Leading with Purpose
Naturally, as you begin to become fully well and healed within yourself - in your personal development, mental health, faith and spiritual practices, in your capacity for joy and leisurely hobbies, exercising and fueling your body with whole foods - you are going to start feeling like you can take on the world. Seriously! The energy that comes from being fully well is palpable.
Once you feel at peace with yourself, you trust yourself, you’re at home in your body, you’re grounded by your health practices, your cup is full, you are able to start pouring from your cup and giving back to others in a bigger way. This in turn further fuels your own sense of being fully well because it feeds your sense of PURPOSE.
I firmly believe that while work is often “just a job”, it doesn’t have to be.
And really, it shouldn’t be.
The average person in the workforce spends roughly one third of their life working. And many of those people absolutely hate their job, or feel apathetic about the work they perform. The work we do in the world day in and day out should fill us with a sense of purpose. Our service to the world should feel like a step in the direction of self-actualization. It should be an extension of our strengths and passions, and it should fuel us in return.
For you, maybe that looks like doing volunteer work with an organization that you care about. Maybe you do more at home for the people close to you. Perhaps you decide to finally take on the career shift you’ve been considering, or maybe you feel like you finally have the confidence to go really big and chase a life dream, like starting your own business!
When it comes to finding your purpose in work, look for the intersection of these three things:
Work that aligns with what you want. What do you like? What kind of work do you want to do? How do you like to spend your time? What kind of career would simply light you up? This takes some internal work, but it’s worth figuring out.
Work that aligns with your values. Understanding our values supports our decision making, it can support us in choosing where and how we spend our time, it can even support where we decide to look for work, or where we volunteer.
Work that aligns with your strengths. In an article on Work Bigger, Belma McCaffrey tells us: “After you get clear on what you want — because what you want is more important than what you’re good at — the next step is to identify your strengths… tap into your confidence and intuition. Chances are you already know what you’re good at.”
The framework is simple: Uncover your personal mission, do work you love from that place of being! 👩💻
And yet... this is so complex.
It takes honing in on the other slices of the Full Circle Wellness pie to feel like you have a solid foundation, or even the energy, to do purposeful work from a place of wholeness. If you have underlying mental health struggles, or your diet is poor, and you don't exercise, or spend time doing joyful activities... you can work yourself to the bone in a job that maybe, is full of purpose, and yet still grow to resent your day to day because you're not well in other areas.
Once your cup is full, figuring out how you want to serve the world with your gifts should feel pretty enticing. Take the time to journal on all of the above.
And, as ALWAYS, if you BELIEVE the kind of work you are looking for is out there, and you put that energy out into the Universe, certain that you will find it… then you WILL find it. I promise.
Be well,
L
