Summary: 7 Tips to Help You Find Meaning in Your Work Feel like something is missing in your career? You’re not alone. It’s not uncommon for professionals to feel like something is missing in their work, even when things appear to be really good. Is it possible to find success and meaning? Use these 7 tips to help you find meaning in your work / career. 1. Choose a New Career Path or Expand Your Firm Maybe it’s time to try something new? You may be an adventure-type and find boredom in routine and monotony. Try a new career path that engages your interests to reignite your passions. It may not require a complete life change; perhaps you could choose a new track or specialty within your current industry or expand the products and services of your firm. 2. Turn Your Passions into Profits If finding meaning in your work is high on your priority list, then turning your passions into profits is a sure way to find it. Now more than ever overwhelmed entrepreneurs are scrapping profit for passion and making a business out of doing what they love. If you’ve got a passion, there’s typically a way to monetize it. 3. Explore New Hobbies It’s not uncommon to have to wade through a bit of fog and uncertainty before you find a passion strong enough to build a career or business upon. If this is you, explore new hobbies in your personal time, before committing to them long-term. Try the things that peak your curiosity – even try things that you may not have previously considered – until you find something that keeps your interests and passions peaked. 4. Necessity vs. Meaning We’ve all been there….we feel trapped in a career or business because it provides necessity, in some form or another. Whether it’s the paycheck or retirement fund – security is part of what we’re after. The problem comes when insecurity prevents us from finding meaning or fulfillment. Even worse, it could be stopping us from reaching our greatest potential. Don’t let the fear and discomfort of change stop you from going for it! 5. What’s Really Important? If there is some aspect of your work that is causing disharmony or struggle, it’s worth examining what’s really important. At the heart of disharmony is the fact that some aspect of your life or career is not in alignment with who you really are and what you really want (your core values). Ask yourself this question: What are you being forced to give up in order to gain something else (and is it really giving up something that is serving you anyway – probably not)? How important is what you’re giving up to you? Is it worth it? It’s possible that minor tweaks or small changes to your personal and professional life could make it possible for you to find the real meaning and passion in your work again. 6. Begin with The End in Mind At the end of the day, all that matters is whether or not your daily actions are bringing you closer to achieving your goals in a timeframe you desire. There’s just no reason to continue doing anything that detracts you from your ultimate goals. Are you sacrificing your happiness only to be moving further away from your goals? Or is a temporary sacrifice leading you closer to the goal? To find true meaning in your work, it should on some level, and at all times, be supporting the achievement of future goals. The ultimate outcome and result should drive you to doing the activity necessary to achieve your goals and dreams. 7. Discover Your Life Purpose Struggling over a lack of meaning in your life or work is a sure-sign that what you are doing is not one of your core values. Fulfilling your life purpose isn’t as important to everyone as it is to others or they would do the work required to be on the path to what is truly important to them in life. Discovering life purpose is not a sure-fire solution to finding happiness; but if fulfilling your life purpose is one of your core values, it’s vital that you find a way to integrate the things that help you fulfill life purpose into your daily life.
