Introduction
Why do we exist? What is our Purpose? People have pondered these questions for millennia. According to the Bible, God created us in His image to have fellowship (a deep relationship) with Him and to spread His glory. It makes you wonder, was it God’s intention for us to spend so much of our lifetime focused on working for a medium of exchange like money for survival and leisure?
In any case, that’s how it’s panned out and there’s not a lot we can do at the moment to change things. We’ve all heard that people live more meaningful and fulfilling lives when they feel they have a Purpose, but why? Living a Purposeful life contributes to better physical and mental health, better relationships, quality of life, productivity, and achievements.
What is Purpose exactly? In the most basic terms, Purpose is using what you’re good at to deliver something that the world needs. Purposeful work is the goal. It is the desired zone in which we should strive to live. Fair warning, it is extraordinarily difficult to operate in this zone for any extended period of time because it is heavily influenced by internal decisions and external forces.
Working towards Purpose leads you through seasons of cause, career, potential, and calling by way of your passion, mission, profession, and other vocations. There’s a lot to unpack here. Let’s go a little deeper into these concepts.
What is Purposeful Work?
Purposeful work (for modern-day business and work environments), can be defined as: doing work that you love, which you’re good at, that also provides the world with what it needs, while you are adequately compensated for your effort. If that sounds like it’s not easily attainable, it’s because it’s not.
I liken operating in Purpose to the analogy of a football quarterback standing in the “pocket” looking for a receiver to whom they can pass the ball. Once the play has started the offensive line begins to form a wall around the quarterback to block the defense from tackling him. As the play extends the blocks begin to break down and force the quarterback to scramble out of the pocket to avoid getting sacked. On the next play, the quarterback can start in the pocket once again, and depending on how it goes he may be in there longer or shorter this time, but staying in the pocket indefinitely is simply not a possibility because of the nature of the game.
This football analogy is not unlike the nature of Purposeful work. People will go through various seasons in life where things are in the zone, and other seasons when things have veered off course in one way or another. It is possible to have a profession, vocation, passion, and mission and still feel like you lack Purpose in your work. So what are the differences?
Profession vs. Purpose
Your profession is not your Purpose. A profession is actually just getting paid for doing what you’re good at. If you are able to deliver something that the world needs, while being paid to do what you’re good at, that is considered a Cause.
Passion vs. Purpose
Passion is when you love to do what you are good at, but you are not paid to do it. In the case when you are paid to do something you love to do that you’re good at, it’s called your Career.
Vocation vs. Purpose
Having a vocation means being paid to provide something that the world needs, but the work isn’t something you love, and it’s not something you’re necessarily all that great at. When the work moves more towards something you’re interested in however, it increases your Potential to learn or apply your skills (or engage with others) to pursue innovation.
Mission vs. Purpose
You might have heard that in business, Purpose is the reason the organization exists, vision is the company’s goal, and mission is how they go about pursuing that goal. In this case, we are talking about the pursuit of personal Purpose in our work so the definition is a little different.
Our personal mission is doing what we love to bring the world what it needs. It doesn’t mean we are good at it, and it doesn’t mean we are paid to do it. Oftentimes, people will do this work for free because it aligns with their interests. In cases where you are able to add “what you’re good at” to what you love to do, and it brings the world what it needs, this is considered a Calling.
How to Pursue Purposeful Work
As stated before, sustaining Purposeful work indefinitely is nearly impossible. We all go through different seasons in life caused by our choices and external circumstances beyond our control. While we cannot undo the hands we are dealt, we can do our best to overcome challenges to bring ourselves back towards Purpose. Here are some pointers for overcoming problems that force you out of the “pocket”. If multiple areas are weak, you can combine scenarios and solutions.
Scenario A: You are out of alignment with Purpose because you are not being adequately compensated for your work.
This is a tricky one because most people feel they deserve better pay. However, for our example let’s assume it’s a situation where the person for whom you are working is truly and grossly taking advantage of you. If you want Purposeful work out of this scenario you have to negotiate for appropriate compensation. Demonstrate your value by highlighting your strengths and commitment to fulfilling the world’s needs. Communicate clearly that without a Career you will not be able to take up the Cause or help their company reach the next level.
Scenario B: You are out of alignment with Purpose because you don’t love what you are doing.
In this scenario, you can’t do much except change your mindset. If you begin to serve others, increase your skills, engage with others, and innovate, you may be able to kindle some newfound interest or uncover an unexpected Calling. If nothing else, perhaps a change in perspective could ignite some passion for using your skills or sense of mission fulfilling the needs of the world.
Scenario C: You are out of alignment with Purpose because you aren’t good at the work you’re doing.
This seems like an unlikely scenario because people who aren’t good at their jobs are usually terminated, right? Nonetheless, let’s assume you are someone trying to “fake it until you make it” at a new company. In order to have a chance at Purposeful work, you’ll need to have some semblance of a successful Career. It’s much easier to be passionate about your work when you’re good at what you do, so try building your skills to justify the compensation you are being paid.
Scenario D: You are out of alignment with Purpose because the company doesn’t produce something the world needs.
When a company is producing a meaningless product or service, it doesn’t matter if you love doing what you do. It doesn’t matter if you’re good at your job. It doesn’t matter how much the pay is. If you are not providing value, you will feel unfulfilled. Use your motivation and skill to engage with others and come up with innovative solutions that will help the organization deliver a product or service that the world needs. In doing so, your work will regain a sense of Purpose.
Conclusion
If you’re not good at the work you’re doing, you don’t like it, you aren’t being adequately paid to do it, and it’s not delivering what the world needs, you should not be doing that work. In fact, you should get out of there as soon as you can.
If the work environment is weak in one or two of the areas keeping you from Purposeful work, you may be able to salvage it. You can work on making the environment better by changing your mindset, increasing your skills, demonstrating your value and securing more compensation, or working with others to innovate, but you should not attempt to do them all.
If you’re willing to go the route of basically creating a business from the ground up, why wouldn’t you just give entrepreneurship a shot? If you are already an entrepreneur and your company is missing the mark in most of the aforementioned areas, it may be time to rethink your business plan.
Commentaires