Money vs Meaning - Should you work for profit or to fulfil your purpose?
Published:Wednesday | March 30, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Glenford Smith, Career Writer
Recently I was part of a group in which a friend was sharing about the contrasting experience between her current and previous jobs.
Her current job pays much more, thus enabling her to own a car, comfortably pay her bills and enjoy a more satisfying standard of living.
"In fact, the salary was a major factor in taking this job. I was struggling to meet my financial obligations in my previous job," she said.
She's still struggling however, but in a very different way.
"The problem is that the culture, the monetary emphasis at my current workplace doesn't bring me the sense of meaning and fulfilment I had previously. I used to help people change and improve their lives directly; I was making a difference."
Her previous job had entailed a huge social-work component where she served communities and young people.
While asserting that she currently enjoys interacting with her colleagues, and is satisfied with her contribution to her organisation, she nevertheless expressed regret that she had to sacrifice doing what she found personally meaningful on the altar of financial necessity.
I believe a lot of people can identify with her dilemma. Most people, when desperate for a job is concerned primarily with getting a job - any job, once it pays an acceptable salary.
This enables them to meet their basic survival needs - rent or mortgage, food, utilities, entertainment, and maybe a car.
As soon as these basic needs are satisfied however, they discover what the psychologist, Abraham Maslow, highlighted decades ago in his famous hierarchy-of-needs pyramid. Essentially, Maslow showed that humans have other needs besides survival, which only come to the fore when the basic survival needs are satisfied.
He called the highest of these needs self-actualisation, which is the drive to be the best one can be. This need expresses itself in the desire to fulfil an inner purpose or personal mission beyond making money and paying the bills.
Also, the Viennese psychiatrist, concentration camp survivor and author of the famous book Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl, is highly acclaimed for developing his revolutionary approach to psychotherapy called logotherapy. Logotherapy or 'meaning-therapy' helps patients and practitioners to create fulfilling lives by discovering meaning in their work, relationships, and personal suffering.
Recent scientific studies confirm Maslow's and Frankl's insight that mission and meaning, not just money, is essential for success and satisfaction.
If your only reason for going to work is to pay the bills, your motivation and enthusiasm may wane after a while. You will enjoy your weekends more than your weekdays. Conversely, doing meaningful work engenders passion, even making it possible to endure major setbacks and challenges.
You need money to survive, but consider your need for meaning and inner satisfaction as well. Develop a strategy that will ultimately enable you to make money by making a difference.
Remember: 'A vision without a task is but a dream, a task without a vision is drudgery; a vision and a task is the hope of the world'.
Glenford Smith is a motivational speaker and success strategist.