Feeling Stuck and Lacking Direction? Find Your Purpose

4 min read.

TLDR: Take steps now. Self-reflect on your core motivation; understand your Personal Values; understand which tasks drain you and which ignite you; keep learning; talk to your line manager about your career path.

Are you sleepwalking through your career? Or maybe through life in general?

It's a confronting question, but one that many professionals need to ask themselves. You might be diligently ticking tasks off your to-do list, meeting deadlines, and maintaining your professional responsibilities, yet beneath the surface, something feels amiss. That spark of passion, that sense of purpose that once drove you forward, seems to have dimmed.

This state of professional autopilot is more common than you might think. It's a subtle shift - the enthusiasm that once propelled you gradually gets overshadowed by the daily grind, office politics, feeling that you’re falling behind others perhaps or a creeping sense of being overworked yet somehow underutilised. You're keeping up with expectations, but that gnawing feeling of disconnect and stagnation can be incredibly draining.

Continuing in this holding pattern might seem sustainable in the short term, but it exacts a heavy toll over time. It doesn't just sap your productivity and engagement; this lack of meaningful progress and purpose can significantly impact your overall well-being. Left unchecked, it can lead to outright apathy and a questioning of one’s entire career path.

Recognising this feeling is the vital first step towards reclaiming your sense of direction and drive. You're not doomed to remain in this unfulfilling cycle. There are proactive steps you can take to break free and reignite your professional spark.

In this article, we'll explore five key actions that can help you shake off the cobwebs of complacency and rediscover your professional purpose and enthusiasm.

Understand Your Core Motivation

When we first embark on our career paths, we're often driven by clear goals, aspirations, or passions. However, as the years pass, these initial motivations can become buried under the weight of daily responsibility, workplace pressures, and the inevitable changes in our personal lives. The excitement of starting a new job gradually gives way to routine, and we may find ourselves going through the motions without a clear sense of why we're doing what we're doing.

Action: Set aside dedicated time for deep introspection. Create a career timeline, analysing your initial motivations and how they've evolved. Honestly assess what currently drives and fulfills you, both professionally and personally. Compare these current drivers with your original career goals to identify shifts in your values and aspirations. Use this insight to brainstorm ways to align your work more closely with your present motivations – this might involve seeking new responsibilities, proposing passion projects, or even considering a career change. Distill your reflections into 2-3 concrete goals that will help bridge the gap between your current role and your evolving motivations. Break these goals into actionable steps with deadlines. Remember to schedule regular check-ins to reassess and adjust your motivations and goals, ensuring your career path remains aligned with your core drivers.

Align Work with Your Personal Values

Linked to the aforementioned ‘core motivation’ are our values - the three or four words that are the essences of who we are, that make us feel fulfilled, happy and driven when they are being nurtured. When our work conflicts with our fundamental beliefs, even if we don’t consciously know what they are, it can often lead to dissatisfaction and demotivation. Imagine a scenario where these words are not only known to you, but are proactively being sought out in your career, feeding that intrinsic inner need that your values represent.

Action: Establish what your Personal Values are and for each value, evaluate how well your current role allows you to express or act on it. Identify areas where you can bring more of your values into your work, create an action plan and consider discussing with your manager how to better align your responsibilities with these core principles. For more information, please read here.

Recognise Your Energy Patterns

Professionally, we engage in a diverse array of tasks, interactions, and responsibilities. However, not all of these activities affect us in the same way. Some tasks light us up, leaving us feeling energised and accomplished, while others seem to drain our mental and emotional resources, leaving us feeling depleted. Understanding these energy patterns is crucial for maintaining enthusiasm, productivity, and job satisfaction. By identifying which activities invigorate us and which deplete us, we can make informed decisions about how to structure our work and potentially reshape our roles.

Action: Commit to keep an "energy journal" for two weeks. After each significant task or meeting, quickly note the activity, rate your energy level (e.g., on a scale of 1-5), and jot down any immediate thoughts about why it affected you this way. Include contextual factors like time of day or external pressures. At the end of the two-week period, analyse your entries for common themes among energising and draining activities. Categorise your tasks into "Energisers" and "Drainers," then create an action plan to seek out more energising projects, schedule high-energy tasks during your peak times, and minimise or develop coping strategies for draining tasks. Remember to reassess periodically, as energy patterns may shift over time.

Maintain Open Communications with Your Manager

Despite their best intentions, managers are not mind readers. They're often juggling multiple responsibilities and may not be fully aware of the changing needs, goals, or frustrations of individual team members. Without open and honest communication, these gaps in understanding can widen over time, potentially leading to disengagement. Regular, purposeful conversations about career development are essential for maintaining a motivated, engaged workforce and ensuring that both individual and organisational goals are being met.

Action: Schedule a dedicated career development meeting, separate from regular check-ins or performance reviews. Before the meeting, prepare a clear, concise outline of your professional goals, areas where you'd like to grow, and specific ideas for how you could contribute more to the team or organisation. During the conversation, be honest about your aspirations and challenges, but also be open to feedback and willing to engage in collaborative problem-solving. Remember to follow up on action items and schedule regular check-ins to maintain ongoing dialogue about your professional development.

Embrace Continuous Learning

It’s no surprise that the workplace is evolving and changing faster than ever. Staying relevant and engaged therefore requires ongoing skill development. To be left behind, especially as we get older, can leave us feeling as though we’re falling behind in a race where society tells us that, in any case, we’re not as fit as we once were.

Action: Commit to a specific learning goal for the next six months. Choose something that aligns with both your interests and potential career opportunities, such as mastering new software, developing a soft skill like public speaking, or deepening your industry knowledge. Select a learning method that suits your style and schedule, whether it's an online course, mentorship, or hands-on work project. Create a detailed timeline with clear milestones to keep yourself accountable, and consider finding a learning partner or mentor to share your journey. Break your goal into smaller, manageable tasks, and celebrate your progress along the way. Remember to reflect on how your new knowledge or skills can be applied in your current role or future aspirations, and be prepared to share your learning experiences with colleagues and superiors, demonstrating your proactive approach to professional development.

Summary

Purpose is a key component of motivation. The notion of recalibrating your professional trajectory can seem daunting at first. It's only natural to crave certainty and shy away from major change. But facing that fear head-on is infinitely preferable to languishing indefinitely in an unfulfilling, treading water state - a soul-sapping drain on your energy, engagement and wellbeing.

At the end of the day, work is too crucial an element of our lives to resign ourselves to mere survival mode. We all have an intrinsic drive towards growth, progression and purpose. When we feel stagnant or disconnected from our "why", it's a powerful indication that change is required to reignite our fire.

So if you've found yourself just going through the motions lately, don't ignore that inner voice urging you towards something more. Reflect, recalibrate, and start steering your professional journey proactively once more. After all, we only get one wonderfully multifaceted life – why spend it merely treading water?

If any of this resonates with you or a member of your team and you’d like a discussion as to how I can help rediscover your or their purpose, please contact me here. I’d love to help!