Finding More Than a Job: Ideal Work on Your Terms

By Tom Finnegan

People pursuing their life's work make a difference. From one person with a slide show galvanizing a grassroots movement to reduce global warming to the unseen work of my neighbor helping autistic children communicate, life's workers know what they're on earth to do and they're doing it. They reveal themselves by the spark in their eyes, conviction in their voice, and confidence in their actions.

I believe every individual can define and find his or her life's work. It takes deep effort in knowing who you really are and delving into a challenge that may ask you to make big changes. Then there is human nature, which generally fears change. Can you do it? Absolutely! This seven-step process will fuel and keep refueling your quest to find more than a job.

One: Know thyself—better. Clarify your likes and dislikes, your values, passions, and dreams, your abilities and vulnerabilities, what workplace attributes are an absolute must-have in your work. Ask yourself, "In what endeavor would I likely be unstoppable?" But answer in this form: "In something that ______" (to elicit a skill-verb phrase). One person I worked with answered by saying, "In something helping animals that get 'bad press.'" She cares a lot about undoing people's phobias and biases around snakes, spiders, and other hapless creatures.

Two: Recognize lifelong patterns, habits, and self-limiting beliefs that keep you from going after or getting what you want. What is your number one "Yeah, but..."? The archetypal example: "I would love to build sandcastles, but you can't make a living at that!" Well, some people do get paid (and union-scale wages) for building sandcastles, not to mention international competitions! "Yeah, but" is a two-ton anchor that can keep you from even exploring a passion.

Three: Proactively define your ideal working life. What two or three skills would you love to combine? Which personal values are you not willing to compromise? How much money is enough for fulfilling work? How will you get to that working life? Once you know the answers to these and other questions, you have a picture of your 100 percent ideal work. Then you can use this ideal to better appraise proactively the imperfect opportunities presented to you.

Four: Describe your ideal work in about six memorable words that will snag people's minds. Here are two that I won't forget: "transformational cemetery design," and "urban planning with human-powered motion." Here's one of my own: "Encouraging 'Thank God it's Monday!' work lives."

Five: Share your memorable six-word ideal work description with everybody you know, to enlist many other eyes and ears. Ask, "Do you know anybody who . . . ?" Favor tasks and skill verbs; job titles are limiting and can constrain thinking to a box.

Six: Be mindful of the needs of your human spirit. The word "job" originates in "gob," or lump. Ask yourself, "Do I want a new gob? Or do I want meaningful work that enriches my life?" Feeling like a job beggar drains the life out of your spirit. Wouldn't you rather feel like a valuable resource to someone who is blessed that you showed up? Choose the latter and your spirit soars. It is a consciousness that can transform employment interviews.

Seven: Find people to support your commitment. Isolation kills dreams, saps energy, and deepens doubt. Through it all, find, keep coming back to, and nurture support from others. Have potluck dinners to recharge; send lighthearted messages (with your six-word target) to keep you in the minds and hearts of those rooting for you.

The theologian Friedrich Buechner urges us on in finding and living our life's work: a vocation or calling—a life's work—is "the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." There, you will indeed be unstoppable—and doing your work on your own terms.

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