I recorded this Indie Business TV segment in January 2008. While that date precedes the official start of the recession, even back then, I could feel the change coming. Job loss was a mere trickle in those days, and there had been no bail out yet. But I felt change coming. People were becoming more antsy in the jobs they did have. Like me ten years ago when I quit my job to start my business, people were searching with more urgency for ways to take more control of their lives and how they supported themselves and their families.
While this type of searching is far more common today than it was at the beginning of 2008, the foundations of meaningful work remain unchanged. People still long to work, they just long to work in a meaningful way. Here are the foundations of meaningful work.
- Passion. The compelling, irresistible feeling that you must respond to something in an immediate and meaningful way. It's that thing that makes you know that you would do anything — absolutely anything — to experience the ability to pursue your passion with full abandon.
Here are some examples of people who work with this kind of passion.
- Creativity. The result of investing in your passion enough to create products and services that make people's lives easier and more enjoyable. When you create from your passion, there is never a shortage of new ideas. They just keep coming. Forever. Until you die.
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Flexibility. Flexibility is required in order for passion to flow freely enough to produce tangible results. Flexibility allows you to change with the seasons of your life, as well as the seasons of your passion. It also allows you to alter your business in ways that respond to ever changing technologies and market conditions.
When I quit my job, I did it so I would have the flexibility I needed to flourish as a woman, a wife, a mother, and a business owner. When my husband lost his job, it freed us both to create a family business together. Being free from the constraints of a traditional job, even very good jobs like we had, produced the freedom we needed to pursue our passions, expand our creative options, and make a meaningful and lasting contribution.
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Contribution. Meaningful work does not result unless the worker knows that he or she is making a meaningful contribution. This type of contribution does not happen by default. It is the result of hard work, not accident or mere coincidence. Contribution occurs when you set out in a particular direction to achieve a particular result.
When you combine heartfelt passion and creativity with the flexibility needed to facilitate both, you end up with the ability to work toward the purposes that allow you to make contributions for a lifetime.
Your providential life purposes can be fulfilled!
Question: Did I miss any other important foundations? How do you combine meaningful work with your life purposes to create the life you love?
