How To Find Fulfilling Work
And to have it all; because it is no longer enough to just have meaning in our jobs.
When I was 23 years old, I wanted to retire at 50. I was still young and filled with so much positivity. Retirement at 50 was my plan so that I could start living my life.
The Age of Fulfillment
Now at 30, I realised my thoughts have changed. Perhaps it is due to the daily grind at work, being accustomed to my friends who are also chasing after what is desirable, finding out what I’m good at and what I like to do. Isn’t work a part of living my life? In fact, work takes up so much of our lifetime.
We are living in a generation where we are seeking work not just to fulfill our basic needs; it is something that we are looking for to fill a deeper longing to have an impact and meaning.
It is no longer enough to find meaningful work.
This writing is a summary and my thoughts of the book — How to Find Fulfilling Work by Roman Krznaric. It was an insightful book to outline the challenges we face in today’s world and provide some direction on steps to find fulfilling work.
Reading the book made me think deeper about the simplicity of my 23 years old thoughts. That one-dimensional thinking of — Follow your passion and what makes you happy!
I followed this mindset throughout my early 20s, and I grabbed every opportunity that came my way. I had the luxury to try out many careers — being a wedding planner, events planner, hotel front desk, restaurant waitress, bartender, florist and I think the list could go on and on. One after another job, I would always find that something is lacking, be it money, time or meaning.
This book serves as a blueprint guide, and I wished I had known the ideas earlier. It would surely help me to define what are my priorities, reflecting on my inner self and creating a direction for myself to seek out the right kind of work that would make me fulfilled.
Three areas to find fulfilling work: Meaning, Flow and Freedom
1. Meaning: The Five Dimensions of Meaning
There are extrinsic and intrinsic motivating factors when we approach work — Earning money, Achieving Status, Making A Difference, Following Our Passions and Using our Talents
How can we balance the elements in a way that would make us fulfiled? Or should we prioritise the elements based on the various needs or life stage that we are at? Knowing where our priorities lie helps us to develop a personal vision of what meaningful work is like. Creating a vision so that we could have coordinates, stars and lighthouse to lead us to where we want to be.
- Earning Money: Are we earning money to meet our basic needs? Or is it something deeper? The book shares that although we have relative material abundance, we do not have an emotional abundance. Lacking in emotional security, we seek security in material things.
- Achieving Status: This boosts our self-esteem and gains respect. Two ways of gaining status — First type: A cool job that people admire. Second type: Our position relative to others or among your peers.
- Making a Difference: Two challenges — Impact of our actions whether we can see it and whether it can make money.
- Following our Passions: Do what you love. There is a benefit of pride to be passionate about your work, but sometimes passion may drain when it becomes too repetitive. For example, I liked arranging flowers, but I can’t do it every day.
- Using our Talents: What you are good at.
According to Herminia Ibarra, one of the world’s leading academic thinkers on career change shared that:
We are not oneself, but many selves. In us, there is a not just one hidden treasure waiting to be discovered at the core of our being — rather, we are a multitude of possibilities….
Multi-faceted experiences, interest and talents allow many possibilities for us to explore and discover what we can become.
2. Flow
The concept of flow was first developed by Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and has been recently made popular.
A flow experience is one in which we are completely and unselfconsciously absorbed in whatever we are doing. Being in the zone and fully engaged in the present that the past and future fade away. Flow makes us lose track of time. — it’s so hard to get this in our modern world, struggling even to focus.
Flow needs to be combined with meaning because not all flow tasks would result in a more fulfilling job if it does not fit some of the above five dimensions of meaning.
3. Freedom
Lastly, the book shared on the gift of freedom such as time, autonomy, ‘work-life balance’.
Three dilemmas — How can we satisfy a desire for greater freedom
- Security and stability of a job — Self-employment and invent our own job
- Finding fulfilling work — Work for a fulfilling life
- Career ambitions — Family
To have a fulfilling job is a balance between the need for freedom versus security. To some, having a job may be their main life project, while to others, a job may be their foundation so that they are free to pursue other ambitions between work and leisure activities.
Conclusion — How to think about having it all
In conclusion, the book highlights that having it all does not mean that you must have it all at the same time.
Vocation is what not something we find but something we grow into. We hear our peers talk about searching for their vocation or sometimes envying others who seem to live their dream life.
While it is common to think that a fulfilling job that you are ‘meant to do’; the book shares that a vocation is a career that not only gives you fulfilment (meaning, flow, freedom) but that also has a definitive goal or clear purpose to strive for attached to it. This goal or purpose drives your life and motivates you to get up in the morning.
Rethinking about the stages in our lives (e.g., having a child, moving to a new place), experiencing new developments in interest, skills that grow from a new perspective we could surely discover ways to carve out new possibilities in our lives.
What we desire, we should not just be passively waiting around for it to appear. Instead, we should take action and endeavour to grow it. I think it as a point of convergence where everything you have experienced, learned, and desire would lead you to your next destination.
Letting ourselves explore, discover, moulded, persevered, adapted to circumstances can all lead us closer to knowing more about ourselves.
Over time, a tangible and inspiring goal may quietly germinate, grow larger, and eventually bloom. As long as we attempt and be courageous to try, leading a more fulfilling life is achievable.
Most of us live bound by our fears and inhibitions. Yet if we are to move beyond them, if we are to cut the rope and be free, we need to treat life as an experiment and discover the little bit of madness that lies within us all. — Zorba
