Poll

Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?

I find purpose in my work.
12 (8.6%)
I am working towards a purpose.
73 (52.1%)
I'm somewhere in the middle.
55 (39.3%)

Total Members Voted: 136

Author Topic: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?  (Read 4411 times)

DeskJockey2028

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Some of us here are working towards a definitive purpose - to never have to work again unless it's something we actually want to do, and only when we want to do it. Others have found a real purpose in their jobs, defined a career for themselves and enjoy what they do enough that they feel no real need to stop as soon as possible. And I'm sure some of us are in the middle - enjoying what our jobs have to offer but also looking forward to a time when we can disengage and try a new lifestyle.

Where do you fall?

KarefulKactus15

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #1 on: September 07, 2017, 06:13:21 AM »
I have no purpose in my work.   Fear is the only thing keeping me from pursuing better options that I see around me!

simonsez

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #2 on: September 07, 2017, 06:23:59 AM »
I'm both, so I selected in the middle.

I work on education surveys for a federal agency.  I am married to a teacher, the son of a teacher, grandson of a principal, and have numerous other relations that are in the teaching field.  The combination of being a public servant that provides a (IMO valuable) good in something I know all too much about because of friends and family is really rewarding!

That said, of course the paychecks are means to my ends.  The relation Life>Career will always hold true.

boyerbt

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #3 on: September 07, 2017, 06:27:09 AM »
I am definitely working towards a purpose.

I tell people that I am a glorified Girl Scout as I work for a bakery manufacturer in sales/project management. It is a good job and I don't mind the work but it is not something that has be jumping out of bed every morning.

TartanTallulah

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #4 on: September 07, 2017, 07:32:18 AM »
I used to be able to say both - my work had a purpose in its own right and I was working towards being as good as I could be at my job.

Now I no longer find much purpose in my work and am working towards no longer having to work.

ketchup

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #5 on: September 07, 2017, 07:48:25 AM »
My work is a support role in a company that as a whole plays a support role for a Big Important Industry, so I suppose I've a few degrees removed, but I don't mind it.

My girlfriend works doing something that nobody needs and is truly excess luxury on top of pre-existing luxury, but she loves what she does.  Passion over strict purpose then, I suppose.

FI4good

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #6 on: September 07, 2017, 09:23:52 AM »
Work is a necessary evil until i have the capital for my own basic income.

In the past it was interesting, these days i spend most of my time re-writing code to be more robust in situations where programming has been "cut and pasted" and done in a slap dash way by contractors. 

It is a waste of some of the time of my life but i have no better way of making a living for the time being otherwise i'd be doing it. I'm good at it so i can tend to read lines of code and the bugs just jump out at me, considering and choosing the most elegant solution and testing it is the main satisfaction.   

I've had sleep apnea for i don't know how long and have only been diagnosed and treated in the last month, maybe i'll feel more buzzy in the future but i think a fuse burned out in me with respect to work years ago, i prefer slow travel stopping to see what i can see along the way, making a verdant garden and tinkering with my old car.   

TravelJunkyQC

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #7 on: September 07, 2017, 09:29:07 AM »
I work in content writing, so as a field, I feel like I have a purpose, as I'm convinced that the most powerful tool mankind has ever developed is the written word. However, although I like my job (content for the tech industry), I'd like to write for causes I'm more passionate about one day (academic research writing, humanitarian aid writing, etc). So perhaps in the middle?

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #8 on: September 07, 2017, 09:30:19 AM »
I put somewhere in between. I'm a nurse. It's hard not to derive some purpose from patient care. But it isn't the sole core of what I want to achieve in life.

meatface

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #9 on: September 07, 2017, 09:37:47 AM »
Definitely working towards a purpose (FI) right now. Hopefully soon I will be able to make a change where there is real purpose in my work. Should have a better idea of that in the next few weeks!

DeskJockey2028

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #10 on: September 07, 2017, 09:51:45 AM »
I never thought I'd say this but... good luck Meatface!

RedmondStash

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #11 on: September 07, 2017, 09:51:28 PM »
I do find purpose in my work, but as I get closer to FI, that sense of purpose is waning. I've been doing the same job for a while now. It feels like the time for something new is fast approaching.

ObviouslyNotAGolfer

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #12 on: September 07, 2017, 10:27:12 PM »
I am a lecturer in Biological Sciences at one university, and a Research Scientist at another. I enjoy both jobs a great deal, and the work I do at both jobs feeds into my personal goals of writing a book (books, plural, actually), and continuing my work in photomicrography (five exhibitions and 12 journal/book covers to date).

I enjoy a great deal of independence, and pretty much come and go as I please. I have no boss per se at the lecturer job, and nobody can tell me what to teach or what to do in my own classroom (obviously, illegal things, racist, sexist, homophobic stuff is strictly out, not that I would anyway!). I have a department chair I don't want to piss off, and we get along fairly well. I used to have to meet him once a year for a performance review, but now that he has switched to managine everything by e-mail, I may never have to meet with him ever again. I have co-workers, but very little interaction, gossip, or that type of thing.

My only problem is I hate SoCal, and am trying to get out. Getting a similar job(s) in the Bay Area, Oregon, Washington, Montana (Europe? I can get Irish/EU citizehship fairly easily!) is a priority!

Nevertheless, I don't equate my identity with my paid employment. My webpage does not mention either institution I work at--only my personal projects, etc.

I would like to retire early like all of you, but mainly to avoid traffic and getting up earlier than I'd like. In early retirement, I still plan to do much of what I'm doing now--just more on my own terms. 


Taran Wanderer

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #13 on: September 07, 2017, 11:09:07 PM »
I used to find a lot of meaning in my work, partly because the company I work for makes something that people really like and that I really like, and partly because the company has been intimately tied to the community I live in. As the company has grown, though, it is becoming steadily less rooted in the community, and I find less purpose in my work.  So I picked the middle choice.

h82goslw

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #14 on: September 08, 2017, 04:33:50 AM »
Absolutely love my job. If I were to inherit multi-millions I would do my job for free.  Trying to sock away as much as possible to hit my number....but doubt I'll ever retire as long as I'm physically able to do my job. And I constantly am thankful that I'm in this position because years ago I had a job that I hated.

Stubblestache

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #15 on: September 08, 2017, 04:55:15 AM »
I used to find work for a purpose, when I was in London and everything costs incredible amounts of money.

Since relocating to a LCOL area, I work half for a purpose and half because I like my job. It is incredibly good for the spirit!

TheAnonOne

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #16 on: September 08, 2017, 06:02:20 AM »
I write software as a contractor, so occasionally I will get interesting problems to solve. They do genuinely help my clients, but the clients themselves are usually large corporations. When it is a local or mid sized business, it does seem to have more 'meaning'

Ultimately, if I had $10,000,000 tomorrow I might actually still write code! Coding is genuinely fun, but I probably wouldn't do it 40 to 50 hours a week as a life requirement.


--- I guess I plan to FIRE, travel A LOT, and occasionally take short-term contracts that are 3 months or less. In reality, I could cover my living expenses for a year with a 3 month contract, but I do wonder how many years I could do that before my skills were no longer marketable as high-paying as they are now. I would imagine I could do this for 3-5 years, with little to no training, which at least, gets me past the sequence of returns risk!

Miss Piggy

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #17 on: September 08, 2017, 07:55:13 AM »
I had a career with purpose once. Even with a master's degree, my salary maxed out at a level that would mean I could never retire. So I changed careers and now work in the business world. There's small meaningful work/projects here and there, and I enjoy the work itself, but overall purpose? Nah, not really. My purpose now is continuing to work toward RE.

BlueMR2

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #18 on: September 10, 2017, 12:10:22 PM »
I work for a great company, with a lot of great people.  However, the industry I'm in really doesn't interest me.  I limit my role (turning down advancements) as I know I'm just not interested enough to drive things forward the way they should be.  In my limited role I get to deal with some problem solving that's at least somewhat interesting.  Not exactly my ideal, but it's "enough".  I do find some purpose in helping the company succeed so that others who really need the money can have decent paying jobs with the company.

It contributes to my "OMY" status (along with the other usual suspects like healthcare uncertainty, making sure I'm not at the crest of the rare 4% breaker 10 year run)...  I'd like to be in another industry really, but that's just not an option where I'm located, and I'm unwilling to move.  I love this part of the country too much.

PDXTabs

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #19 on: September 10, 2017, 01:56:48 PM »
Ultimately, if I had $10,000,000 tomorrow I might actually still write code! Coding is genuinely fun, but I probably wouldn't do it 40 to 50 hours a week as a life requirement.

Me too. I'm a full time lead at a Fortune 500 company. On a good day I love my job, but on a bad day I hate it. I would still write code, but I wouldn't put up with any more bullshit, and I wouldn't need to get paid for it.

thebattlewalrus

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #20 on: September 11, 2017, 11:27:20 AM »
I use to find purpose at work, honestly I am just working towards an end goal now. I enjoy the people I work with but not really the job anymore. I'm at a level that is a dead end and will have to leave the organization to do other things now...

Misstachio

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #21 on: September 12, 2017, 03:12:59 PM »
I'm not sure how to go about finding your purpose. I'm pretty disillusioned with capitalism right now so it seems like almost all jobs exist just to make profit for someone.

I just want to take care of my family and rescue cats

dreams_and_discoveries

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Re: Do you find purpose in your work or are you working towards a purpose?
« Reply #22 on: September 14, 2017, 12:53:20 PM »
I'm sort of in the middle.....my work has a purpose, albeit as a cog in a very big machine, but I can easily articulate what my job contributes to society.

Me personally, I have a much more personal purpose, which I abbreviate to be happy.....I've been spending the last few years working out what really makes me happy through test and learns....so when I FIRE in 3-4 years I know I'll be on the right track.