Find Meaning in Your Work--for a Healthier, Happier You!

Finding meaning in what you do, day after day is important--not just to a personal sense of fulfillment, but even to your health.

Studies show that people who don’t have a sense of meaning in their lives are far more likely to exhibit the chronic pro-inflammatory stress response, a condition which is associated with life-threatening diseases like heart disease and even cancer.

However, a Bad Boss is highly unlikely to give you a sense of meaning or purpose in your work. He or she is more likely to give you a sense of defeat, uselessness and a serious case of “whatever.”

“What if you work in place where management is unaware or unconcerned that it could do more to infuse the daily grind with a higher sense of purpose?” asks Monique Valcour,, a professor at EDHEC Business School. She goes on to suggest: “You learn to make your work more meaningful yourself. While it helps enormously to have conditions in place that facilitate work meaning (like autonomy in deciding how you do your work), it's important to realize that meaning is ultimately something you create on your own.”

There it is. Meaning is something you create on your own.

You look at the product your company creates, or the service it provides, and think of those who benefit from it.

You think about the benefit of your paycheck, how it keeps a roof over your head and helps provide for your family.

You challenge yourself to be the very best at your job, not to make your Bad Boss happy, but because striving to be the best you can be gives meaning and purpose to whatever you do.

Meaning. It’s what it’s all about.