Hate Your Job? This Is Probably Why

I was reading an article on job satisfaction the other day, written by a well-known business leader and entrepreneur who I respect. He gave multiple tips on what to do if you don’t like your job, and the last one was something to this effect: Realize that the concept of job satisfaction is relatively new. It is called work, after all.

I get that. For most of human existence, we’ve just been trying to get enough food for the day and not get taken out by carnivorous or poisonous things. I have friends who minister in Zambia (check out their awesome work at African SHADE), and they tell me that people make, on average, a dollar a day. The locals go for days without food on a regular basis. They’d be glad to have ANY job.

But, with all due respect to that fact and to that business leader, that isn’t the world anyone reading this post lives in. And that’s the crucial distinction. Once again, I’m reminded of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. When you’re running into the forest to escape armed rebels, you’re not so focused on your career aspirations. But once you are safe and have a regular supply of food and water, you start thinking about your relationships. Once your relationships are established, your thoughts naturally turn to the desire for achievement and respect. When that’s happened, the only thing left is inner fulfillment – self-actualization.

We in the West, who have computing devices and internet connections that enable us to read blog posts about job satisfaction, have pretty much hit the top of the pyramid. All other needs have been met, at least to a degree, and what we really want is to matter. We want purpose. We want what we do eight or more hours per day to fulfill us. We want to become our actual selves – that’s what self-actualization really means.

This is not elitist or wrong in any way; it is the way God made humans. He created us to be purposeful. Just about everyone knows Jeremiah 29:11, but here’s a verse along the same lines that you may not automatically think of. Ephesians 4:17: “So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.” The word translated as futility here means “aimlessness due to lacking purpose or any meaningful end; nonsense because transitory.”

I just came across, quite by accident, a wonderful quote from one of my favorite people, Thomas Merton: “For each one of us, there is only one thing necessary: to fulfill our own destiny, according to God’s will, to be what God wants us to be.” This is really our fundamental mission in life.

One of the things that makes poverty, war and emotional woundedness so tragic is that these agents hinder people from becoming their actual selves. It’s possible, but it’s a lot harder. So, for those of us who don’t have to struggle against those destiny thieves, let’s choose to live on purpose, for our purpose. Find your true self, live your destiny, glorify God.

Now, back to the title of this post. Barring horrid co-workers or painful labor, the likely reason we don’t enjoy our jobs is that we are not aligned with our life’s purpose and destiny. This isn’t a judgement against you or us all collectively; it happens to most of us, because for most of us, finding our purpose is hard.

The Holy Spirit is fantastic at helping us find out what we’re here for, and the Enneagram is a great tool for helping us understand who we are NOT so that we can get that part of us out of the way. I recommend intimacy with the first and deep study of the second. Here’s a program I created that helps with both. I’d love to hear your struggles, victories and thoughts on work and purpose.

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