Do You Know Why You Work?
One of my favourite questions to ask my clients is what would you do if money were no object?
Their immediate reaction is usually looking startled and then laughing the question away as if to say, “What does that have to do with anything?”
Of course many of us fantasise about not having to work, but once people start actually imagining their answers to this question, not working at all is not usually what comes out.
What comes out are the secret dreams that we haven’t told anyone, or very few people, that we long to spend more time on.
A lawyer told me she’d be a beekeeper. A graphic designer wanted to be a photographer. A financial manager wanted to be an actor. A policy maker wanted to be a chef. An operations director wanted to be a painter. A gym manager wanted to teach jiu jitsu to little kids.
For some of my coaching clients they don’t need to imagine. They are financially privileged enough not to have to work for money, but they still feel lost.
Money has always been such an important driver in why we work, that it can hijack our whole sense of purpose around why we do it.
So if money really were no object, would you still work?
And whether you answer yes or no to that question is dependent on the answer to this next one.
Do you know why you work?
Some years ago during an existential crisis I was having about work and my sense of purpose, I asked this question to some friends (yes I’m that kind of friend). Their answers surprised me by falling into three broad camps.
My “working for the weekend” friends
The first were the friends who saw work as a means of survival - the price you pay for being able to have fun the rest of the time. They said things like:
“To pay for my leisure time and the things I want to do outside of work”
“To pay my bills”
“To make as much money as possible”
“Because you have to...?”
“It's something to do so we’re not bored. Too much leisure time will leave you unappreciative of free time.”
For these friends work is about being able to create a life that you enjoy outside of work. The weekends, the vacations, the nice things. Ideally they are working at a place that's bearable to go to everyday, and there is hopefully something that they enjoy about being there all day. But if not, that’s ok because that's not what they're there for anyway. The focus is on making more money to improve the lifestyle and maximise the downtime fun. There wasn’t an expectation to necessarily derive meaning from work, but instead expected their sense of meaning or service to come from the things they did outside of work hours.
One friend said, "I feel I have a responsibility to help others. That’s part of life- service to others. If I can achieve that through what I do for work. Then great. If not, there are other ways."
And they do. These are friends I’ve volunteered with and watched do pro-bono work for causes that they believe in outside of work.
My “mission driven” friends
The other camp of friends see work as the main way through which to create meaning, for yourself and for the world around you. Some of their responses were:
“At its most ideal - to fulfil some kind of higher purpose”
“To feel like I'm doing something meaningful. Not necessarily saving the world, but something that makes me feel like I'm adding value to the world.”
Of course the financial compensation is necessary because we need it to live, but they also expect to find meaning from work as well as making a living. For these friends, getting clear on what meaning was to them and finding the right kind of organisation to channel that was the most challenging part.
My “personal development” friends
The third most common response I got was from friends who were driven by the sense of personal satisfaction of overcoming some kind of challenge. Striving towards some sense of growth and personal mastery, and expected work to be their playground or obstacle course to achieve this.
"Having a sense of direction makes me willing to work to gain that feeling of achievement at the end.”
"I work where I do because of the opportunity to get really good at something, for the sense of mastery I guess. To learn skills that can take me anywhere in the world because I value travelling and being able to experience the world.”
"I think the role becomes more interesting as I progress. I only get agitated if I’m bored in a role, so I feel like when I’ve mastered a role then I should be awarded with the next one because I deserve it."
These are the friends who are always looking for the next challenge, and opportunities to grow.
What was interesting to me about these responses was how varied they were, and how individual. There are a lot more reasons to work than money, but understanding what those are for you can help clarify what you’re motivated by and also dissatisfied by.
When I asked myself this question, what I came up with was:
As a pathway of personal growth
To create financial abundance for myself and my community
To use my gifts to add value to my community
To work with smart people towards a common goal
When I put them all together like that and clearly outlined what my expectations were from work, beyond making money, I could immediately see what was missing for me where I was working at that time.
It was a period where I’d been really focusing on building my financial security, which was going well but my learning had stagnated, I was spending too much time in my zone of excellence rather than my zone of genius, and a shift in direction meant I felt disconnected from the goal of my team.
Asking myself what I would be doing if it wasn’t for the money helped me to connect back to my bigger philosophy of the role of work in my own life. That wasn’t to say put money on the back burner, but could I find ways that I could connect more to the other three areas?
That meant getting clear on what areas of personal growth I needed to do more learning, what gifts I wanted to focus on, and what goals felt compelling to contribute to. Doing that eventually led me into a new role at a new company where I had a better balance across all four pillars.
Getting clear on this later helped me to identify my four core values - Learning, Freedom, Community & Creativity - that I continuously come back to as guiding principles to make decisions in all areas of my life, whether money is involved or not.
So, what would you do if money were no object?
Journal Prompts
Make a list of 5-10 things you would spend time on if you didn’t have to work for money.
What patterns do you notice from the things you’ve described?
What are some ways you could incorporate these things into the way you work right now?
What are some ways you could incorporate these things into the way you live and leisure right now?
Ps. If you’d like to do a deeper dive on coming up with your philosophy of work - I really like this workview exercise from Designing Your Life. Also if you haven’t the read Designing Your Life book yet, add it to your 2024 reading list!