How to Charge Your Career with Meaning & Purpose

For many people, a job is just a paycheck; it’s what keeps them moving from one month to the next. Distanced from the impact of their work, individuals caught in such a scenario often experience higher stress levels and reduced productivity.

But it doesn’t have to stay that way.

By infusing everyday tasks with purpose, you not only find outlets for your creativity, but you can also enhance your workplace performance. 

Embracing your passions and finding ways to incorporate them into every facet of your life motivates growth and encourages exploration. Moreover, the results can be transformative: bringing you from a position where your job is a ‘necessary evil’ to a point where your work brings a source of daily inspiration and personal joy.

What does “Purpose at Work” Mean?

Integrating a purpose at work requires you to first identify that purpose, which differs from person to person. 

• Are you devoted to disseminating knowledge? 
• Does creating non-toxic environments excite you? 
• Is helping others discover their hidden talents a reason to jump out of bed each morning? 

Once identified, look for ways to implement actions at work that converge with your purpose. Examples range from simply acting as a mentor for less-experienced employees to designing a training guide to help unify processes across multiple platforms or locations.

The Benefits of Working with Purpose

Bringing your creativity and passion to work can transform even the most ordinary job into one of possibility and potential. Consequently, the ability to find meaning in the work you accomplish every day directly and positively impacts your overall level of happiness, self-esteem, and workplace performance. 

Gallup analysis reveals that people who utilize their strengths every day are 3x more likely to report having an excellent quality of life, 6x more likely to be engaged at work, and 15% less likely to quit their jobs. For some, the freedom to pursue purpose at work is powerful enough to replace financial bonuses or benefits packages.

Four Ways to Bring Meaning & Purpose to Each Work Day

1. Find on-the-job outlets for your creativity

This may mean using your personal interest in time management to revamp a critical process at work or leveraging your abilities to inspire others to improve upon last month’s sales records.

2. Stay true to your core values

Avoid projects that oppose your fundamental beliefs. You can’t embrace your purpose working on plans that oppose who you are and what you believe in.

3. Push back against boredom and micro-management

Challenge long-held views of “This is the way we’ve always done it” and validate your purpose by finding new and better ways to do mundane, unexciting tasks.

4. Remember: You aren’t small; what you do matters

Even if it feels like you are little more than a small cog in a large machine, remember: if a small cog breaks, it can bring an entire operation down; instantly. If you look at the bigger impact your work has on those around you, you may begin to recognize that the passion you carry makes everyone stronger.

Measure and Build on Your Success

You can’t know how far you’ve come if you don’t know where you started. 

An interactive benchmarking tool can help you recognize both your current impact at work and how to grow that impact. 

Additionally, benchmarking can help you identify when you succeed and teach you how to build on those successes. Then, use benchmarking to highlight when, where, and why you activate purpose in your professional life, which actions return the most happiness and satisfaction, and how best to use your passions to improve workplace performance.

In the end, identifying purpose and demonstrating it in all aspects of life, including work, can encourage you set even more challenging goals for yourself; thus, enabling you to achieve the highest possible level of life enjoyment and satisfaction.