S2E10 - Rediscovering Purpose in Your Job

inspHERation

It's easy to get burnt out at work and feel like you're just a hamster in the wheel, doing the same thing every day. As a result, it can be easy to lose sight of the passion you have for your job and forget what your purpose in the organization is.

So today we talk about why it’s okay if you feel like this sometimes and what you can do to rediscover purpose!

Welcome to InspHERation Nation!

The Weekly Commitment

Every week, we will ask you the same question: What is the one thing that you will commit to doing or improving this week?

Writing down your answer to the question will start a self-accountability process, and following up with this practice after every episode will help you take consistent small actions that ultimately lead to BIG transformations.

If you want to share what you are committing yourself to, we would love to hear! You can get in touch with us at...

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Three Key Takeaways:

• Remember your why. There is obviously something that led you to join the credit union, or wherever it is that you work. Something led you to take that path, so reconnect with why you did that and what lit you up at that point in time. Similarly, reflect on the greater Why in your life outside of work.

• An article from the Harvard Business Review, "You’re Never Done Finding Purpose at Work," offers a great exercise: Throughout the workday, write down approximately how much time you spent in each of the three mindsets below. If you're spending most of your time, like 50% or more, in the purpose mindset and like, "This is really lighting me up. This is really exciting me. I'm really excited to be working on this particular project," then don’t throw in the towel. But if you're spending 90% of your time living in the other two, particularly towards the bottom, then it might be time to re-evaluate.

1. Job Mindset - I'm here to get to collect my paycheck, to clock in, to be an adult that has a job.
2. Career Mindset - I'm really interested in the title, and I'm really interested in more power, or more opportunities, or more pay; I want to advance my career.
3. Purpose Mindset - I'm here because I'm passionate, and invigorated, and excited, and I love the work.

• Consider the things that you enjoy about your job and the things that you don't enjoy about your job (and this tip can actually help you with the above exercise). Sometimes your mindset all comes down to how you frame things. If you're not having a good day at work say, "But at least I get to work on _____, and that is something that really lights me up." Even if your current task doesn’t light you up, you don't get to work on it all the time. But if there's something that's part of your job that you really don't like to do, something that sucks your soul out, that's a good time to have a conversation with your boss and says something like, "This takes me way more time than it would with somebody who's really passionate about it or somebody who knows more about it than I do. Is it something that we can outsource?" Remember that there are things that you can do to make the job that you currently have more enjoyable, so don't just jump ship right away!

Resources:

• HBR: "You’re Never Done Finding Purpose at Work" by Dan Pontefract

The inspHERation Podcast is produced by Podcast Masters