How to Find Meaningful Work

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Henry David Thoreau. Mr. Thoreau’s quote applies to anyone who has no values, who values unimportant physical items or concepts, or people who may have values, but fail to honor them. Our values, affect every part of our lives, including work. For many of us it is not that we don’t have values, but that we don’t honor them in our work lives. This doesn’t mean that we are dishonest at work or are engaging in illegal activities, but that the work we do, does not manifest our values. Why is this and how can we make a change and build better careers around our values?

School Makes Us Not So Smart

OK, confession, that is partly an attention grabber. Education is essential and being continuous learners is important to our success in both work and life. The problem is that while we must learn reading, writing, and arithmetic, the educational system does not teach us how to apply our knowledge. Even worse, education systems, in general, do not help with finding our strengths, understanding our values, critically thinking how to integrate, and apply them, and procure work that allows us to manifest those values with our work life. While the title of this section is meant as an attention grabber, education, by failing to provide us with the above essential knowledge, fails to make us smart in many areas, and maybe even numb to all that we can be to ourselves, our families, to others, and to generations to come. But we have the power to take corrective action.

Always Begin with Self

Self is what this is all about. Understanding ourselves by conducting a self-assessment is the foundation of finding our strengths and values. Many of us are unsure about our values and there are several reasons why this occurs:

1. We simply have never given that part of our lives much thought.
2. We have been living the values of our parents or some other people who have been an influence in our lives.
3. We receive mixed messages growing up. For example, a foster welfare child may go to Sunday School and learn to be a good person, but then suffers molestation in the foster home or one of the other foster children teaches us to steal.
4. We have, and even know, our values but fail to connect the dots between those values and our life’s work.

The good news is that there are plenty of exercises to help us in finding our values. We can simply make lists, go online, locate some exercises, or work with a coach. Ask your Personal Board of Directors as these are people who probably know our values better than most. We have our list, now what?

There’s An App for That

The app in this case is us! Just having a list is not enough, we must now find ways to implement or live those values every single day. If we work for an organization that pollutes the atmosphere and we say one of our values is saving the environment there is going to be a disconnect. Or maybe we don’t have a problem using animal-based food or products, but the organization we work for has a strict vegetarian culture. Again, our values do not match. If we are people who believe in creating and following rules, policies, and procedures and the organization we work for breaks all the rules, including the law, doesn’t believe in polices, and results are all that matter, not the method or process, there will be a clash of values in both cases to say the least. We manifest our values with our behaviors and if those behaviors conflict with opposing behaviors, that is where trouble begins. There will be poor or hostile communication, conflicts will develop, and stress will ruin our health. This, all because we have not been true to our values. Time for a change.

If you want to concentrate on work values, download my complimentary Identify Your Career Values Workbook. When doing this exercise, we must be sure to include the value we bring to an employer. Since building a better career is a long-term proposition, try to include skills that may be of value and keep up with trends.

Finding Matches with Our Values

Today it is easier than it has ever been to research organizations, even before we apply for a position. Some ways include:

1. Keep up with trends. Organizations are frequently in the news for both their good and bad deeds.
2. Read their annual report. This is easier to obtain from a publicly held company. You can find out who serves on the board, who is on the executive team, some staff members, financial records, about their culture, what charities they support and more.
3. Read websites like Glassdoor.
4. Talk to people who may have or still work there.
5. Read industry specific newsletters and blogs.
6. Check with our Personal Board of Directors.

Changes can still be made even if we are 35 or 40, have a family and a mortgage. It may take longer, but that is OK as we have a better sense of what we are looking for and we have more resources to fall back on such as our contacts, experience, street smarts, and finances.

Speaking of finances when making career changes, it is wise to review finances, budgets, and what we may require for the near future. In making changes, we must prepare for a lag in income, increases in expenditures such as pursuing a degree or certification, or a deficit in income if the new direction we take pays less going forward.

In Summary

The idea is to plan a long and happy career while living our values everyday both at home and at work. This will indeed help us build a better career and keep us from leading a life of quiet desperation.

Thank you for reading this blog. If you would like more help in finding values and building a better career Let's get started