Imagine your perfect work situation. Are you imagining?
If you’re like me, you want to start work every day feeling like you’re fulfilling your purpose by changing the community, empowering individuals, helping others grow their babies businesses, or something else purpose-y. It doesn’t have to come in the form of working with a non-profit or being a career counselor, but purpose- however you define it- is probably important to you. So we’ve talked about purpose.
Now let’s hop on over to joy. You- like me- might want to interact with awesome coworkers, clients, and customers, play a little ping pong, drink the delicious free office coffee, and be able to leave work at 4pm on Fridays. We’ll put all of these things under joy.
So, most likely, your perfect work situation brings you both purpose and joy. Now imagine for a minute these two scenarios:
Let’s say you work with battered teens at a crisis center. You make a difference in their lives, which undoubtedly fills you with purpose. But maybe it’s taking a toll on you emotionally, maybe you can’t stand your cynical coworkers, or maybe you feel like your work/life balance is out of whack because you stay until 9pm most nights. Here you have purpose with no joy.
Now let’s say you work at a tech start-up. You love your hip, chic office, you love playing skeeball when you need a quick break, and you love the on-site gym where you can sneak in a workout. But maybe you wonder every day how much of a difference you’re actually making. Here you have joy with no purpose.
I think you get where I’m going- the ideal work situation, at least for me, combines joy and purpose. Without both, I think it’s difficult to feel fulfilled long-term. So here’s to finding both!
Have you found both joy and purpose at work? Have you had a job with one but not the other?
