26 Sep You Don’t Have to Quit Your Job to Find More Meaning in Life
There has, over the last few years, been a lot of talk about burnout and even more recently, “quiet quitting”.
The challenge to find and keep happiness at work is real; for both employees and employers.
But there are always solutions; and even though different things will work for different people, maybe focusing a bit more on meaning rather than joy and happiness might be worth considering …
via Harvard Business School by Shalene Gupta
Before you give notice and go on a vision quest, consider this: Fulfillment doesn’t require big change, says research by Julian De Freitas and colleagues. In fact, you can find more meaning even in a job you don’t love.
It’s a philosophical debate as old as time: What is the secret to leading a meaningful life?
For many, the question gained new urgency after years of social distancing and upheaval during the COVID-19 pandemic. After surviving a public health threat that has killed more than 1 million people in the US, people really want to live their best lives—right now.
“I believe that the pandemic caused people to re-evaluate whether their work is meaningful,” says Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Julian De Freitas. “Some compared their work to urgent pandemic relief efforts and concluded that their work was no longer sufficiently impactful. Others no longer experienced the pleasures of their workplace environments, leading them to realize that the work itself was not sufficiently fulfilling.”
The threat of a potentially deadly virus inspired many people to change careers, move closer to their families, or even climb Mount Everest. But does meaningfulness require so much change and effort? Across six experiments, De Freitas and his colleagues found that meaningfulness really can come from the little things, even seemingly pointless ones, as long as they bring fulfillment.
Feeling as though one is leading a meaningful life is a bellwether for broader emotional wellbeing, with those who feel they are leading meaningful lives displaying superior mental and physical health. Making work meaningful can also be key for companies looking to retain employees in a labor market that has many workers fleeing positions in hopes of finding something better.
De Freitas partnered with Michael Prinzing, a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University, and Barbara Fredrickson, a professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, on the study, “The Ordinary Concept of a Meaningful Life,” published in the Journal of Positive Psychology…
… keep reading the full & original article HERE