life, staying fulfilled sometimes means breaking out of a job and moving on to greater challenges - within your current company or beyond it. This week I polled career coaches and executive recruiters for their best ideas on how to build on the success you've already achieved in your career.

Lay the Groundwork

Are you feeling bored or unchallenged by your current position? (Dead giveaway: You dread getting up for work in the morning.) Then it's time to figure out what type of work you'd like to do instead.

"I've found that people actually know what they'd rather be doing professionally, they've just never been asked" says Michael Reed, a Boise, Idaho, career coach. "What I often do is suggest that people who are uncertain about how to proceed go out and look at different careers and businesses, and then try to visualize how they would I fit into that situation."

Whether it's a desire to get out from behind a desk and work more closely with people, to launch a pet project that you've long yearned to do, or to leave the working world entirely and devote your time to a charitable cause, how successful you'll be in the future depends on choosing the right path now. Ask yourself, "What would I like to be doing five years from now?" and decide on the most logical course to get there.

Get Your Sales Pitch Ready

Set the stage for your next move by creating a career summary - not some drab cookie-cutter resume but a document that sells your most precious asset: You.

"An executive summary, rather than resume, tells the higher ups in the company what they should know about your performance, demonstrating your background and interests, and what you've done and would like to do for the company," says Frank Fox, executive director of the Professional Association of Resume Writers & Career Coaches in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Unlike a garden-variety resume, a career summary should act as a sort of mini-biography, not merely detailing your past education and work experiences but showcasing personal and professional successes throughout your life. While a typical resume consists of a bunch of terse, bulleted points that inventories an entire career, executive summaries are composed of complete, fluid sentences written in the third person that emphasize specific achievements and goals.

Career Web site Monster.com offers some great tips on how to create a winning career summary. You can also see some examples of career summaries from our sister Web site CareerJournal.com.

Next, start collecting documents that demonstrate you're contributing to the organization and doing great work, says Marcia Bench, author of "Career Coaching: An Insider's Guide." Examples of complementary documents to go with your executive summary include a particularly stellar performance review, or congratulatory letters or memos from superiors or customers.

"In this environment, where even high-level executives are not above fabricating their qualifications, documentation goes a long way toward verifying your abilities and qualifications," she says.

Make Work Work for You

If you're feeling burned out in your current position, or if your job is just not as challenging as it used to be, you may be a prime candidate for a lateral move - internal or external.

"When successful people tell me that they're bored in their jobs and they're thinking about leaving their company, I always tell them that there are ways to grow and be revitalized within their own companies," says James Citrin, who heads the technology, communications and media practice at executive-recruiting firm Spencer Stuart in New York.

"The key is to find new opportunities to apply the experience you already have," he says. "That's the way the most successful people stay vibrant."

Say, for example, the head of a sales department at a communications company has always wanted to work in broadcasting and has a great idea for radio or television programming that could open up an entirely new avenue of business for his employer.

"If he pitches the idea to his boss and his boss approves, he can hire experts in the field of broadcasting and work together with them to bring the project to life," Mr. Citrin says, "In the meantime, he's getting valuable hands-on experience in broadcasting that he can use to take his career in an entirely new direction."

If your field of interest is completely outside the realm of your company, you may need to find a position at another employer. Unfortunately, that may result in your having to take a pay cut.

The best way to get your foot in the door for a job for which you have no past working experience while staying at your current salary level is to make a lateral move to another outfit with jobs in that field. You stay in your same role, for now, but eventually move into a position that would prove more satisfying, says career coach Ms. Bench.

"Let's say you're a financial executive but you're really interested in working in e-learning - maybe you ultimately want starting your own e-learning company," she says. "Look for an e-learning company where you could play a financial role at your salary level. This way, you don't compromise yourself financially in order to make a transition to a new field."

Get Some Fresh Air

A great way to reinvigorate your interest in your current job is to take on another.

Spencer Stuart's Mr. Citrin once counseled a chief financial officer of a large company who was no longer feeling challenged by his position to look for a way to help other companies.

"Public companies are desperate for financial experts to sit on their boards of directors, so I suggested we mount a campaign to find the right board directorship," he says. In the end, the directorship helped to broaden the senior executive's experience, and it proved valuable in his own job because it provided an insider's look at how another company dealt with financial and management issues.

Going this route also can be a great way to gain experience and quench a desire to do more charitable work. For example, a corporate events planner can help in creating and hosting a fundraising event for a favorite charity.

Strike Out on Your Own

Entrepreneurship has long been a lucrative avenue for successful professionals who are itching for new challenges. But sometimes, particularly for young professionals with families, starting your own business means accepting a lower standard of living. Not only is it likely you'll face a dramatic drop in income, at least in the first few years of your venture, but you also may need to pay for benefits such as health and disability insurance on your own.

Still, ad exec Mr. DeGregorio says going it alone can be worth the price, particularly if you've achieved your professional goals yet still feel unfulfilled.

"A lot of people who are dissatisfied with their jobs for whatever reason often stay put and just sort of burn up, thinking they can bear it," he says. "But no matter how successful you are in business, if you're dissatisfied with your life, ultimately you're doomed to fail."

To learn more about the financial and legal aspects of starting your own business, the Web site of the Small Business Administration can help. Be sure to read through its "Are You Ready" page and see if going it alone may be right for you. Then learn more about the ins and outs of becoming self-employed at our sister Web site StartupJournal.com.