Happy Spring: The Perfect Time to align Your Values and career

Everyone is looking for meaning, especially in work. Spring is the perfect tine to make a fresh start, expecially if you’re hating your job. Along with earning a paycheck – which is vitally important – the main reason to work and have a career is to contribute something that you feel is worth doing on a daily basis.

Not feeling that way? It may be time to try to find more meaningful work. How to do that can be a multi-stage process but it’s worth starting now, on this first day of Spring. All things new start somewhere. Consider the Spring Equinox your personal starting line. It’s time to align your values and your effort at work.

Showing up at work, whether in your home or at an office, takes a lot of your time, mental focus, and energy. We spend more than half our waking hours at work (if you work a 9-to-6 day or longer).

Here is how to find meaningful work, or make the work you do more meaningful. It may start with a side gig, or a realization that what you love to do is different than what you get paid to do. But your side passion project can become your main gig. Let’s look at what you can do to make work a more rewarding, satisfying and remunerating part of your life.

I love this quote from today’s Forbes Daily newsletter, shared by Danielle Chemtob, a staff writer for Forbes Daily. She writes:

“The pandemic caused many to reevaluate their purpose in life, and that extends to their careers. A greater sense of purpose among employees can be a benefit in the workplace, leading to high engagement.

“In order to find your purpose at work, try practicing self-care to avoid burnout, which can cause you to lack joy and motivation. Reflect on your values, and ask yourself if they align with the company’s values. If the gap is small, see if there is anything you can change—but if it’s large, you may want to move jobs or careers.

“Lastly, set goals to enhance your skill set so you don’t feel stagnant.”

Around the same time as everyone was going remote and the natur of work changed, a book on the Japanese concept of Ikigai was published, on the secret to living a long and happy life. It includes the idea of finding meaning in work and offers a helpful construct on how to think about your contribution to the world and how to make your values and passion align with what the world needs.

If you’re bored or worse, feel stuck, pivot

If you’re bored, stuck, or feel that your company’s values are at odds with your own, and there is no way to change it from within, you need to make a change. If you feel it’s time to pivot you may be overwhelmed with the very idea of where to start.

How do you go from where you sit now to where you want to be? And it may not be sitting, or at a desk, or in an office. It may be out on the trails or in a bakery or at a gym or on the campaign trail. Who knows? You may find yourself in a whole new area of interest.

Here is how to think about making that next step, the one that will get you to where you need to be. You may be smart just to sit and think or walk, run, swim or bike and think. Wherever you do your best thinking, go there. Now let your mind wander and try to imagine: What brings you joy? Is it fitness? Something to do with wellbeing? Getting active in local causes? Helping out at political campaigns? Volunteering or fostering and caring for shelter animals? Reading to kids at the library? Baking and creating magical things in the kitchen?

Whatever it is, start to do more of that. You never know where it may lead. From these passions, you can take the next step, and the next and the next. One friend is getting her personal training certificate, and planning to start doing some of that on the weekends. Another is moving away from corporate events and getting into the fashion industry, offering her events planning experience as her calling card.

Another way to see this is through the Japanese discipline of Ikigai. Ikigai is the Japanese term for joyful life. It comes from two words: “iki” meaning “to live,” and “gai” meaning “reason,” which translates to “a reason to live.” It’s a concept that encourages people to discover what truly matters to them and to live a life filled with purpose and joy.

Here’s how to discover your Ikigai.

1. Write down what you love.
2. Write down what the world needs.
3. Write down what you’re good at.
4. Write down what the world needs.

What do you love? Or put another way, what would you do for free? Write down what you already love to do in your free time, and what you spend time on when you’re supposed to be working. That’s a good place to start. Is it fitness? Vacations? Place these into career categories: Wellness, beauty, fashion, personal shopping, baking, dog sitting, cheffing it up.

This helpful graphic from @iamvikachandras shows how it works:

Ask yourself: What does the world need? Figure out things you know are needed and that people pay for: Personal trainers, chefs, dog walkers, caregivers, nutritionists, travel agents are just a few ideas.

Then add the question: What are you good at? What do people pay you for now? And what can you get paid for in the future?

Imagine this: Once she figured out she was passionate about fitness, and good at it, and that the world needs personal trainers and group fitness instructors, one friend opened her personal training business, started posting on IG, just launched her booking app and is pulling in six figures.

Another friend got sick of her big boring corporate job, started to post on TikTok about travel deals and grew her following exponentially. This allowed her to start a side gig as a travel agent with bookings that began to pay her enough that she could see a path to making as much in a year as her day job. She convinced her parents this was a career move and quit, and is doing her travel biz full time.

Who or What is holding you back? What are your barriers?

What other people think is only important until you prove that your new vision for yourself is going to be remunerative, personally rewarding and perhaps even help others live better lives. Stop letting outside voices out-shout your own internal one.

You get to decide what you do and how you spend your time, not family members or spouses, parents or best friends. They don’t live in your job, or have to show up at your desk daily. You do. So you get to decide how and when to change your work fate.

Of course, it doess help to have a plan and a paycheck. If your plan involves taking a pay cut, or a gap between your current salary and your freelance earnings, start saving and spending less to make sure you have a cushion to fall on, since gas bills, car repairs, rent and food are all non-negotiables. You havve to be able to pay for your most minimal lifestyle, while you figure out how to fund or support yourself through your next career move.

What is your passion? What do you do for free?

For me, it’s training for triathlons and helping others get the bug and spark an interest in scary things like open water swimming. I also love to help my local elected officials, like the Mayor of our small town on Long Island, with her communications and newsletters, and get the word out about the good work she is doing to make the town an even safer place to live.

Okay so full disclosure : These things have not yet led to a lucrative career, since leaving full-time content editing a few years back. But by showing my passion for causes and wellbeing (and the intersection of those two), my friends, neighbors and colleagues are aware of what I do for free (including give advice!), and have started enlisting me in ways big and small to help causes related to, and aligned with my values.

As a wellness editor and writer who also cares about policy, I have been given work to do along the lines of writing and researching the latest brain science and behavior, and how health providers can help individuals at risk to live better and healthier lives. And now, as someone who gets asked frequently for career and wellbeing advice I provide mentoring, and I started The Advice Pages. Next up: Mentoring on the topics I am known to be good at. (Ikigai!)

Try this: Get the word out about what you are doing on a Saturday morning, or what you love to do in your spare time. That will lead to conversations, dialogue and awareness among people in your circle that you have this passion and your value system is on display, which in turn will allow you to get more invovled in these areas, either at work or beyond the confines of your day job.

1. Start small
2. Release yourself to acceptance
3. Build harmony and sustainability
4. Enjoy the little things
5. Be present in the moment

Each of these will help you find that meaning you are looking for. Let us know how it’s going. Inspire others with your pivots. We want to hear from you.