To find purpose at work, change how you think about it. Strategy says.

Why is it that some people can be extraordinarily well-paid and work in comfy settings but feel empty, while others can work in the sewers of Kuala Lumpur and feel fulfilled?

Part of the answer is purpose.

For most people, purpose or meaning is created not found.

Deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark, raving mad. -Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian novelist

If you wake up every morning feeling exhausted at the thought of having another day at work, you are seriously burnout. It's an alarming sign that you're not loving your job.

Do these jobs sound inferior to you? Janitor (or Makcik cleaner), sewerage worker, rubbish collector, roadside hawker, etc.

You might be thinking - they are probably the most unhappy people due to their nature of work and their level of satisfaction in life could be very, very low. But you're WRONG. Click on the post below to watch the story of Kak Ning, who works as a janitor in a mosque that has gotten so many people inspired.

Working with a sense of purpose day in and day out is an act of will that takes thoughtfulness and practice. But if you're not quite ready for a job switch or much still enjoying "quiet-quitting" before making the real jump, here's some advice (by life coaches) you can follow to consciously endow your work with purpose regardless of your profession.

How to create purpose in what you do ?

#1 Connect work to service. Connecting our daily tasks consciously to those we’re ultimately serving makes completing that work more purposeful.

Teachers can see every day the young lives they are shaping. Nurses can serve sick people and see how they restore health.

Corporate accountants can mentally connect themselves to the larger work of their organizations and take pride and purpose in the customers they help.

While not everyone handles situations of life and death at work, each of us does serve someone in what we do. So, whom do you serve?

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#2 Craft your work and make work a craft. Read that again.

Ask your manager or boss for "job-crafting" opportunities before handing in your resignation letter.

Get a chance to demonstrate how you treat your work as a craft — focusing on the skill needed to complete your work and dedicating your time to perfecting those skills.

This atmosphere of constant improvement in service of craft — so ably demonstrated by Kak Ning (the makcik cleaner) — in itself seems to fill professional pursuits with greater purpose.

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#3 Remember WHY you work. Most of us don’t have the luxury of working solely for fun. We may enjoy our jobs, but we also work to earn money and pay bills. For most of us, work in itself is a meaningful act of service.

Parents work hard to invest in their children; those without kids often help support aging parents or other relatives. Those without families often use their resources to support organizations they love in the community or their friends in times of need.

It’s rare to find someone working with only their personal needs in mind.

So, who are you working for? Identify that person or group of people.

Conclusion

Your work is an act of service to those you care about in life. Keeping this front of mind will help you tie more purpose into your work.

Purpose isn’t a gift — it’s something we must consciously pursue and create. With the right approach, almost any job can be meaningful.

Note: This is an article adapted from HBR by John Coleman on finding purpose at work, published in 2017.