Finding Your Work’s Purpose (It May Not Be Your Passion)
What to do when you no longer feel a sense of purpose in your work
When your work life is no longer fulfilling and you’ve lost that sense of purpose, it takes tons of energy just to do your job every day. You wake up with a pit in your stomach, dreading the day of work ahead of you.
Most career advice tells you to make a change and find work that is more meaningful. How many of us heard these nuggets of career guidance from well-meaning people?
Do what you love.
Find your passion and you will never work a day in your life.
Your work should make you happy.
Like all sound bites of advice, there are some good take-away messages in there. Who wouldn’t want to get paid (well) to do work that is super fulfilling? It would be great if everyone could choose jobs that they love.
But the reality of the work world is so much more complicated.
Even when you like your work, no job feels fulfilling all day long. You don’t always get to choose what you do for work or be able to switch jobs or career paths easily. And it can be impossible to make a living wage doing something you are passionate about (all of you artists – I see you).
Sayings like Find Your Passion perpetuate the myth that everyone can and should find great purpose and meaning in their jobs. If you are passionate about your work and it makes you feel like you are making a great contribution to the world, I am delighted for you (and chances are you are not reading this).
But if you are one of the many people out there whose work no longer feel purposeful (or maybe it never did), do not despair. The answer may not always be to follow your passion and make a major job or career change.
Why Do We Work?
Let’s start with why we work in the first place.
What is the purpose of work? Pulling from Self-Determination Theory, we are motivated to work for three basic reasons: to survive in the world, to feel like we can accomplish things, and to connect with others.
Survival: Most of us work because we need money to survive. We need the money to meet basic needs like food and shelter. And more money often gives us more power and options to make decisions about how we live our lives.
Competence: Through work, we can often get the opportunity to feel like we are good at something, to accomplish tasks, and to feel satisfied at what we achieve. When our work tasks align with our skills and strengths, we can feel proud of what we do, no matter how big or small the accomplishment.
Relatedness: Work provides a way to feel connected to other people, whether we are helping people directly, working on a team to meet a shared goal, or making work friendships. Work can also help us feel like we are contributing to a greater good or a larger goal, such as providing something people need or making the world better.
Where Is Your Work Life Lacking Purpose?
When you have lost a sense of purpose in your work, it is no longer matching up with what you need from your work life. But before jumping into a major career change, dig a little deeper to figure out where the disconnect is happening.
Take those three motivations for work: How well is your job meeting those needs?
Survival
Everything starts with Survival. It can be argued that first and foremost work must help us get our basic needs met. Does your work provide for what you need to survive? If not, then making enough money for food, safe housing, and clothing consume all your energy. But once basic needs are met, the question becomes how well your work allows you to live the kind of life you want.
How much does your work provide for what you want in your life?
Then identify how important survival is for you:
Would making more money in the same job bring a greater sense of purpose?
Competence
Next consider how well your job matches with your skills and strengths.
How much do feel like you are good at your job?
Are you accomplishing the tasks that are important to you?
Are you doing the work that matches your strengths?
Then identify how important competence at work is for you:
Would doing different tasks and projects or using different skills bring a greater sense of purpose?
Relatedness
Finally, think about your connections with other people at work.
How much do you enjoy the people you work for or with?
How much are you helping people with your work?
How much does your work contribute to a greater good?
Then identify how important relatedness at work is to you:
Would working with different people increase your purpose at work?
Would work that directly makes a difference in people’s lives or in the world bring a greater sense of work purpose?
Finding Purpose in Your Work
What you need from your work is unique to you.
Not everyone needs to make more money.
Not everyone needs the job to feel like a great fit.
Not everyone needs their job to feel like it makes the world better in some small way.
What might need to change in your work life depends on what is most important to you. Which of the three areas are most important to you right now?
Survival
If survival and autonomy are most important, making more money may bring more purpose. You may feel undervalued and want to be paid more for what you do. It could also mean that your non-work life – what you do outside of work - may be more important than what you do for work. You might connect with the idea that work has never been your passion, and you work so you can live your life.
Action steps to consider:
New Job: Put energy into job searching to apply for jobs that will make more money. Seek guidance if you could use help with job searching strategies, showcasing your skills on your resume, networking, and interviewing.
New Skills: Pick up new skills or additional training to make yourself more marketable.
New Role: Find out what you need to advance in your company. Network within your organization. Is it becoming a supervisor? Gaining additional knowledge and skills? Connecting with certain people?
Competence
If competence and achievement are most important, you may have a strong work identity. The day-to-day work tasks, projects, and responsibilities matter, and you want to feel like you are doing a good job. Whatever has changed – you, the job, the company, the goals – the result is that you no longer get the satisfaction of a job well done. Finding the purpose again may mean identifying the skills you prefer to be using and making a job change.
Action steps to consider:
Job Crafting: Is it possible to move around your day-to-day tasks so you do more of what you like? Can you delegate tasks (yes, it takes time and energy to train others, but can be worth it if it helps you stay in the job)?
New Job: Identify the skills and strengths you want to be using, identify the roles that match these skills, and put energy into job searching. Seek guidance if you could use help with job searching strategies, showcasing your skills on your resume, networking, and interviewing.
New Career: If the skills you would love to be using are in a different career path, the Follow Your Passion advice applies to you. Pick up those new skills or training, if needed, to make the career pivot that brings more purpose to your work.
Reframing: I can hear some of you saying, “I would love to make a change but cannot because [insert a million good reasons].” Your assignment is to tune into how you are talking to yourself about your job. Do you have an inner voice that says, “I hate this job” all day long? If change is not possible, the challenge is to be clear with yourself about why you are staying. For your emotional health, you need to reduce the constant frustration. Are staying because the money supports your family? Because the work contributes to a greater good? Because you love the people? Because it is the best option among many bad options? Those are all good reasons and give a purpose to the work.
Relatedness
If relatedness and connection are most important, you are empathic and care about people, whether they are coworkers or clients. You want to be doing work that makes a difference in some big or small way. The lack of purpose might stem from working with difficult people, not having enough connection with people, or doing work that feels pointless.
Action steps to consider:
Job Crafting: Is it possible change who you interact with at work, what team you are on, who to report to, or how often you talk to people? Can you meet with people more often or spend less time with difficult people? Can you find work projects that feel more interesting and meaningful?
New Job: Identify the companies or organizations that do the kind of work you care about. Seek guidance if you could use help with job searching strategies, showcasing your skills on your resume, networking, and interviewing.
New Career: If the work that would feel meaningful is in a different career path, the Follow Your Passion advice applies to you. Pick up those new skills or training, if needed, to make the career pivot that brings more purpose to your work.
Reframing: Sometimes a change in your work is just not possible. Then, the change needs to happen internally. When that inner voice says, “This job is so pointless,” you remind yourself why you need to stay (which is often about the money). You may not be able to get a sense of purpose from your job; instead, focus on ways to create meaning and purpose outside of work.
Final Thoughts on Losing and Finding Your Work’s Purpose
The three work motivations (i.e., survival, competence, relatedness) can provide clues to where your work life is lacking purpose, but like most categories, they oversimplify the complexity of people’s lives. Because we spend so much time working, work can be the first place we notice a lost sense of purpose.
But sometimes the lack of purpose is a bigger issue and spills over into your non-work life. If you have gotten to the end of this article and are saying, “I make enough money, feel great at my job, work with great people, my work makes a difference…but I still feel a lack of purpose” the change may need to start with your emotional life, not your work life. If depressive and anxious thoughts are getting in the way of feeling a sense of purpose at work, seek out a therapist who can help you work through the mental health issues.