Finding Meaning in Your Career
Working
backwards from where you want to be can give you purpose.
Most
people are not working in a job they are passionate about all of the time. In
fact, according to a recent Financial Times column by Lucy Kellaway, having passion for one’s job
can be dangerous. One should at best care about and enjoy one’s job. But
even the best jobs can get mundane and routine and it is up to
the individual to make his/her career continuously challenging, interesting and
fulfilling.
In
today’s world, stable career paths are disappearing; there is the added
challenge of how to manage one’s career to keep one’s self relevant and
competitive in the job market – while trying to find meaning on that often
chaotic, bumpy path.
Keeping
your goals in mind
One
way to approach this is to work backwards. In fact, two of my favourite professors[1] recommend
this approach. You look towards the end of your career and life and think about
the “end game”. Where do you personally want to be and what do you want to
have? What would you like to have accomplished? What kind of impact would you
like to have made? What legacy, however small, would you like to leave behind?
The Role of Leaders in Helping
Others Find Meaning at Work
Instead
of thinking only about your current job and the next moves, focus on the big
picture and think about your values and what is important to you – especially
in terms of contribution you would like to make – and to whom and why.
Perhaps
it is important to you that you can tell your grandchildren you have run or
started companies and those companies have made a difference in their
respective industries and impacted people’s lives. Or perhaps all you want to
do is retire on a farm in New Zealand with your partner and fix vintage cars in
your garage. The jobs you have are merely stepping-stones to that
ultimate dream.
Of
course this method requires asking some core questions, especially about one’s
self. And that is part of what life is about - to search for the answers to
these questions as we continue on the journey of life.
Your
goals might change
For
some of us at least, it may take a long time to find the answer to your life’s
purpose and I suspect for the majority of us, the answers will change and
evolve over time. I thought my "purpose" in life was to be a pianist
since I was five until I changed careers.
Nevertheless,
it is important that as we progress in our career, we think about the big
picture and ask ourselves why we are doing what we are doing. Not only would
this give us a stronger sense of direction and purpose, but also more
motivation and resilience in the face of short-term setbacks. I think too many
people are so busy doing what they are doing without questioning the purpose or
real meaning behind it that even when they eventually reach their goals, they
feel unsatisfied with a sense of anti-climax and immediately pursue another
goal.
This
is reflected in Tolstoy’s search for meaning of life when he turned 50, after
he’d written his greatest works. Despite his celebrity, having a large estate
and family, good health for his age and promise of eternal literary fame,
Tolstoy succumbed to a spiritual crisis and needed to find meaning beyond being
a great writer. This avalanched his search, which he felt was “the simplest of
questions, lying in the soul of every man”, yet at the same time paralysingly
profound.
Prioritise
Once
you have some ideas as to what is important to you, including but not limited
to the contributions and impact you would like to make ultimately, then you can
come up with a strategy, not a specific plan, to fill the gap between where you
are now and where you want to end up. There will be multiple ways and paths of
getting there but at least you will know which general direction you prefer to
pursue even if the path will need to be revised at times.
As
we search for meaning in our careers and lives, a good guide to use is to face
and accept reality, use Occam’s razor and simplify. Einstein told us to make
things as simple as possible, but not simpler. We cannot change who we are and
what we are given nor can we change the past. But we can always act and live in
the present to shape our future.
Pan
Pan is Founder and Managing Partner of Pantèra Ventures.
Read more at http://knowledge.insead.edu/blog/insead-blog/finding-meaning-in-your-career-3481?utm_source=INSEAD+Knowledge&utm_campaign=04cfe90be8-31_July_mailer7_31_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e079141ebb-04cfe90be8-249840429&nopaging=1#EyvpiRzi9QTqwdk6
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