People who cultivate meaningful work in their lives are blessed. Meaningful work is important to me, but it wasn’t always that way in my younger years!
Most people finish college and find a job in their field. Then, somewhere along the way, they begin to wonder why they are doing XYZ when they really don’t love what they do.
I worked in several different industries and occupations before I started my own business. I jumped into each industry and job opportunity wholeheartedly. But it wasn’t until I reached my later years that I discovered a new passion: helping spiritual centers with their online presence. It was nothing I could have learned in the 1970s when I first entered the job market full-time, nor could I have done it without all the background I had in other industries.
I just finished reading Brene Brown’s Book, The Gifts of Imperfections. She lists some ideas for finding meaningful work:
- We all have gifts and talents. Using our gifts and talents gives us purpose in life.
- Squandering our gifts brings distress to our lives. If we don’t use our talents in meaningful work, we might not find fullfilment.
- Sharing our gifts and talents with the world is the most powerful source of connection with God.
- Using our gifts and talents to create meaningful work requires tremendous commitment. Unfortunately, our talents and gifts often don’t pay the bills.
- Like our gifts and talents, meaning is unique to each one of us. No one can decide that for us.
Finding and cultivating meaningful work is closely related to finding the purpose of our lives.
According to Mark Twain, “The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you discover why.” The why is often your purpose in life, and knowing your purpose helps us find meaningful work.
Naturally, we can find purpose outside of our paid work. Those who find both are truly blessed.
Rumi, 13th century Sufi poet, describes it like this:
“There is one thing in the world that you must never forget to do. If you forget everything else and not this, there’s nothing to worry about, but if you remember everything else and forget this, then you will have done nothing in your life …
I have coached and prayed for a number of people who didn’t know what their purpose was in life. Nor did they know how to cultivate meaningful work. With me, I chose to make all my work meaningful. How I made my living was just not a job: It was a calling — maybe small, but a calling!
To cultivate meaningful work can also mean cultivating a mindset that work is meaningful! That is what I think is the best way to develop purpose in life.