Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash
Finding meaning and purpose in your work is essential for resilience. In my experience, people who don’t find meaning at work will burn out within a year.
However, people who have no other source of meaning and purpose except for work are also vulnerable. And, they may unintentionally be eroding the resilience of their colleagues.
Here are some reasons why you want to find meaning outside of work:
Work Will End
As a Foreign Service officer working in an up or out personnel system, I witnessed many people fall apart when they no longer had a job. They hadn't taken the time to cultivate relationships, and some had sacrificed family ties. Many had no hobbies or passions outside of work. Work was their only source of meaning, and without work, they had nothing.
Not having meaning outside of work may be why research shows that so many people die soon after they retire. Without meaning and purpose, many people give up and are more vulnerable to disease. Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl found that “the sudden loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect.”
You’re Risking Your Health
People who find meaning only in their work tend to be workaholics. They may generate more work than necessary to give them a reason always to be working. Extensive research shows that an excessive and compulsive need to work is harmful and negatively impacts health, wellbeing, and social connections. Having passion only for your work can easily lead to burnout.
I've also seen people stay in toxic work environments because of the meaning they find despite the abuse. The toxicity erodes their resilience, self-worth, and wellbeing, but they are reluctant to leave because they will lose their only source of meaning.
You’re Harming Your Colleagues
When people find meaning only at work, they often struggle to set boundaries and are willing to sacrifice much more than most of their colleagues. The short-term benefits this can generate often place undue pressure on the rest of the team who would prefer to have more balance. Overworking also contributes to a 24/7 work culture that wears down employees and eventually reduces office productivity.
If you’re a senior leader, you risk being a poor resilience role model for your employees, who need to see you be passionate about people or hobbies outside of work. Even if you encourage your staff to find balance, most will follow what you do and not what you say.
You’re Losing Creativity
Finding meaning and purpose in many facets of your life enriches your thinking and creativity. Creativity is the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to generate solutions. If you have passions outside of work, you’re more likely to create unique connections and perceptions because you have various sources of input. If your only focus is work, you risk becoming stale because you’re not gaining stimulation from any other sources.
Your Life Is a Wobbly Stool
Think of meaning and purpose as legs of a stool. Legs could be work, family, hobbies, religion, or volunteering. A stool with three legs is stable. If you lose one leg, the other two can sometimes hold it up. A stool with five legs is far sturdier when one of the legs breaks. A stool with only one leg will collapse if that leg breaks.
To learn more about finding meaning and purpose in your life, check out my other blogs on the subject. How do you find meaning and purpose outside of work?
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To learn more about how you and your team can thrive in adversity, visit my website, and follow me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. And, check out my online Resilience Leadership course.