To get a better understanding of your relationship with meaningful work, Mark Guterman, co-founder of MeaningfulCareers.com, suggests imagining a future situation in which you will be telling others your story of how work and meaning finally came together for you. To prepare the story, he suggests reflecting on questions such as the following:
• How is your soul enriched and enlivened through your work?
• How does your work contribute to the future?
• How does your sense of “who you are” show up in your work?
• For whom do you work?
• How has your relationship with work changed over the course of your life?
• What role has serendipity, coincidence, luck, etc. played in your work life?
• How have fun, play, humor, etc. been a part of meaningful work?
• Do you have a philosophy, mission, vision, etc. that guides your work life? If so, what is it and how did you come to it?
• What poetry, quotes, sayings, prayers, music, spiritual writings, pictures, photographs, paintings, etc. represent and/or guide your work life? How do they impact your work?
My Retirement Lifestyle Strategies coaching clients use questions like these to think about how work fits into a retirement lifestyle. Contact me to take the Retirement Success Profile (RSP) Assessment and determine whether or not you have work in its proper perspective before you leave your job permanently or transition to another career. Be sure about the reasons that you are working. And remember, work and play are both important for a balanced life.