Finding Meaningful Work:10 ways to recover a sense of calling in your life.
A job is way to make money. A calling is a way of life.
A calling consists of meaningful work that reflects who you are and not just what you do. Before you go out into the world to do your work, you need to turn inward and discover what that work might be. It is inside where you begin to bring meaning in your life. It is inside where you meet your deepest longings, your unique gifts, and your truest self. It is inside where you find the twin gifts of purpose and passion that become the core of your working life.
Here are some ways to begin the process of finding your soul’s work.
1. Do nothing.
“Part of the work cannot be made, it must be received”
—Lewis Hyde
Your life is so busy that you never have any time to check in with yourself and reconnect to your innermost being. There are so many external voices trying to tell you who you should be and what you should like that you cannot hear your own still, small voice within that reminds you who you really are and what you really love. It is essential that you take time on a regular basis just to be with yourself. Shut off the TV and the computer, unplug the phone, set aside the magazine and do nothing. You cannot know what you want if you don’t know who you are.
2. Ask yourself the question, “Why do I work?”
“The way we imagine our lives is the way we will go on living our lives.”
– James Hillman
Work is one of the great, unexamined assumptions of your life. To most of you it seems obvious that you work because you have to, because that’s just what you do, that’s what people have always done. However, if you define work chiefly in terms of money-making, you lose the possibility of understanding the deeper dimensions of work, the meaning of work and the many ways it can nourish you – spiritually, psychologically, emotionally, physically, as well as economically. If you haven’t answered this question for yourself, then you may find yourself stuck in survival mode. To find meaningful work, you need to know what work means to you.
3. Get lost in something.
“What did you do as a child that caused you to forget time?
Therein lies the myth to live by.”
— Joseph Campbell
Too often your days become ruled by the Day-Timer. If every moment of your life is scheduled, you cut yourself off from the inspiration that an unexpected event or spontaneous action can bring. You have all experienced the feeling of being so caught up in something that you forget everything else. Some activities are more likely to put you in this state than others. Conversely, work that has you watching the clock can leave you drained and depressed. The feeling of getting lost in an activity is exhilarating and refreshing. The things that cause you to lose track of time are those things that connect you to a sense of the eternal in your life and thus to a sense of meaning.
4. Remember to play.
“Play enables us to rearrange our capacities and our very identity so that they can be used in unforeseen ways.”
– Stephen Nachmanovitch
Play is not frivolous. Play keeps you connected to a sense of joy and pleasure. When you forget how to play, the things you do become rigid and stilted. In today’s world your leisure activities have become excessively work-like. If you go for a walk or ride a bike, it is not to take in the view, but to meet your weight-loss goals. You go to a concert to ‘get culture’. You go to a party to network. You have turned your play into work, when you should be turning your work into play. By playing you can resurrect your sense of creativity and remember how it feels to enjoy what you do.
5. Pay attention to your dreams and fantasies.
“The center that I cannot find is known to my unconscious mind.”
– W. H. Auden
Dreams are spontaneous and candid portraits of who you are. Dreams can help you to uncover those aspects of your being that have not yet found expression in your life. The images of a dream present aspects of you that have been denied or forgotten. Dreams and fantasies reveal to you things that are hidden to your conscious minds, thus they are good guides for discovering the life that wants to live through you. By paying attention to your dreams and noticing any themes, figures, or repeating images, you can get important information regarding your career exploration.
6. Read.
“Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world.”
– Arthur Schopenhauer
If you want your work to be filled with passion, you need to first awaken the possibility of passion in your life. It is important to explore different ideas and different ways of thinking about work and about life. Ideas are ways of perceiving the world. They provide you with the means to understand the various facts of your daily life. The way that you approach your work is determined by the ideas that you hold about it. Expand your horizons and you will expand the possibilities that are open and available to you.
7. Explore new areas of interest.
“If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”
– Thomas Edison
Explore subjects and activities that catch your attention. You cannot know if you like something—or how much you like it—until you’ve tried it. Passion is born of experience, not just theory. When your bodies and minds are engaged, they become highly sensitive instruments that can guide you in making the right choices for yourself. If there is anything that you have ever been curious about, take it for a test drive. Volunteer. Take classes. Experiment. Imagine each class or each situation as a kind of laboratory in which you can test the chemical reaction between you and a given activity.
8. Trust yourself.
“Just trust yourself and then you will know how to live.”
– Goethe
Your world is saturated with advertising trying to convince you of the importance of liking the right products, the right music, and the right lifestyle. You are told that if you don't fit in, you will be left behind. Soon you come to believe that if you don’t follow the tastes of the crowd, you will be ridiculed and rejected. Over time you completely forget how to recognize your own preferences. It is essential to stay true to what you like whether or not it is acceptable to others, whether or not it is in fashion, and whether or not it is “cool.” Learn to say “yes” to what you like and “no” to what you don’t like. Learn to love what you love. When you are able to admit and give room to the little callings of each day, it becomes easier to hear and enact the larger calling of your life.
9. Throw out job titles.
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
It’s easy to get bogged down in your preconceived notion of what a job entails. If you start with a job title, you may reject something that is a good fit for you. Instead, you might ask yourself, “How would I identify myself if there were no job titles? How would I define myself if there was no such thing as work?” Before you can find work that fits you, you need to know who you are and how you want to be in the world. You need to identify the things to which you want to give your time and attention. Each of you has your true identity no matter what your job title might be.
10. Work with a career coach.
“It's time to start living the life you've imagined.”
– Henry James
Work with someone who can help you explore the idea of meaningful work. Don’t be satisfied with just finding a job. It is not enough to try to fit yourself into some job description. Meaningful work is work that fits you. Depth-oriented career coaching is meant to get you in touch with the deeper patterns in your life. When you have a deep understanding of who you are and how you want to be in the world, you can then begin the process of translating that knowledge into a satisfying, real-world work situation. Be sure you feel comfortable with your coach. Remember: You are not just a resume. You are a complex and unique human being. (Inspired by Jason E. Smith, M.A.)
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