CHAPTER 9Aligned Meaning and Purpose
Purpose has been a bit of a buzzword over the last few years (for good reason) and sometimes people mistakenly think it belongs on the happiness side of the employee engagement and happiness triangle. However, our purpose in life and work is associated with the direction system of our brain. It is partly why, when people feel they don't have a purpose, they describe it as being lost in life.
Purpose is key to direction and our brains need it to function in a high‐performance way.
What Are Meaning and Purpose?
Meaning denotes something of personal value and importance, offering information or an experience that's relevant to making sense of our life journey. Purpose addresses the “why” question: it represents the perceived reason for doing something, offering the potential of a result that's personally relevant and sustaining. Meaning is more of an internal motivator, while purpose is something we can take into the world.
Meaning and purpose provide humans with a connection, it's why we attach ourselves to organizations and causes. This is evidenced by looking at the Meaning and Purpose scores by sector in The Happiness Index study. The Health and Well‐being sector was by far the highest‐scoring sector, with an average score of 8.9. This is because workers in this sector felt “inspired” by their work and were highly “committed” to helping ...
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