THRIVE: In Your Career

Now that we have a clean, fresh and new mindset as well as a few actionable items, it’s time to explore the heart of this series.

For the next few posts, we will go over 3 areas that are core to everything we do.

They are your career, your purpose and your dream. Only when they are all working together will you truly have passion for your work in this world.

NOTE: If you haven’t read the beginning of this series or the previous post, do.

I want to start off by saying that, in my opinion, your career does not define who you are, but it is very important as we spend significant time in our vocation. I’m a family man and that comes first, but part of that is providing for them, which comes from work. The Bible even talks about people being lazy and how important it is that we contribute.

To me, work is worship.

There shouldn’t be a distinction between worship and the various other areas of our lives. Worship is not just something we do on Sunday morning. It should be in all we do.

We are each called with a specific purpose for this life.

Zig says it best when he says

”Did you know that every human being is created with a purpose and that they have a responsibility to not only discover their purpose but also to fulfill it?”

That’s not that first time you’ve heard that quote from me and it won’t be the last.

There’s an ultimate truth to that. God did not neglect to weave in a purpose for our lives and we can begin to achieve that purpose when we work in a career that plays to our strengths.

Regardless of the situation you’re in with your career, there is light. It will take time, it will take loads of effort.

But it can be done.

I encourage you to check out articles from Charles Specht, Kimanzi Constable and Chris Guillebeau among many others. They will provide you with practical instructions as well as encouragement on your journey to find meaningful work.

We Are Enabled

Even though we are called to do more than just work for a buck, too many people are stuck…or feel that way.

The problem is that our society, in America at least, has enabled us to become mediocre. We have everything at the drop of a hat and more and more is getting dished out everyday.

People expect free stuff from companies. We expect free money from the government (though I have no idea why!) and therefore, we expect someone to pay us for doing practically nothing.

The problem lies with entitlement.

Many people would describe a good job as something that provides benefits, doesn’t require long hours, requires little to no effort and generally just pays them to fill a seat.

Of course, companies would never say they hire people like that…

But we feel entitled simply because of the time in history we live in.

As a personal story, I felt that way at one point. That’s probably the reason I’m so passionate about it now.

When I started off on my own as web designer, I felt I had the opportunity to do what I want, but I also felt I should be able to do what I want. It took me a couple years to understand that I didn’t deserve to work on my own, for myself or even in a job that I love. And through that time, we’ve struggled.

The light bulb moment for me was when I started blogging. I realized more than ever that no one had to listen to me, give me money in exchange for my work or even look my direction.

I realized the hard work it was going to take to do something that mattered.

Would it be easy? No, it’s still not.

Would it worth it? It already is.

Breaking the Cycle

How do we break this crazy cycle of raising a generation of people that feel entitled to more the they deserve?

We lead by example. We, in the workplace, must show the next generation something entirely different than our parents showed us. That’s through no fault of the generation before us, things are just completely different now.

I have to explain to my son as he grows that work creates money and work is worship. I think as long as he gets those two concepts about work, he’ll do just fine.

I can’t even fathom the workplace he will enter in 15 or so years. It will be entirely different than it is even now.

But will it be better and less enabling? Or will it the cycle of entitlement continue pushing us further into bondage?

I hope it’s the former.

In order to break the cycle, we must lead. We must pave new paths. We must work in our strengths, create a new economy and show a new work model.

Time will tell if it will last. All we can do is figure out the best course of action for the present.

Thriving in Your Career

Our careers have defined who we are for the past 50 years or so. We’ve heard the saying, “You are what you do.”

That doesn’t have to change, but we need to redefine the “do” part.

I’ve titled this series “Why are we doing?” for a reason.

It’s not what we do that should define us, but rather, why we do it.

In order to thrive in our careers, it will take time, patience, courage, trust and many other things.

Todays marketplace can help us thrive but we have to put in the effort to figure things out.

Lets not be enabled by the past. Lets only allow our passion for changing the world allow us to thrive in the present and future.

QUESTION: Should our careers be worship or just something we do? Have you struggled with entitlement at some point? Let us know in the comments below.