What do you find meaninful in your work?

[Elisabeth]

I don't find my current carrier path to be as meaningful as I would like it, but I can't figure out what I'd rather do.

To get unstuck, I'm trying to understand meaning, impact, purpose for myself. The meaning of these words (the implications they have, the feeling connected  to them) are getting lost on me.

Please help me by sharing what is meaningful in your work, what the words impact, purpose mean to you, and/or how doing meaningful work feels to you.

[aurum]

@Elisabeth

34 minutes ago, Elisabeth said:

Please help me by sharing what is meaningful in your work, what the words impact, purpose mean to you, and/or how doing meaningful work feels to you

In the face of infinity, there is no career path that is inherently meaningful. But you can find a path that is meaningful for you.

What's meaningful for me is raising the collective vibration. There's so much negativity, so much fighting, so much unnecessary drama that we create. But it doesn't have to stay that way, and so the idea of contributing to that really gets me excited.

I also think whatever darkness somebody has been through is where they are going to find the most meaning in contributing. For instance, a victim of child abuse might later become very passionate about helping alleviate child abuse. It's very common.

So you might want to ask yourself that. What was your greatest pain growing up? What hurt the most?

[Elisabeth]

7 minutes ago, aurum said:

What was your greatest pain growing up? What hurt the most?

Loneliness. This inability to connect.

Damn, I don't know if that's the right answer, but with the question worded this way it came as the first association. Maybe it's a momentary thing. I contemplated my greatest struggle a year ago in the life purpose course and I got different results then, but they are not at odds.

[aurum]

2 hours ago, Elisabeth said:

Loneliness. This inability to connect.

Damn, I don't know if that's the right answer, but with the question worded this way it came as the first association. Maybe it's a momentary thing. I contemplated my greatest struggle a year ago in the life purpose course and I got different results then, but they are not at odds.

Gut reaction usually the truth when it comes to this kind of stuff. You’ll probably find a lot of meaning in connecting with others, connecting others, or some combo of the two.

[martin_malin]

3 hours ago, aurum said:

@Elisabeth

I also think whatever darkness somebody has been through is where they are going to find the most meaning in contributing. 

Bingo! That did it for me.

Or to be a little creepy...

Say you learned today that you will die in 2023. A fortune teller that has never been wrong just told you that it will be a quick and painless death. What's up now?

Edited October 6, 2018 by martin_malin

[Erlend K]

Make sure you don't turn meaning into som abstract, metaphysical pie in the sky. Theoretical arguments for why something should be meaningful are bullshit. Meaning is not something "out there", but merely phenomenological, triggered buy certain purposeful actions. There are decades of empirical reaserch on the necessary conditions for work becoming a source for meaning. 

If our work helps others, we are good at it (or as a junior: practice diligently to get good at it), we work on engaging, flow promoting tasks, and with people we like, then we tend to experience work as meaningful. 

[Key Elements]

On 05/10/2018 at 1:07 PM, Elisabeth said:

Please help me by sharing what is meaningful in your work, what the words impact, purpose mean to you, and/or how doing meaningful work feels to you.

I'm going to keep this as simple as possible. I chose to learn two languages so that I could express: what does it mean by "we are one."

Learning two languages also gave me the opportunity to be more marketable. I became a bilingual teacher. There are also other opportunities: translator, bilingual art, bilingual art teaching, etc. It's very broad and flexible.

My LP: to teach non-duality and languages through bilingual art in fun, easy, and simple ways.

Hint: try to make your interests broad so that it could include profound things and other opportunities. 

[Shin]

On ‎05‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 10:49 PM, aurum said:

@Elisabeth

In the face of infinity, there is no career path that is inherently meaningful. But you can find a path that is meaningful for you.

What's meaningful for me is raising the collective vibration. There's so much negativity, so much fighting, so much unnecessary drama that we create. But it doesn't have to stay that way, and so the idea of contributing to that really gets me excited.

I also think whatever darkness somebody has been through is where they are going to find the most meaning in contributing. For instance, a victim of child abuse might later become very passionate about helping alleviate child abuse. It's very common.

So you might want to ask yourself that. What was your greatest pain growing up? What hurt the most?

Thank you,

Something is making a lot more sense for me now.

[Nahm]

@Elisabeth Freedom. Not meaning. What good is the greatest meaning, in solitary confinement of conceptually living? What will a miserable person contribute to society (their misery)? What will a joyful free person contribute (Joy)?

The self honesty is the variable. It is fine to convince ourself that there is meaning and worth in what we do other than our own experience of it, but then, you have these issues, because it’s false. If you have experienced being anything other than you, then by all means, tell me how foolish this is.

[universe]

@Nahm

You are implying only a free person can spread something else than misery? If I look at history I see countless of people doing meaningful things while not being "free", whatever that means. And Im very grateful for them.

I dont understand this forums obsession with freedom. When love, connection and consciousness are also on the table.

@Elisabeth

For me

meaning: highly subjective, if I do stuff that is directly aligned with the impact I want to have on the world I find it meaningful.

impact: any outcome that is not contributing to the constant fearmongering taking place every second in society. Could be anything from being loving & kind to a stranger on the street to awakening millions of people.

purpose: like meaning. Doing work that feels authentic to what I am / think I am.

[Your place at Heart]

On 10/5/2018 at 3:07 PM, Elisabeth said:

I don't find my current carrier path to be as meaningful as I would like it, but I can't figure out what I'd rather do.

To get unstuck, I'm trying to understand meaning, impact, purpose for myself. The meaning of these words (the implications they have, the feeling connected  to them) are getting lost on me.

Please help me by sharing what is meaningful in your work, what the words impact, purpose mean to you, and/or how doing meaningful work feels to you.

You can make meaning in everything but life itself is devoid of meaning. Life happens spontaneously and you are brought here to live and explore it. If it was given meaning then some of the fixed meanings might not appeal to everyone as meaningful is different from person to person. Someone might become soldier and wants to go invade others and find meaning in killing enemies of his country, someone might want to become a politician so that he can rape and do whatever he wants and make connections to save him from conviction because that meaningful to him to make his needs come first. 

Do all personality tests. Zodiac, MBTI, ennegram, signature strength,big five. make mind map of your weakness and strengths. Find your best and strongest traits and link them together. Secondly, do you find nature meaningful?, social events meaningful, do you find love meaningful? do you find care giving meaningful, do you find any of the sensory inputs like colors and sounds meaningful? 

Do you like big spaces or small spaces? Do you like work with your hands or from computer or pen or brush or however?

Edited October 8, 2018 by Your place at Heart

[Nahm]

@universe Freedom from meaning, is freedom from thinking, is freedom of love.

 

[ajasatya]

i am a data scientist and mathematics is intellectually challenging. it reminds me of when i was a little kid and used to play with lego day after day.

[Samra]

@Elisabeth 

I need to express myself constantly. That's why I ended up doing arts. I need to create things out of unknown, or I get very depressed. I also don't like being told what to do when it comes to art and creation. It's stressful, challenging and I love it. I fail many times. Almost 95 percent. Things don't go as plan when you are in the middle of chaos. But the 5 percent success keeps me going. I only became a professional artist at age 27. It took me a decade to finally start making a living. But I never gave up on it. 

[Elisabeth]

Thanks everyone, I don't answer everything, but I'm using all your answers as material to reflect on.

6 hours ago, Nahm said:

@universe Freedom from meaning, is freedom from thinking, is freedom of love.

I think/feel the word 'meaning' points to a specific type of experience (an emotion perhaps) that is not thinking.

[Nahm]

@Elisabeth All the meaning in the universe, in actuality, is your thinking. The universe, in actuality, is Being / You. The word experience is somewhat problematic for this because it gets used haphazardly. One clear way to see this (imo) is by deduction of the double slit & observer. One who knows their true nature only sees resolve, one who does not know their true nature will continue thinking, leading to theories like Many Worlds, etc, there’s a bunch of them but that one has become popular as “it is supported by math”. In actuality there is One, and every person is the One, not “many worlds” which “individuals” are in. Of course this is also completely wrong. 

With awareness of each arising thought, we can become aware of each thought’s root. I would loosely say that each thought arises from a false understanding of reality, primarily from the a priori “ I “. In this sense, each thought would otherwise naturally resolve, because it would not have arisen. Because you are the Truth, the sensations in the body are always communicating the variance between Truth, and a false view/thought held (emotion). Eventually, thoughts do not arise in the commonly referred to manor, monkey mind resolves, and reality is seen as it is. (They all root back to nonduality.)  Then, there is the actuality of love (not an “emotion”).

But ya. Meaning, all you. Wild, no?

[Elisabeth]

@Nahm  Sorry, I still have no reference for non-duality. I have to stick with what I have, which apart from thoughts/conceptual understanding is different layers of emotions. I think I'm trying to access the next deeper level which contains stuff I don't always have access to, including feeling "meaning" or "fulfilment" and the joy of giving/contributing, alongside with the possibility to create something beautiful just for itself etc.

I know I used 6 I's in 3 sentences

[Nahm]

@Elisabeth Nobody’s counting the I’s. ❤️

This might be insightful, not sure....happy thought, feels good, no problem. 

Frustrating thought - we tend to not sit down, breathe from our stomachs, and self inquire...”why does that feel bad?” “What is the falsity in this thought?”.

Why? Fear.

Fear of what? Not feeling good / pleasant / happy.

What is there actually to be afraid of? That’s the big joke. Nothing. 

But the fear keeps us from looking. 

God hides great things, right behind the fear. 

Such is life, too. 

 

[Nahm]

@Elisabeth Same thing’s goin on over here....

 

[YaMayka]

I am struggling with the same problem as Elisabeth and I love your explanations. The thing is I am reaching 40 and by the time I unfold all these I will be very old. And in the meantime I would like to live a happy life which is very hard to do at the moment in my boring job where I have no freedom which is still organised as a blue system and I am yellow. And I have a family to think about - not only myself. Once I get enlightened maybe it will change things for me but for now I get what I get