HOW TO FIND YOUR LIFE’S WORK
It’s Not Rocket Surgery; Just Be Willing To ‘Notice’
So, who’s reading this?
People actually looking for their life’s work and thinking an online article is the answer? Well, maybe; there is a lot of solid advice to be had. I’ve got some pointers for you and hope they’ll be helpful. But finding one’s life work is really a life’s work in itself. Who else is reading? Maybe people who’ve already found their life’s work and just want to be sure, to receive some validation. I hope this helps you, as well.
This life’s work search can be a daunting challenge, to be sure. We’re all on different paths, but there are certain commonalities to our various personal quests. And a few tips from traveler to traveler can be just the thing to provide a little extra motivation along the way.
Who am I to be telling you this?
Well, I began my career working in human performance development, writing for people like Steven Covey (“The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People”) and Dr. Jerry Harvey (“The Abilene Paradox”), and I picked up some helpful tips along the way. But, in the rarified atmosphere of these pioneers in human potential, I also forged some ideas of my own about how to approach the world of work and find one’s place in it. I share them freely with you in the hope that they will guide you in your quest as they have guided me.
#1: DOES THE WORK RESONATE WITH SOMETHING INSIDE OF YOU?
There are a myriad of ways to say this — does the work connect with your “inner worker”? Do you feel as if you have transcended work when you’re engaged in it? Does it float your boat? Do you come alive when you’re doing it? Does the work make your soul come alive?
Like I say, a lot of different ways to say this, some more airy-fairy than others. It’s a difficult thing to describe, like explaining color. I could simply say you’ll know it when you feel it, but how can you achieve that if you haven’t felt it yet? Again, keeping this simple — you gotta be “noticing!” At whatever stage of life, we all have a myriad of opportunities to be involved in different work-related (work-adjacent?) activities. Notice how each one “speaks” to you. Notice how you feel while in engaged in one compared to another.
You’ll perhaps also notice that I talk a lot about “noticing.” In our slam-bang world, it’s kind of a lost art: just noticing any shift in your inner self based upon what you’re engaged in. Keep your antenna up and always tuned to W-MLW (“What’s My Life’s Work”). If nothing else, you’ll be amazed at the diversity of human endeavors that people around us are engaged in, hopefully fruitfully, every day. A good thing to notice and often overlooked by many.
#2: CAN YOU ENVISION A POSITIVE BENEFIT OF THE WORK BEYOND YOURSELF?
Granted that a fundamental aspect of a life’s work is to accrue to the actual “life’s worker,” that would be you; remuneration, that would be income; and some rudimentary work life satisfaction. But if you can’t connect the work itself with how it can bring joy, guidance, resources, utility — something! — to others around you, then when you hit a rough patch in your work life — trust me, you will — then you’d have a tough time over the long run in that field.
The benefit to others can be tangential, or even downright oblique. I once sat in on a team building session for the staff at a high school. And when I say “staff,” this school district was wise enough to include not only teachers but teacher assistants, playground supervisors, even janitors. The counselor closed day one by charging each participants to go home and think about how they connect their job to the mission of the school.
The next day each was to report on what “came up” for them. It was clear that, for some, this was an enlightening exercise; for others, fairly perfunctory. It was the janitor who surprised everybody. This janitor shared that one of his morning duties had been to nail some brackets up outside of a classroom. He was on the ladder hammer poised when he froze, transfixed with a realization — that he was NOT supporting the school’s educational mission by causing a racket outside a classroom where teacher and students were working. To fully support the school’s mission, he could easily do the task while class was not in session.
Now, I don’t know if being a janitor was this person’s life’s work or not. Just that if you can see an alignment between a field of work and a benefit to others, you’re halfway there.
#3: ARE THE DAILY ACTIVITIES ASSOCIATED WITH THE WORK ENJOYABLE TO YOU?
Cause they should be. That “resonance” I talked about in #1, that’s gonna go through cycles, from full flourish to tank empty, over a lifetime of devoting yourself to your work life. That’s expected. And, when the tank hits empty, the day-to-day tasks and activities that make up your life’s work should be compelling, intriguing, stimulating enough to see you through rough patches. Enough said.
#4: WOULD YOU ENJOY MENTORING OTHERS DOING THIS WORK?
Kind of a trick question, since you may never be in the position to mentor others. But it speaks to your level of engagement in the “universe” of the work itself. If you’ve found a likely candidate for “lifework”-ness, you’ll doubtless enjoy talking with the like-minded, sharing tips and shortcuts.
But if your choice in life’s work does turn into a lifelong career, there may well be a later career stage where your greatest benefit to your employer or your field is to initiate, train and motivate others in the same work. I can tell you from personal experience, there is great personal joy in becoming the “emeritus” expert that a newer generation of workers look up to for counseling and work wisdom.
In that way, the skills and talents that you have built up over a career, or even several careers, never really ends. There can be profound satisfaction in reflecting upon a legacy that is shared with those who will follow you in your field. And in that way, your story lives on in a very real sense.
I know this may seem like looking way down the road, but understand that I offer this as a diagnostic — if you “feel” this mentor-ly way about a field of endeavor, it’s a good sign that it’s a lifelong fit for you.
#5: WOULD YOU DO THE WORK FOR NO PAY?
Whoa, obvi a loaded question, and maybe a deal-breaker. Notice that I’m not asking you to work for nothing. The question is does the work engage you at such a level that, assuming mouths fed and mortgage paid, could you see yourself continuing the work? Put another way, could you see yourself continuing the work after retirement?
My story. In my early years as a writer, I was attempting to break into the televion scriptwriting field. I won’t go into detail about the difficulty of a supposedly-glamorous field where, as they say, many are called; few are chosen.
I was pounding out a treatment for a then-current nature-themed hour-long drama, “The Life And Times Of Grizzly Adams.” Ok, certainly dates me, but oh well.
I had sold the producers on a story about an interloper, a shy, callow goverment agent sent into the wilderness by the newly-established Department of the Interior; remember, the Grizzly Adams saga took place around the mid 1800’s. His mission was to ascertain what everyone already believed: that wolves were decimating the deer population.
Sound familiar? I had read Farley Mowat’s book, “Never Cry Wolf” (before there was a movie), and was attempting to write a fictionalized version of it.
It was late one night and I was having grievous trouble putting the four 15-minute acts of the story together. Worse, I was actually having a bit of an existential meltdown over whether I actually “was” a writer or not?
Tough night, I have to say. As you will probably find, or maybe have already found — the search for one’s life work can entail the occasional “dark night of the soul”.
So, I was having one of those. I came to a scene where the young government agent is tracking wolves through the wilderness and finds himself in the middle of a wide creek with wolves from both banks closing in on him. Or so my fingers were tapping the story out.
Suddenly (simultaneously for me and my protagonist), the government agent has a breakdown. Mostly, as I wrote it, from fear of the wolves whom in the story he had yet to understand. But also from his own failure at that point in the story to make good on his assignment…
Swear to God, I then wrote the following line:
“Collapsing in the creekbed, the Government Agent cried, for all that he was, and was not.”
That was at that moment “me”. Oh, yes, a breakdown certainly. Art imitating Life, you might say. I don’t recall whether the line made it into the script or how I finished the scene. What I remember is my realization that I had, for a few short moments, been writing out of my self, laying my own lack of self-confidence on the page.
And it helped me, healed me in some way.
At that precise moment, I saw that writing could be more than just story-telling; more than self-expression even. Writing, at least for me, could be a way to work out my own unresolved challenges and problems.
And I knew that writing would become my life’s work. And that I would do this work for no pay. Conceptually-speaking, I mean. Hey, it has more or less worked out, let’s just say.
Besides the maudlin oversharing here, steeped in equal parts self-flagellation and self-aggrandizing, the point is that a life’s work should connect with you in an emotional way. It may be pleasant or not so very, but emotion means something — that you’re hitting a worklife “vein” that could, if pursued, lead to a gold strike.
I found mine. I hope that maybe I’ve helped you to think about your lifework pursuit in a different and perhaps more productive way. As you see, it can happen in an instant that, if “noticed,” can lead to a long, productive career.
I hope so.
And, remember to “notice” (yeah, I said it again) whether these tips were of value to you and add a clap or two.
