The Career Encouragement Blog

How to Find Meaningful Work

Brazen Careerist has an excellent post on how to find meaningful work.   She says:

"Work doesn't give your life meaning.  The idea that your happiness correlates to your satisfaction with your work is misguided. What you need from work is to make sure it's not undermining your ability to create sanity in your life. Work is a way to get sanity, to make sure you are growing and you feel secure while you do it. Here's what you need from a job to get that:

• A short, predictable commute
• Workflow you can manage
• Clear goals that are challenging
• Two co-workers you're close friends with

Once you have those things in your job, then it is not up to your job to create meaning in your work, it is up to you."

I agree completely except for the part about the short, predictable commute.  That's a distinctly personal preference.  I have a friend who recently bought her dream home - a ranch an hour outside the city.  I could never handle a commute like that.  Yet when I asked my friend about her commute and she acknowledged it was long but said, "I love my work and don't mind driving in. On the way home, the farther I get from the city, the less stress I feel, and when I turn the curve and see my land in the distance I get this huge smile on my face!"  For her, the trade-off is completely worth it. 

I think the main point is to make sure not to build your life around your job. Figure out how and where you want to live, then subordinate your income generating activities to your goals to create that life.  For my friend, the keys to having the ranch she always dreamed of included a) a substantial income to pay for it; and b) work she enjoyed enough that she was willing to handle the commute.  But make no mistake - while she "enjoys" her work, her meaning is found in the barn and the garden.

Read BC's posting, and then let us know - what do YOU need to have meaningful work?

The Problem with Passion - Part I

I've been contemplating writing a posting called "The Problem with Passion" for some time now.  Hat tip to Ann Bares for jump-starting me by sending me the link to Seth Godin's great posting "Maybe you can't make money doing what you love."  I couldn't agree more with everything he says:

Take a few minutes to read his posting and pay particular attention to the conclusion:

"Do your art. But don't wreck your art if it doesn't lend itself to paying the bills. That would be a tragedy."

Look for another posting where I will expound more on this topic soon!

Blessed to be a Blessing

In a recent post I talked about being grateful for our work.  In addition to the reasons we can be grateful for our work that I already mentioned, there is another important reason to be grateful - the blessing of having our own work allows us to be a blessing to others.  Were you able to donate to a charity that is important to you this year?  Without your job that might be difficult to do. If your company offers a gift matching benefit, you have an even greater reason to be grateful!  My husband's company matches employee charitable donations up to $5,000 per year - a remarkable benefit by any standard! 

But it's not just the money that allows you to bless others - it's the position you hold and the people that it causes you to interact with that gives you the chance to be a blessing to others.  Recently I experienced receiving  blessing from an employee of a grocery store in a rather amusing manner...

The Wednesday before Christmas I took the kids to Church for the final rehearsal before the Christmas play performance.  After the rehearsal we had to go to tae kwon do class so I wore some baggy sweats over my uniform and threw on an old jacket.  We were running late and raced out without dinner.  "No problem," I thought, "We'll just get pizza at church." (Our church serves a pizza dinner for $2/each every Wednesday night to help busy families keep up with activities and still get dinner).  After got in the car I noticed that my son had worn a sweatshirt instead of a coat and my daughter had worn slip-on shoes instead of boots.  It was too late to turn back, and I figured that since we were just going to be running in and out of church, and then in and out of the gym, we would keep going despite the wet, sticky snow that was falling.

We got to church and the kids had their practice.  The church was unusually busy for Wednesday night and by the time the kids finished practice the pizza was gone.  What to do now?  The kids had tae kwon do in 30 minutes and there was no way to keep going without food.  Not a problem - Byerly's is just up the road and they have a great hot deli.  On the way in the parking lot I told the kids, "We're in a hurry so we can't have a full meal - just enough to hold us over until after TKD."  We raced into the store through the blowing snow.  The temperature was dropping fast!  By the time we got to the deli section, my son had his arms crossed over his chest and was shivering.  My daughter stamped her feet and said, "I wish I had boots on!" 

The kids mulled over their choices.  My daughter wanted macaroni & cheese and my son wanted chicken.  The nice lady behind the counter got out two dinner trays and started dishing up the macaroni.  "Oh no," I said, "We're going to split one dinner with two sides."  She looked at me curiously.  "We're kind of in a hurry," I explained.  "We were going to eat at church tonight but they ran out of food."

"Oh," she said slowly.  "That's too bad."  Then she dished up the macaroni & cheese, mashed potatoes and 1 piece of chicken into a dinner tray.  Then she took out the piece of chicken and rummaged around the bin and selected a different one.  Then she added another scoop of mashed potatoes and macaroni.  By the time she handed me the tray the plastic lid wouldn't snap down and mashed potatoes were oozing out the side.  "Merry Christmas!" she said warmly with a big beaming smile. 

We continued our frantic pace through the check-out line and then grabbed a small table to eat quickly so we wouldn't make a mess in the car.  As he started in on the chicken my son nonchalantly commented, "Did you see how that Deli Lady picked through the chicken to give us the biggest one?  She must know I like chicken!"  I was mulling over the fact that the Deli Lady had carefully picked through the roasting pan for the largest piece of chicken when it slowly began to dawn on me....our missing outerwear during a snowstorm...my insistence that we split a meal...we looked and sounded as if we were a family in financial peril!

Now I understood the deli lady's extra effort to find the largest piece of chicken and the heaping helpings of mashed potatoes and macaroni.  I started to laugh and I couldn't stop.  I finally gasped, "She thinks we're homeless."  My  kids stared at me blankly at first, and then my daughter caught on.  "I was saying I wanted some boots to wear!" she howled.  "And I was shivering without a coat on," my son said.  I added, "And I told her the church was out of food tonight!!"   After that we couldn't stop.  We laughed and laughed, and every time we thought of those mashed potatoes oozing out of the side of the takeout tray we started up giggling again.

The Deli Lady at Byerly's had no way of knowing that we are a typical suburban family with a full refrigerator, nice cars and warm beds.  That night, to her, we looked - and sounded - like a homeless single mom with two kids stressed about finding our next meal.  Through my laughter about the mix-up, I was also quite moved and touched by her generosity, the warmth of her "Merry Christmas" and especially by the way she treated me with dignity and respect despite my appearances.

The Deli Lady used her position to make sure that under the circumstances we got the best meal possible.  She used the blessing of her particular job to be a blessing to others.  I truly hope that she had a very Merry Christmas this year and that she is richly rewarded for her generosity and kindness.   

When you stop to think about it - really think about it - it is an inspiring idea to think that we can take what we do to earn a living and turn it into a blessing for the others that we come into contact with as a result of our work. Not all of us are in jobs where we can use our position to give food to others who need it.  But I am convinced that we all have something unique to our work that will allow us to be a blessing to others if we think about it long enough. 

What are some ways that you have seen people use their role to bless others?  What are ways in which you have been able to use your particular job to bless others?  Please leave a comment and share your story! 

 

The Joy of Juxtaposition

A few years and one house ago I noticed a Japanese Barberry bush in an arrangement at the local nursery.  I was so captivated by it's burgundy beauty that I purchased 3 to plant on the side of my garage.  The result was "okay."  The shrub that that was so gorgeous in the middle of a planned arrangement at the nursery was unimpressive when planted beside more of itself. 

Those of you who are gardeners/designers recognized my mistake immediately - by repeating one element over and over, the features that made it beautiful/special became lost.  I neglected to juxtapose my shrubs with complementary plants that would showcase their burgundy beauty.  Without contrast my garden had no interest to hold and direct the eye.

The concept of juxtaposition is an important one for us to remember when planning our careers.  I get concerned with some career advice I read out there that suggests that the path to fulfillment is to find a way to get someone to pay you for "doing what you love."  Too often now I have seen friends and colleagues try to turn a hobby into a career and end up crashing and burning emotionally and financially.  I think it's because when they focus on "following their bliss" they end up with lives that lack the joy of juxtaposition. 

I love what Mary Pipher says in her book Shelter of Each Other:

"Most of the unhappiness in the world is caused by people who are 90 percent happy, going for that last 10 percent."

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't think it's such a bad thing if you don't enjoy every single minute of your work.  It's normal, and even a good thing.  The stresses of our jobs and the challenges of dealing with difficult people can all serve to create a personal showplace for the things in our lives that we love - our hobbies, our families, and our friends.  When we think of our work situation in this way, it becomes easier to accept the normal stresses of working in an organization with others who feel, think, and see things differently than we do as a natural part of life. 

I've since moved from the house where I planted the 3 barberry bushes.  Here in my new home my kitchen window overlooks my neighbor Mary's lovely, lovely yard.  In one bed she has a single barberry bush surrounded by a blue spruce, a rhododendron, and some ferns.  The effect is simply stunning - especially right after it rains.  It gives me great joy to stand at my kitchen sink and admire the contrast and interest in how her plants are arranged - and it reminds me daily to be grateful for the contrasts I get to experience in my work!

Formula for a Successful Career

According to McArthur's Rant, the formula for a successful career is:

What you are good at ∩ what you like doing ∩ what you can make money on

(Note:  ∩ is the mathematical symbol the represents the intersection of two sets)

I like this formula for a couple of reasons.  First, it suggests that you will be happiest in your career if you are using your natural skills; and second it acknowledges that feeling fairly rewarded for your work (i.e., making money) is a significant part of career satisfaction. 

While we all know that money cannot buy us happiness, it's a good idea to acknowledge that how we are paid does factor into our overall career satisfaction.  There are a plethora of popular books advising would-be career changers to "do what you love" and "follow your passion."  But this advice typically works only if you already have your meal ticket secured (i.e., you have a trust fund, you have already built up enough investments to retire, or you have a spouse/partner who is willing to fund you passion for you).  Without that meal ticket, most of us need to work to fund our lifestyle.  Therefore, how we are paid is important.

While I like McArthur's model for a successful career, I do take gentle exception to #6 on the list of secrets for happiness in the same posting.  I don't think happiness is a goal to pursue in our careers - it is an outcome that is the result of developing our natural talents and making a contribution. 

Aristotle gave us a more productive model for considering how we build our careers:

"Where your talents and the needs of the world meet, therein lies your vocation."

Personality ID Assessment

I've mentioned before that I like career assessment tests .  Of course any test on it's own cannot answer the big question "What should I do with my life?"  But, when you take several assessments over time, after awhile you start to see a theme.  Eventually the core of who you are shows through.  When you understand your basic core - how you are wired - you can use that information to have a more productive life where you are contributing and growing your skills and talents through your work.

I ran across an interesting one recently - the Personality ID Assessment from the Career Direct Guidance System.  I'm a "Networker" - no surprise there.  But I like the way they define it, and the simple explanation of the "typical areas of struggle" and "typical areas of strength."

What Personality ID are you?

Are you tired of your job...or are you just tired?

Those of you who are regular readers have noticed I haven't posted in nearly a week.  That's because I was finishing final projects for the semester in my PhD Program and the pressure got to me.  Last week I slipped into a funk.  I got bored and overwhelmed all at once.  I was tired of my client work, tired of school, and (gasp!) even tired of this blog.  Even my stash of inspirational quotes failed to revive me. 

I knew I was in trouble when received a request for some career encouragement and realized the well was empty.  How could this be?  The Chief Encouragement Officer with nothing encouraging to say?  Then I remembered something wise my father-in-law once told me:

"It's very easy to think you are tired of someONE or someTHING when the reality is, you are just TIRED."   ~ CEO's Father-in-Law

Wise words.  I figured there was a reason I had recalled them, so I heeded them.  I turned in my final projects on Thursday.  Then Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night I resisted the urge to celebrate the end of the semester by staying up late to watch Law & Order re-runs and instead went to sleep.  Lot's of sleep.  As in 10 hours a night. 

The result?  I feel so much better - refreshed, alive...encouraged!  I've got several interesting and helpful postings planned for the upcoming weeks, so be sure to check back often.  And in the meantime, if you are starting to feel overwhelmed with the rush of spring activities and it's beginning make you feel down about your career, I encourage you to take a step back and consider whether or not you've been getting enough sleep?  Before making any drastic changes, take some time to sleep on it (literally) and things really will look better in the morning!

The true joy in life...

Here's another great quote to encourage you in your work:

"This is the true joy in life - being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances." ~ George Bernard Shaw

Who is idle?

I am in the middle of final projects before this semester winds up next week and I feel like I am droooooowning!  In times like these I draw on my collection of inspiring quotes for motivation.  Here is a favorite:

"He is not only idle who does nothing, but he is idle who might be better employed."  ~ Socrates

Do you have a favorite encouraging quote about work?  Please leave a comment and share!  I'm up to 22 regular readers a day and they would love to hear what you have to say!

To Be of Use

I love this poem by Marge Piercy.  It's inspiring and energizing.  Every time I read it I am encouraged to do a better job of making my work count for something.  What do you think of it?

To be of use
by Marge Piercy

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who stand in the line and haul in their places,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

"To be of use" by Marge Piercy © 1973, 1982.
From CIRCLES ON THE WATER © 1982 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and Middlemarsh, Inc.