The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
— Henry David Thoreau
The words which Thoreau wrote in the 19th century resonate prophetically in our postmodern time. There is a quiet discontent shared by the vast majority of men, who feel —in one way or another— cheated or betrayed by a system that has provided them with no professional opportunities to do something truly meaningful.
Perhaps you are one of the lucky (or rather blessed) ones who feel as though the work they do has some kind of higher purpose. If that’s the case, you are probably the exception. Most have instead chosen to accept with resignation their work as an inescapable ordeal to endure, as a way to trade off their energy and their time for nothing else than a necessary paycheck to provide for themselves and their families. This apathy is evident in the eyes of all men who, once full of fire, ambition, and hope, now reflect the gray hue of corporate ridiculousness, of empty job titles and bland office buildings.
There’s no point in sugarcoating it, because it’s true that most modern jobs can very easily drain and emasculate a man, especially those which are, by nature, immersed in the world of HR politics, corporate speak and bureaucracies. Postmodern jobs are indeed responsible to some degree for the epidemic of purposelessness plaguing men in the western world, but it would be lazy to lay the full blame at their doorstep and thus choose to believe ourselves to be mere victims of the times.
I say this in an effort to instill in you a spark of hope, because even if you are one of the many who feel cheated into a purposeless, superficial job, you can choose to find in it, even in the most seemingly meaningless of occupations, a sense of purpose that will not only make it bearable, but a source of contentment.
Of course, a seemingly useless job won’t become purposeful overnight. No, it takes a little bit more time than that. It also requires some effort and the courageous choice to believe that life isn’t meaningless, that work can serve to sanctify you, and that you actually have much more control over your circumstances than you realize. But it can be done, and here’s how:
Principles
Before we move into the practical steps, there are some fundamental principles that we need to understand in order to truly be able to change the way we approach our work:
1. Your soul is in your keeping alone.
A King may move a man, a father may claim a son, but remember that even when those who move you be Kings, or men of power, your soul is in your keeping alone.
When you stand before God, you cannot say, “But I was told by others to do thus.” Or that, “Virtue was not convenient at the time.”
This will not suffice. Remember that.
— King Baldwin IV in Kingdom of Heaven
Circumstances do not excuse you from practicing virtue. Yes, some things are beyond your control. Yes, some men have been dealt worse cards. Yes, perhaps right now you feel enslaved and as though you have no control over your circumstances. None of that excuses you from trying. None of that gives you a valid reason to accept your fate with apathy and roll over to wait for death.
You are not a victim, and freedom is something the Lord has given us as a permanent gift. Your circumstances might be difficult, but the most important kind of freedom cannot be taken away from you, that last human freedom that Viktor Frankl (1946) wrote about: the freedom to choose your attitude regardless of the circumstances.
2. There is always something to be grateful for.
Even the most boring job would be a blessing to someone who has it worse. That’s more than enough reason to at least try to find in it the things that warrant gratitude, even if it’s just being thankful for the opportunity to put bread on your table. If things could be worse, that means that you have some things which you can be grateful for. Focus on those.
3. You can aim for better without hating where you’re at.
Having a healthy ambition while simultaneously feeling at peace where you’re at is possible and desirable. Ambition doesn’t need to go against gratitude when it’s properly ordered.
Thus, there are two goals you must accomplish before you can find purpose in your work: one, regaining your ambition so you can see your current state as just one temporary step of an upwards facing ladder, and two, learning to be at peace with the current state of things, seeking to extract the lessons God wishes to teach you and attempting to thank Him for the blessings you do have at this present time.
4. No job defines your worth.
I believe —and you can thank social media for this— that one of the main reasons behind almost everyone feeling dissatisfied with their professional lives is that we are constantly being bombarded by examples of people who (supposedly) have it better than us. It’s normal to feel inadequate at a job that is often boring and hard (even though all jobs are) when all you see on LinkedIn are pictures and posts of people “living their best life”.
But the main disorder that hides behind that feeling of dissatisfaction is that we have grown used to tying our identities to our job titles. Thus, we feel as though we are personally being attacked when someone else has a “cooler” job, because it attacks our sense of worth, which is tied to whatever our occupation is.
Your job shouldn’t be the foundation of your identity. It will be extremely difficult to ever be content with your occupation if you are constantly struggling to derive a sense of worth from it.
Your value comes from being a child of God, made in His image. Should you seek virtue? Yes. Should you seek to put your talents to better use? Yes. Should you look for a job that you enjoy? Sure. But you can do all of that without tying your worth to your occupation.
5. Everything can serve to sanctify you.
Every little effort can be your path to sanctification. When you catch yourself complaining about having to do work that you don’t like, pause for a moment and remind yourself: “this is my sanctification.” You can ask God to turn your frustrations and worries into graces and you will start to receive from any job much more than a mere paycheck.
Whatsoever you do, do it from the heart, as to the Lord, and not to men.
— Colossians 3:23
Now, onto the practical. There are three main causes of job dissatisfaction, and they are all psychological and somewhat easy to fix once you know what they are. I’ll explain them and then move on to the specific steps you can take right now to make your current job not only bearable but actually purposeful.