7 Ways To Find Meaning at Work
Seven takeaways:
This article combines the advice of The Atlantic’s David Brooks and Arthur C. Brooks to form a list of tactics for reengaging with our work– which can often present a daunting and emotionally-taxing challenge. These seven tactics are:
- Attach Work to Ideals – While the repetition and apparent drudgery of work may rightfully wear on you, you can inject meaning into your work by actively pursuing a loftier goal in your work. Remember what your work is building towards over time.
- Recognize Meaningful Moments– Get in touch with the processes that go into your job; the rituals or small moments that ground you in your work. For Brooks, this means the moment when he is on the ground, crawling across a floor sprawled with notecards and research. It is hard work, but it is a moment that cannot be replicated outside of your own process.
- Serve others (Or Don’t) – People who view their jobs through a lens of service tend to have higher levels of enjoyment at work. Stop and think about the people your work helps, or the systems that it enables to function.
- Ask Why You do What You Do – The article notes that the pursuit of money, power, pleasure, or fame are often deeply unsatisfying and can lead to unhappiness. Reconnect with the deeper value of your skills and growth.
- Follow Fear – When looking at your future, ask yourself what you would do if you weren’t afraid. Then ask yourself what pains you would be willing to endure to gain stability in doing that thing. This will clarify your true desires for workplace happiness.
- Be Conscious of Life Stages – Arthur Brooks notes that differences in the “cadence of careers” have consequences for people’s happiness, and that people who end up happy tend to make their big discoveries in their 20s and 30s, do their best expositional work in their 40s and 50s, and then become teachers and mentors in their 60s and beyond.
- Don’t Invest Everything in Work – Arthur Brooks notes that the happiest people do not invest all of their time/energy in work. They keep a balanced life portfolio between the transcendental/spiritual, your family, your community, and your work. Keep them balanced in order to maintain happiness.
From Uri Friedman at The Atlantic:
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