Finding purpose in work and how to (actually) achieve lasting job satisfaction
Work, when treated as a means to an end, becomes something you define as “the thing I do to trade my time for money.”
Happiness, according to Harvard professor Arthur Brooks, is like a meal with three ingredients: enjoyment, satisfaction, and purpose.
Each of these form interconnected, important pieces to a good life.
Purpose, in particular, is key. It carries you forward when you’ve got it, but you can sink in its absence.
Paradoxically, though, when asked about how they find purpose, people tend to talk about their unhappiest times. Purpose demands its pound of flesh.
It can require sacrifice or challenge before it reveals itself to you. To find purpose, you need some difficulty, often some discipline, and a little luck.
Enjoyment on its own is fine, but without purpose, it’s typically aimless and a little too comfortable. And it can be difficult to find satisfaction in something you enjoy but do not find purpose in.
If we agree with Professor Brooks that happiness is composed of these three ingredients, then finding purpose should be prioritized in anyone's pursuit of happiness.
One way to inch closer to finding purpose is doing work that, in itself, is the reward.
Work, when treated as a means to an end, becomes something you define as “the thing I do to trade my time for money.”
That isn’t the healthiest mindset, or an effective approach to pinning down your purpose. Any payoff you get, whether money or a promotion or power, remains unsatisfying because it is still just a means to an end.
It’s certainly possible to approach each day with optimism, even in a means-to-an-end job, but that won’t bring long-term fulfillment. The short-term joy you do collect won’t result in long-term satisfaction.
For example, I write everyday for work. I don’t always love the topics I report on, but I am in love with the process.
I know if I focus here and now on becoming the best, most effective writer and communicator, I can get better at the work itself and share valuable information with readers.
Improving everyday is my goal. That's done through doing the work — which makes doing the work, in itself, the goal.
View the work as the goal to allow purpose — and therefore enjoyment and satisfaction — to come into play.
Every year, there’s a Gallup poll that asks Americans how much they like their jobs. The number of people who report being “completely satisfied” has risen from 41% in 2001 to 55% in 2019.
When combined with those who say they’re “somewhat” satisfied, that number rises to 89%.
The numbers suggest plenty of people are satisfied with work — even though there’s no way 89% of people hold their dream jobs.
You don’t need a dream job to be satisfied with work. Satisfaction, in part, comes from a sense of progress (which we covered last week).
Focusing on progress, then, can help make work — a job — more meaningful.
This isn’t a full-proof solution. But it is your best bet at making work itself the goal, rather than means to an end. That alone is a worthwhile aim.
Of course, all of the above is based on the assumption that you do believe in purpose — that something like purpose exists.
This isn’t a question anyone can answer.
I do know, however, if you never aim at something, your chance of hitting it is slim.
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