Accessing the Power of Meaningful Work

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Ken Abrams, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

In an interview late in his life, the psychologist Sigmund Freud was asked to expound on what he felt were the most important constituents of life. His answer? “Liebe und Arbeit.” …Love and work.

This is hardly a surprise: For most of human history, the meaning of work and the meaning of life intersected at survival. Work was life.

When cheap energy and mechanization started us down the path of staggering increases in productivity, some philosophers and visionaries began speculating about how we would use the extra “leisure time” we would gain from all this productivity. The reality has proved much different than projected. How do we spend the “extra time?” We work.

Yet for many of us, work that we would call “meaningful” remains elusive. We can’t always pinpoint what’s missing or what it is that would give our work lives meaning.

The Alarm-Clock Test
What is the meaning of “meaningful?” To answer questions like that, you can apply the Alarm-Clock Test. If the alarm clock rings and you’re already out of bed getting ready for work because you are thrilled by what you’re doing and each new day on the job is certain to provide some worthy experience, then the chances are pretty good that you’re somewhere near that sweet spot—regardless of the size of the enterprise that employs you.

But if you’re failing the Alarm-Clock Test—not some of the time, but all the time—looking for a different kind of work makes sense. These days, more and more people in that situation are turning toward self-employment to match up purpose with genius.

What Will Your Story Be?
To get a better understanding of your relationship with meaningful work, it’s suggested your imagining a future situation in which you will be telling others your story of how work and meaning finally came together for you.
To prepare the story, try reflecting on questions such as the following:
• How is your soul enlivened through your work?
• How does your work contribute to the future?
• For whom do you really work?
• How has your relationship with work changed over the course of your life?
• How have fun, play, humor, etc., been a part of meaningful work?
• Do you have a philosophy, mission, vision, etc. that guides your work life? If so, what is it and how did you come to it?

Finding meaningful work is often a lifelong process, as we see from Po Bronson’s What Should I Do With My Life, which chronicles the lives of those who have found it, often later in life or after a life crisis or a very deliberate effort.