Finding Purpose in Your Work Life

Alex Watanabe • June 5, 2019

Finding purpose in your work life is almost as important as finding purpose in your personal life.

Yes, we all know and we all say that life is too busy these days, that we barely have time to complete tasks/duties (in our work-lives) or to do the things we want/need to do (in our personal lives). But we never give ourselves an honest answer to the question: “Why does this job make me happy?”

When work is your passion, finding the purpose of it is almost a given. You LOVE what you do and you have that strong desire that can get you to do amazing things (even if you don’t have the skillset yet, you have the drive for it). It’s an emotion that comes from within you, and you apply and direct your energy into it.

When work is your vocation, the purpose is the work, you are suited, you are born to do it. Your mind has been designed to do that type of work, so it brings you joy, fulfilment and personal satisfaction.

When work is your job and your career (and nothing else), a true purpose can easily get lost in the focus of just earning money to pay your bills, mortgage, hobbies, travel etc. It is mainly motivated by the dollar. It’s very easy to get trapped into it and become extremely dissatisfied with your work life.

So, the meaning of all this is: if you’re passion ate about your work and it feels like you were born to do it ( vocation ) – great! You won’t even need to ask yourself if you’re happy doing what you are doing, you know you are!

But if you are working in a job that does not bring you some levels of joy, excitement and accomplishment, it is time to go and search for what makes you happy. Take risks and ask yourself (or even ask others too, a different perspective can be quite useful too), does my work life have a purpose? When it does, it can release a road of great fulfilment and delight, for a lifetime!

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