How did you find yourself where you are today?
An answer to this question for many would easily be linked to them being at a specific place at a certain time. Not entirely a conscious decision, a plan they have held from a young age, or a natural desire to be there.
With that, as people; we tend to automatically try to find meaning in places we find ourselves in. This is because it is an easier way to search for meaning where you currently are rather than digging deep within oneself or in other places. And many choose the seemingly easier route.
When we look back at how people got to the jobs they have, it is usually due to two main reasons. And these reasons are largely influenced by our upbringing, family influences, and the socio-economic conditions we find ourselves in:
1 - We needed a job or career that "pays" the most, such as law and medicine as we grow up being told the individuals in these fraternities get paid the most.
2 - It is one's situation where they desperately need a job and they landed the job they have, it could've been any type of a job.
With these two primary reasons, people then tend to seek meaning in the spaces they find themselves in not considering the factors and motivation of how they landed where they are. And then end up in a never ending quest to find their life meaning which they won't find because they are looking for it in wrong places.
Of course there are exceptions - where one would be doing a job that is exactly their life purpose and therefore provides them with meaning. However, these kinds of situations are rare compared to the latter situations I have mentioned.
In most cases, your life's meaning and purpose it is not in your job. And a mistake many do is that they take on what they do as their identity, they wear it as a coat that which they wear until eternity. Ignoring the fact that they may probably be wearing a totally incorrect coat and took it as their identity, which is a false identity. And when they search for their true life meaning, they search until they die without ever finding it coz they took on a wrong coat and ignorantly embraced it.
The truth is, for many - their life's meaning and purpose wont be found in what they do but outside of what they do. Why? Because they do what they do because they were looking for a job that pays well, or they were merely desperate for any kind of a job.
One's life purpose is not dependent upon what you do on a daily, but on the natural gifts, natural astute, interests or talents that have been bestowed upon you from birth.
Therefore, if you may be on a quest to find meaning and purpose start looking beyond what you do. Start digging deep, go back to your childhood and identify the natural interests you had and deeply self-introspect, you will find what you are in a quest for.
Some have not reached a phase in their lives where they seek their meaning. But when and if that phase comes - if you are such an individual - remember to not only look in your job but above and beyond of what you do. That is likely where you will find it.
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