I received a lot of positive feedback on the last edition of The Power Up, on Work and Career Change. They seem to be topics on a lot of people’s minds at the moment, and a number of you confided that you either were already, or soon also will be statistics in ‘the great resignation’.
As we saw last time one of the factors driving consideration of career change is the question of Purpose. What do we really want to be doing with our time, energy, valuable experience and talents?
As the pandemic stripped away many of the peripheral perks and distractions that came with our job, and in some cases gave us more time to think, many of us began to see our jobs in a different, starker light. And we were dismayed with what we saw.
Especially as widespread awareness of issues like climate change, social justice, immigration and mental health has grown, it has an increasing number of us wanting to be on the right side of the narrative, working on solutions, not being part of the problem and helping to perpetuate some of the greatest challenges of our time.
Whilst for a vast majority, “It pays the bills,” used to be enough of a criteria to have us clock-in for 40 or so hours per week, now we want something that is fulfilling too, that also either feels like a rewarding and satisfying use of our specific skillset, or that does good for our community, society, or the planet, also whilst compensating us fairly for our efforts. Ideally all of the above.
But how exactly should we define our Purpose? Whilst climate change has been the biggest headline for the past few weeks, we can’t all find jobs that are actively working on the front line against it, and indeed many of us have other causes that we care deeply about. There are also the inconvenient truths that many jobs focused on ‘doing good’, don’t require the skills and knowledge that we have to offer, or don’t pay as well as we would like or need in order to support our families.
So how does one reconcile those facts, and find a career or calling that meets all of our practical and spiritual needs?
All of these felt like relevant questions to follow on from the last edition, and so in this week’s The Power Up I’ve curated a range of perspectives and approaches that will hopefully help if you, like many, find yourselves mulling them over at this time.
In this week’s issue:
- How to cope with an existential crisis
- Why and how to reframe your idea of Purpose to help it feel more manageable
- How to create a sense of purpose, according to Science
- How to discover your ‘why’ in difficult times
- The completely selfish reason why you should start volunteering today
- The riddle of boredom – and why we need it
- How the Japanese concept of Ikigai can help you find your calling
- It’s OK to not have a single purpose or passion
- Our pick of gifts for men working on their mental, physical & spiritual health
Plus plenty of bonus content too.
With the winter break coming up – a useful period for pause and reflection – I hope you find something in this edition that helps you consider or discover your own purpose, to help you head in to 2022 with greater clarity and direction.
Enjoy…
ON PURPOSE & PASSION / FEATURE
How to cope with an existential crisis
Philosopher Søren Kierkegaard believed that when people live without passion, negativity poisons the world, and thata society that overemphasises ‘results’, does so at the expense of human experiences.
Reading Kierkegaard can therefore help us understand some of the sources of our malaise and to see new possibilities for our lives.
ON PURPOSE & PASSION / MIND
Reframe your idea of Purpose to help it feel more manageable
One of the challenges of thinking about Purpose is that it can feel so enormous – like it’s one enormous project that we should be dedicating our whole life’s work to. This overwhelm can result in us delaying or avoiding finding the time required to think it through.
Which is why I appreciated this article which proposes a way to reframe how we think about Purpose, for example that we can have many different purposes throughout our lives, and that they can be relatively small, everyday things, not always a ‘higher calling’.
ON PURPOSE & PASSION / MIND
How to create a sense of purpose, according to Science
Research has found that few things are as central to our physical health and psychological wellbeing as a sense of purpose.
A sense of purpose shapes how we feel about ourselves and our lives and is linked to memory and cognitive abilities, to a lower risk of major health issues, like heart problems and strokes, and to higher incomes. But a growing body of scientific research has shown that we may be looking in the wrong places to find meaning and purpose.
ON PURPOSE & PASSION / SPIRIT
How to discover your ‘why’ in difficult times
What has the pandemic taught us about ourselves and our relationships?
In this personal and wide-ranging 15-minute video conversation, leadership expert Simon Sinek shares his own experience caring for his mental health as the world shut down. He discusses why we need to nurture friendships (in good times and bad), explains why anyone can be a leader and reveals the secret to discovering your “why” in life.
ON PURPOSE & PASSION / COMMUNITY
The completely selfish reason why you should start volunteering today
Volunteering our time and skills to support local community initiatives is an idea that often comes up when one thinks about ways we can experience more Purpose in our lives.
However, actually getting started is something very few people do, often because of anxieties we carry about interacting with fellow volunteers from very different backgrounds. But overcoming anxiety and improving our own personal mental health are exactly the kinds of personal benefits we might experience, as this article explores.
ON PURPOSE & PASSION / BOREDOM
The riddle of boredom – and why we need it
Can you recall the last time you were bored? It’s a rare occurrence these days – partly because there are so many ways to distract ourselves, and also because in our productivity-obsessed culture, boredom feels like anathema – precious time wasted.
But what if we understand that boredom is not only inescapable, but actually a valuable condition for us to experience from time to time?
R E C O M M E N D E D R E A D
The Designing Your Life Workbook
Based on the wildly popular Stanford course that started the life design movement, I worked my way through this workbook last winter to help me set an exciting new direction for my own life, and cut a lot of the noise that was distracting me from my passion and purpose.
Follow the innovative exercises and tools to gain new clarity on the life you want to live and the steps to get you there.
R E C O M M E N D E D
Refind: Get the essence of the web, every morning, direct to your inbox
Staying on top of the latest stories and content from thought leaders is an important part of my daily routine. And happily, tools like Refind make that easier than ever.
Simply set your content preferences, including preferred publications and influencers, and Refind will deliver you a daily digest of links to highly relevant stories.
B O N U S
C O N T E N T
How the Japanese concept of Ikigai can help you find your calling
Four powerful questions to help you get clear on your passion, mission, profession and vocation.
It’s OK to not have a single purpose or passion
In reality very few people identify with a single purpose. Instead try to bring purpose and passion into the situations you find yourself in.
The case for letting things fall through the cracks
A GQ conversation with author Brad Stulberg on finding lasting fulfillment, creating real priorities, and, fighting against the sense that you’re not enough.
The link between meaningful daily activities and wellbeing
How with practice and a conscious attempt to link commonly performed activities to valued virtues, our daily activities can become enriched with meaning and significance.
“It’s not enough to have lived.
WINSTON CHURCHILL
We should be determined to live for something”
