Creating Meaningful Work
It’s a tricky problem: there’s us – sacred human beings, each with a unique brilliance, with distinct strengths and gifts, and with a longing to make a particular contribution to the world.
And then there is the world, the economy – the work that needs (or “needs,” I should say) to get done by people. Everything from paving the roads to doing the accounting for a small medical practice to being the doctor to sewing the dress to selling the software to…
So how do we make it match up? How do we support the work that needs to get done, for our society to function and at the same time support each individual in finding work that utilizes their unique gifts and skills, work that is worthy of what human beings are?
I don’t know, and I’m really curious to hear what you think about these questions. Some piece of the answer, I think, lies is creating more ethical, uplifting, positive workplaces, workplaces that hold human beings as as brilliant and sacred as they are. Some piece is about each of us bringing more mindfulness and respect to our work, whatever it is.
That’s the big, collective picture. But when it comes to the individual, I know this: those of us alive in this era, in the developed world particularly, can take on a challenge, if we so choose. That challenge is finding and doing work that is our right work, that is aligned with who we are, with our values, with our strengths, with what we feel called to do during this short run on earth. That’s what I think of as our “right work.”
The rewards are great. Fulfillment. Meaning. Sustained, flowing energy. Replacing grumpiness with joy, emotional poverty with emotional generosity. Enjoyment of the thing we spend most of our time doing.
Most of the people (and they are mostly, but not all, women) who show up in my coaching practice show up with this question: what is my right work – the right work for the next chapter of my life – and how do I get it? Can I really make money doing it? Also, by the way, what do I do about the fact that I’m freakin’ scared about going after it?! The process we go through in coaching, and the process I take participants through in my e-course Doing Your Right Work, is all about answering those questions.
I’m really curious to hear in the comments: What do you think of when you hear the words “right work”? What questions do you have about “right work”?
Wishing you a day of small moments of joy and peace.
Love,
Tara
Originally published by Tara Sophia Mohr on by Wise Living .
Photo of flowers by Per Ola Wiberg ~ Powi.
Photo of dawn by James Jordan. Licensed under CC.
