By Stephanie Longhi, Director of Operations, Upohar
Throughout my professional career, I have found myself increasingly drawn to roles and businesses that allow me to focus on things that I am passionate about. Internally, I find myself asking questions like “how does this contribute to something bigger than myself?” or “how can this job have a meaningful, positive impact on my community?” For many people, their job is just a means of earning income, and they pursue other activities that are important to them outside of work. This is a perfectly acceptable way to approach one’s work-life balance. But for me, I feel most fulfilled when my job is also in alignment with my values and can be a means of contributing to a larger goal or purpose. For some reason, I just need to know that the work I spend so much of my life doing is helping other people or the world at large.
In business, it’s easy to get caught in the trap of defining success too narrowly on typical “KPIs” like revenue and profit. There are entire books about why businesses exist to make a profit. But there are also plenty of real-world examples of businesses that are measuring success based on positive impact factors.
But what happens when tasks or aspects of my job are either at odds with my goals or simply must be prioritized for practical reasons over my own mission? Sometimes, and usually for reasons completely beyond my control, there are stretches of time when practicality must supersede purpose. When this happens in my professional life, I find it useful to focus on a few key suggestions:
● Bridge the gap between what I want to achieve and what is realistically possible with small steps toward progress, and by spending a small amount of time each day taking note of ideas for the time when I can re-focus on “the things that really matter.”
● Actively remind myself of all ways that the work I do is meaningful.
● Go back and read client feedback I have received to remind myself of the positive impacts I have had, knowing I will have a positive impact again in the future.
● Refuse to see a focus on practical activities as giving up on my passions – there may be periods of time when focusing on the practical is necessary in order to pave the way for passions to thrive!
● Orient myself toward meaningful activities outside of work.
Ultimately, intentionality is the key factor when it comes to balancing passion and practicality. You don’t have to sacrifice one for the other if you’re intentional about how you spend your time and the mindset with which you show up.
Empowering Women in Lancaster County!
March is Women’s History Month and the Lancaster Chamber will be celebrating all month long with a Women in Business take-over of our Digital Article Series Blog! Then we’ll be ending the month with our Annual Professional Women’s Forum!
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