Life Lessons in Finding Your “Passion & Purpose” at Work. And What to Do Instead
Your purpose is innate. It's inside of you. You were born with it; you don't have to try to go out and find it. And you definitely don't have to try to find it at work.
The work that you do to earn a living — where you have skills and expertise to solve organization and world problems — that doesn’t have to be tied to your purpose.
But instead of trying to find your passion or purpose, consider leaning into the things that you're already good at. Focusing on your existing expertise and what makes you love doing work that is aligned with your skills, will help you avoid the struggles of trying to find a purpose and actually move you into doing good work that's aligned with the skills that you already have.
I want to challenge any energy you have around abandoning the good work that you do right now. I want to caution you against abandoning that to go find your passion and purpose.
During these 15 years of professional experience in corporate, nonprofit, and educational leadership while serving hundreds of women with mentorship, one of the things that I have observed is that much of the skills, values, expertise, and knowledge that we already have is being undervalued by ourselves and usually undervalued by the marketplace.
You're doing good work. You have a level of expertise. The things that you are already good at are absolutely valuable. Instead of trying to get more, be more, or do more — Instead of trying to lean into all the more, more, more, and better, better, better — I really want to challenge you to think about how you can use what you already have, how you can use the knowledge and the talent that you already have.
I know the pain of feeling like what you've done isn't good enough. I know the pain of feeling so disconnected from the job, from my supervisor, and from my team.
I want to invite you to talk. Because all the research and searching that you're doing isn't super productive if you're not getting help. And I can give you expert-level help, to move from where you are to where you want to be.
I want to invite you into mentorship. I'm here to make sure that you don't feel isolated in your decision making. I'm here to provide you with the direction and support to build strategy and to affirm you in a way that will make sure that you don't feel like you've been abandoned in your career.
I'm looking forward to seeing you on my calendar this week and getting that call scheduled so that I can support you.
Check back each week for the newest blog post from Mentor Me!