Building a Purposeful Career
To say that it has been a tough couple of years is an understatement. The impact of the pandemic, social movement against racial injustice, the war and several other tough challenges have made a direct or indirect impact on all of us. People’s livelihood, mental or physical health, lives and safety are some of the challenges we saw. It has created a heightened awareness in all of us to think about how we live our lives. A hope to live a meaningful life. People often ask me how they might be able to figure out how to help others or find a purposeful career. Some people also think about quitting their high paying jobs to go do something “good”. In this article you will find some practical steps that might help you identify your path towards your purpose.
I am incredibly grateful for having a purpose driven job. I get to help people around me unleash their potential and enable impact. It wasn’t luck that got me to a fulfilling career. It was a lot of hard work, reflection and a thoughtful approach. I follow a simple framework that I further evolved after I learnt about Ikigai.
Before you start - Set aside 30 mins and find a quiet place to do this exercise. Set aside all technology. Just sit down with a few sheets of paper and pen and a mindset to reflect. You can also print a template here to get started
What are my Strengths?: We all have unique strengths and it is important for you to know what yours are. It is easy to focus on what we are not good and try to improve on our weaknesses but focusing on leveraging our strengths is far more helpful. If you have taken a Strengths Finder assessment before, find your results. If not, reflect on what you think your strengths are. I frequently spend time in assessing my strengths by reflecting, gathering feedback from others and using tools like Strengths Finders.
What am I Passionate about? It is very important to understand what you really care about and what will have you jump out of bed every day. It is important for you to understand what impact you want to have in life. I spend time periodically to assess what “impact” means for me and what I am passionate about. I ensure I follow my passion and rarely get distracted by projects that I am not passionate about. What drives me everyday is ways to help others. And in the end my hope is to make a dent on poverty.
What are gaps in the world? What problems in the world, industry or your company would you like to fill? We can be passionate about a lot of things in the world but if if we are not solving for a customer/business need , then it just becomes a passion project with less support. But when we apply our passion and skills to a fill a true gap, it results in career.
What can help you earn a living? If you want to find a purpose then this step is not relevant. But if you want to find a purposeful career, then finding something that you can be paid of is important. You might care about solving for a lot of things. For ex: taking care of animals, empowering non-profits, social enterprises and startups by helping them get closer to their customers and building skills in entrepreneurship and product management. But if you are not able to find a way to make a living from it, then it won’t be a career.
I found that by finding areas to work on at the intersection of passion, strengths, needs and a profession, I am able to unleash some great opportunities for our customers, business, colleagues and myself. But it takes a lot of work. While some people might be lucky to “find” their purpose, a lot of people have to work really hard at identifying their purpose. And it is not an exercise that is to be done only once in your life. I do it every year over the holiday break as I think abut the year ahead. I am looking forward to diving into it again during up upcoming sabbatical to ensure I am still able to reach my goals of impact with my current path or rethink my approach.
How will you reach your Ikigai? If any of you feel like you need to identify your purpose or to reach Ikigai, I am happy to chat to see ways for you to unleash your potential too.
If you have a purposeful career too, please share your story and your framework. I would love to learn more.
Thanks for reading Service! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work