Why work? Seriously…..why do you work?

You know when you are having one of those days where the phone keeps pinging, the kids keep whining and you sit down in the cafe pleading with the kids to go and use the playground so you can have a coffee in peace……….and then some old dear sits at your table and decides to strike up a conversation with you? Great!

Well that happened to me recently. Despite my next attempts to avoid eye contact I got engaged in a conversation with “Lynette”. What followed was a lesson I later passed down to my daughter. You see Lynette, a widow, had stopped off for a coffee after the weekly Sunday lunch with her son so as not to go back to an empty house. Over an hour we conversed about her 20+ year career in the police - the bullying, the gender discrimination, the regional differences in policing and the challenges of juggling a family with a vocation like the force. Unexpectedly this little old lady gave me an insight into the rewards and challenges of years of public service for which I was left with a deep feeling of gratitude. We hear all the time of the Ruth Bader Ginsburg's and the Hillary Clinton’s who forge through deep glass ceilings in big moves but the Lynette’s of the world have chipped away at them in their own small ways which made progress in the decades before us to a better work world for women through their quiet persistence and silent resilience.

It got me thinking - when I am the little old lady in the corner will the story I share be inspirational? Has the work that I have done really contributed to something? Over the last 5 years I have gradually transitioned my career so that the answer to that question is a “yes” because it is something that is really important to me - contribution to society is one of my core values.

So that’s my question to you - is work giving you something that you will look back on and be proud of? I often get my clients to answer the following questions if they are in a career rut :

Why work?

What does work mean to you?

Is it more than the money? If so, what?

What makes it worthwhile?

How does work relate to others and society for you?

So do me a favour, just check in with yourself - are you getting out of work what you are putting in? Is it filling your bucket? You don’t need to make huge changes and suddenly change careers but it is always worth being sure that what you are doing day in and out is fulfilling you long term.

“Ten years from now make sure you can say that you chose your life, you didn’t settle for it”

Good luck, stay sane and as ever if you know anyone that this would be useful for then please do share it with them through the links below :)

Take care,

Helen x