How to find Purpose and Meaning at Work

A janitor was quietly sweeping the floor at the NASA Space Centre in 1962. President Kennedy, who was visiting that day interrupted his tour, walked over to the man and saying: “Hi, I'm Jack Kennedy, what are you doing?” The janitor responded: “I'm helping put a man on the moon, Mr President.”

On a wet day in February at 9.55 am, I googled “meaning at work” and received 16 billion search results.? Next, I googled “purpose in life”. This search yielded 21 billion results. The search for Purpose and meaning has never been greater. A question that I am often asked is how to find purpose and meaning in life, especially at work? ?

For some, work is a joy.? For others, it’s simply a way of paying the bills so that they can ’live their best life’ outside working hours.? At the very least, work can become more joyful if you feel it matters, that you are making a difference or contributing to something greater than yourself, just as the janitor did at Nasa in 1962.

Purpose is really important now due to three global drivers:

• An increased focus on employee engagement and retention.
• The rise of human consciousness ?
• The shift from an information economy towards a purpose driven economy

Purpose, Values, Meaning, and Intention defined

In order to find purpose and meaning at work, you need to understand the difference between Purpose, Values, Meaning, and Intentions.? You also need to understand how they interact and drive with one another.

Purpose defined

Our brains are hardwired for purpose.? We aspire to be our best selves.? We set ourselves goals, we achieve them, celebrate, and then we set our next goal.

Purpose is an overarching sense of what matters in your life, driven by your values. ?

It benefits wider society or a cause or individuals that you care deeply about.

Your purpose gives life meaning. Having a sense of purpose acts like a north star, helping you to know when you are off track. Many people find their purpose is in the service of others or a cause, driven by their core values.

Life is a journey and as such may change as you grow and develop. As you travel through life events give you prompts that help you to define what your purpose IS and IS NOT. Knowing what your purpose IS NOT, is important because it points you towards what your purpose IS.

Values defined

Your personal values are a core part of who you are – and who you want to be. Awareness of your core values help you to make appropriate decisions in any situation.? They point you in the right direction.? When life matches your values, it feels good. When life doesn't align with your personal values, it can trigger frustration, a lack of meaning and unhappiness.

Values are individual beliefs that motivate you to act one way or another. They serve as a guide for your behaviour and actions.

Your values may be influenced by your upbringing, and the people you spend time with.? You may believe that your values are “right” because they are the values of your particular culture.

Meaning defined

A persons meaning in life is a sense of being of value, doing something that is significant or feels important. Feeling as the janitor did at the space centre.

Meaningful work is work that gives you a sense of being of value, doing something that is significant or feels important.

Meaning is descriptive.? It is a mental representation of the relationship among things.? The word ‘Meaningful’ is evaluative.? Its the amount of significance we give something, a continuum between Meaningless and Meaningful. This means that what you define as meaningful work can be very different to another person, even if you hold similar jobs in the same organisation. One janitor working at the space centre might see their job as meaningless and of little or no value.? Another might see it as being highly meaningful. So, a sense of finding work meaningful is highly individual based on how we personally evaluate the work.

Intentions defined

Without intention, purpose is just a word, an abstract idea, an idea at most. Intentions turn purpose and meaning into reality. Purpose counts for nothing without clear intentions that task your brain to act in the pursuit of purpose and meaning in life. ?Intentions align your actions to make your purpose a reality.?

In my book, Intention Matters , I define Intentions as 'A deep Sincere desire, underpinned by a belief that it is possible.

Intentions are clear instructions that task your brain to be hyper vigilant 24/7 for any opportunity to turn something you really want a reality.

Case study

Scenario: You are a Chartered Accountant who has worked for an Investment Bank for the last ten years. You are feeling a little jaded and frustrated and work lacks meaning for you despite earning a great salary and having attained a senior position. ?You care deeply about saving the planet for your children’s sake.

You decide that your purpose is to contribute to work that saves the planet

You identify your core values as innovation, honesty, integrity, autonomy, being of service, growth and fun

Your set an intention to find new work with a company that produces green energy. You really want to do this at a deep level, and you believe that you can succeed in securing this new job. You set this intention, sending clear instructions to your brain.

Your brain remains hyper vigilant looking for all opportunities to find the right job in the right organisation to apply for. Your brain remains on task as you find jobs, apply and go through the interview process. You secure a new job with a great working culture.

Meaning in your life is now gleaned from working for a green energy company, adding value by managing their finances well so they can continue and have a greater positive impact on the planet.

How to find your Purpose and Meaning at Work.

To find purpose and meaning at work you need to identify what really matters to you. The following four steps will help you get started.

1: Identify your core values

You may have identified your values in the past, but its worth repeating the exercise as values can change over time.? There are lots of free exercises online to help you identify your values.? You will find a free values exercise on my website.

1. Choose core values (pick from list in 10 mins).?
2. Highlight your top 10-15 values
3. Choose your top 5-6 values to guide you through life.
4. Optional- Assess how you express these core values – all equal? Some underserved?

2: Identify what would make your work feel meaningful

Reflecting on your purpose and values, ask yourself what would make you feel as if your work is of value? What type of work would feel significant or important to you??

If your work itself does not feel meaningful, ask yourself if I did this work for an organisation whose purpose was X* would my work feel more valuable? Would I feel more motivated? Would I feel like I was contributing to something more important?

( *In the above text ‘X’ represents a purpose driven organisation aligned to your life purpose and your values)

3: Identify your Purpose.?

According to researcher and author Britt Andreatta some people have purpose “with a small p” others have purpose “with a capital P”.

Purpose with a small p might revolve around helping or supporting those closest to you or self-development. Examples might include raising your children well, caring for those around you, developing yourself so you have greater choices in life or can have greater impact. It might also include focussing on being happy or being healthy or making a difference to the lives of others.

Purpose with a capital P might involve being of service to a wider cause, at a local or global level.? Examples might include contributing in a small or major way to improving the environment, helping animals, educating, or developing humans, researching medical cures – the list is endless.?

Here are some pointers to help you to get started on identifying your purpose.

1. Identify the skills you’ve developed over the years.? They may include past skills you no longer use. Include both work related skills and non-work activities and interests.
2. Identify your natural talents & strengths – things that come naturally to you or feel easy.
3. What are your pleasures & preferences? Try not to get stuck on things that you are good at or have invested time and energy in (sunk cost bias).? Go back through your list and highlight the skills that give you the most pleasure or joy
4. Which of the skills/ talents/intelligences put you in a state of flow?
5. What would you like to do more of if you had no limitations?
6. Ask yourself ‘what is my purpose’? – see what emerges.? It could be Purpose with a capital p or purpose with a small p.? It does not matter which emerges, as long as it feels right for you in this moment.

Stand back and look at the bigger picture – look for patterns or pointers in a direction, or away from a direction.

4: Identify your Core Intention

Clarity of purpose will automatically trigger an intention to achieve your purpose in life. Identifying your purpose follows the same process as identifying your core intentions in life. For an intention to work four ingredients are necessary:

• A Deep sincere desire (DSD) -you have to really want it at a heartfelt level
• Clarity – you are clear about what you want.
• Belief – you believe it can happen – even if you don’t know how.? The ‘How’ will emerge later
• A Commitment to act – if you have DSD+ Clarity+ Belief a commitment to act will automatically be triggered in your brain.

An intention has to be something you want at a deep and heartfelt level.? I describe it as “a Deep, sincere, desire” (DSD). Passing fancies and fads lack the necessary desire to make the intention effective.

Your work exploring your values and meaning should help you to become clear about what you want.? This is important because your brain is your humble servant and will follow your instructions to the letter. Junk in leads to junk out. Gaining clarity by being clear and specific about what you want will enable your brain to do its best work.

Intentions need to be aligned with your beliefs about the world you live in. If you believe that anything is possible, this will make your intention feel achievable. If you believe that nothing good ever happens to you, this can lead to a lack of belief that your intention is achievable.

If the latter is the case for you there are many techniques that you can use to overcome unhelpful mindsets you have.? Alternatively, you could downscale your intention to something that feels achievable. Once achieved, you can set the bar a little higher and so on until you reach your intention.

A word of caution…

When setting intentions, you don’t need a plan of how to you will get there, you just need a strong enough desire to make it happen. The ‘how’ will emerge later as your brain scans the horizon for possibilities. Setting SMART objectives at this point will be counterproductive. Smart objectives can be too specific, blinkering your brain from spotting to multitude of ways that your intention could take shape and become a reality.? Planning activities can be useful further down the line.

For more on the neuroscience of intention, you mike like to view article "Why Purpose and Meaning matter more than ever "

Summary

Purpose is really important now due to three global drivers:

• An increased focus on employee engagement and retention
• The rise of human consciousness
• The shift from an information economy towards a purpose driven economy

Your purpose may be Purpose with a capital P or purpose with a small p – whichever feels right for you. Your purpose is influenced by your core values. Meaningful work is work that gives you a sense of being of value, doing something that is significant or feels important.

Intentions are the active ingredient that enable you to spot the opportunities and take action to align your life to your purpose.

Author: Juliet Adams: Learning and Development expert, Coach, Author and Speaker. Using neuro and behavioural science to enhance performance & unlock potential. Researching, writing about, and coaching on Purpose, Meaning and Intention for over 5 years, helping people identify what really matters and make it happen. Author of Intention Matters .

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?#purpose #purposedriven #purposeinlife #meaning #meaningfulwork #values #intention #intentionmatters

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