How To Find Your Purpose At Work
For some, work is the place where they spend most of their time and earn a living. For others, it's something that gets in the way of life. And for many people, it can be both at different points in their lives. No matter how you define your relationship with work, finding purpose within your career is an important key to having a happy career AND life. In this article, we'll explore how you can use your passion as a guide to finding happiness and fulfillment on the job.
Why Work Can Feel Meaningless
There's nothing more soul-sucking than meaningless work. Feeling like you're wasting your life away at a job that provides you with no purpose or fulfillment can be quite discouraging.
In conducting over hundreds of coaching sessions helping people through career transitions and finding new jobs, I've learned that folks often find themselves at a career crossroads because they’re not passionate anymore about what they do.
Passion is one of the most important components of your career success. It's what drives you to strive for better outcomes at work, gives you the motivation and energy to keep going. Without it, things can fall apart really fast.
Here are a few different reasons people lose passion for their careers:
They "fell into a career," and it’s not at all what they had envisioned for themselves.
Their values have shifted over the years (usually around when they started a family and had kids).
Their definition of success has changed.
They followed a career path because someone else influenced them (parents, teachers, etc), and now they're not sure if it was ever something they really wanted to do.
Realizing you no longer have passion for your career takes a lot of self-reflection. Yet once you see it, you can't unsee it. And having that realization is the first step in recreating a career that lights you up.
How To Use Passion To Find Your Purpose
I believe that one of the best ways to find purpose in your career is to use your passions as your guides. Explore all the activities and industries that pique your interest. Become an investigator of your life, and find where your passions intersect.
So grab a pen and a notebook, and set aside an hour or so to do some digging by asking yourself the following questions:
WHY did you make some of the bigger, career-related decisions in your life? Think of the college you chose to go to, your first job or your current role.
What are you passionate about?
What problems do you want to solve for people?
Do any social issues or causes speak out to you?
If you wouldn’t have to work or had all the money in the world, what would you do?
If you were to donate to a charity which one would it be?
If you were to volunteer for an organization which one feel you most drawn to?
If you could start your own non-profit organization what would it be? Who would you serve?
What are the values that are most important to you? In what ways are they reflected in your life and career choices to date?
Get as much information and data as you can. Don’t try to process or interpret them just yet. Just write it all out.
Once you have everything laid out, it's time to start connecting the dots. Are there common themes that popped up in multiple answers? Are there obvious careers that come to mind?
Take some time to think about how your passions can lead you towards meaningful work and a career that feels more fulfilling.
Finding purpose in your career takes a lot of self-reflection and sometimes it can be hard to know where to start. The answers may not come easily at first but don't let them overwhelm you! It's just as much an investigation process as anything else.
And if you need some help piecing things together and connecting the dots, consider 1:1 Career Growth and Leadership Development coaching. Over the course of 12 sessions, we work together to take a deeper look at your career and how you can use your passions to find purpose and fulfillment. Click here to learn more.
Or schedule a free consultation here: https://calendly.com/coaching-mf/free-consultation-leadership