Business & technology

Keep the job, take your purpose seriously

Valon Asani · · 2 min read

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Work and purpose can belong in the same life; keeping a job does not mean giving up your direction.

In this post, I reacted to advice I understood as telling people to stop following their purpose and simply get a job. My response ended with a distinction that matters: keep the job, and still take your own direction seriously.

I was not asking everyone to resign. Work experience can belong in the same life as curiosity, a calling and the desire to create something meaningful. In the caption, I describe excitement and intuition as a personal inner guide. That is how I talk about purpose, not a guarantee that every exciting idea will become a career.

Give work and purpose room to develop

Choose something you enjoy doing enough to explore beyond the fantasy of success. Make a small version, practise a skill, or help one person with it. Notice which part holds your attention when there is effort involved.

A job can provide experience while you learn. The important question is whether you are leaving any room to discover what you care about, rather than postponing that question indefinitely.

Let experience sharpen the direction

After a period of practice, review what you actually did. What did you enjoy? What was useful to someone else? What would you willingly improve? Those answers are more concrete than waiting for a perfect description of your purpose.

You do not need a dramatic announcement to begin. Take the interest seriously enough to give it time and honest effort. The direction can become clearer through doing the work.

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