Slowly, everyone is getting back to work. For some, it is a long-anticipated occasion, but for others its tough to recalibrate the mind, and get back into the rigmarole of driving your career.
To help, you must re-establish purpose in your work life.
We all need to work. We work to fuel your lifestyle. Our work, aside from your family and perhaps spiritual beliefs, gives us an anchor around which we live.
For many of you, family is most important.
Married people and those with kids, when you think about the percentage of your monthly income that you use for yourself to cover your own needs, it possibly doesn't exceed 20-30 percent of your income.
You would go without that new pair of shoes you need, but on the other hand, your kid will be wearing a new branded pair. Why? Because purposefully, you want to give the best to your children.
Some of you have active spiritual lives. You will spend many hours a week in your place of worship or in an organization that supports your spiritual needs. You might even volunteer for leadership roles and take on tasks that are arduous. Why? Because you are driven by a spiritual purpose.
The question is; do you have the same enthusiasm at the workplace?
I once had a coachee who was sent to me by his employer to help him regain his passion for work. I spent a few coaching sessions assisting him. While he made some progress, I noticed that his heart just wasn't in it.
Some months passed by and I was invited to speak at a voluntary club. Unbeknownst to me, my coachee was a member of this club. At the end of my talk, the president of the club introduced me to the key members of her leadership team.
Much to my surprise, my coachee was presented to me as the member who was responsible for raising the most amount of funds for their service, educational and social projects.
His success was so incompatible to him being the sluggish employee I was coaching!
When it came to his professional life, he had no real drive. But at this club, he was driven by some higher purpose. He had truly "bought-in" to that purpose and excelled. After this event, my subsequent coaching sessions with him focused on creating a sense purpose for him at work.
So, what is your purpose at work?
Quite simply, if you do not have a "professional purpose", you will find it tough to channel your energy towards a future that you desire.
The key step to finding your professional purpose is to dig deep and look for what talent you have. It's hard to discern because you might be good at many things.
Think about what is it that you can do, that others find hard to do? What is it that brings you tremendous energy, even when you just think about it?
Answering this helps you reconnect with professional purpose.
For example, even as a teenager, I realised that I had a talent for public speaking.
I got excited and I was pretty good at it. I won competitions at school and in my state. This prompted me to go to university and study to be a lawyer I started on this path thinking that being a lawyer was all about being eloquent in court. This was a very engaging purpose for me.
When I qualified, it turned out it wasn't anything like I had imagined. The early years for a legal practitioner is spent doing hours of research, and acting as an assistant for a more senior lawyer. This neither engendered the passion nor was it engaging enough a purpose for me.
So, I opted out and looked for a different career.
After some months in the wilderness, I stumbled upon a job advertisement at college looking for law lecturers. Although I had no professional experience, and armed only a basic law degree, I had the tenacity and self-belief to muster up the courage to apply for this position.
I got that job! And, thus my 26-year work journey began, leading to what I do now.
When I look back at my work trajectory, I know that although it did not occur to me then, in hindsight I definitely had professional purpose. And in my early-twenties, I avoided becoming a lawyer because this professional purpose was not going to be fulfilled.
Through time, my professional purpose has got refined. Today, I know that my professional purpose is to be "relevant". And I do this by helping as many people as I come into contact with, to become the best version of themselves. This professional purpose drives me and gives direction to everything I do. And it has brought me satisfaction, and some measurable success.
What is your professional purpose? Get reconnected with this right now as we start our work-life in a post pandemic world.
Shankar R. Santhiram is managing consultant and executive leadership coach at EQTD Consulting. He is also the author of the national bestseller "So, You Want To Get Promoted?
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times
