You Don’t Find Purpose at Work—You Create It
From the very beginning of my career, I was searching for purpose.
While many of my Gen X peers pursued stable, high-paying jobs and the corporate ladder, I wanted something different. I wanted to save the world. Idealistic? Absolutely. But I was determined to find meaning in my work.
Even through my early years of entry level jobs, I stayed committed to that ideal. I eventually went to law school—still holding tight to purpose as my north star. I wasn’t interested in prestige or power. I wanted to dedicate my life to clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment for all.
So for decades, my career strategy was clear: pursue purpose by aligning with the mission of the organizations I worked for.
But here’s what I’ve come to learn—purpose doesn’t come from your organization. It comes from you.
Purpose isn’t given—it’s activated
The biggest shift for me was realizing that purpose is not something your job hands you, even if you work in a mission-driven organization. It’s something you create based on what you believe to be meaningful.
You activate purpose when you bring your unique gifts and energy to your work. It shows up in how you connect with people, how you approach problems, and how you deliver impact in a way only you can.
In fact, even in a “meh” job, you can feel a strong sense of purpose—not because of the mission, but because of how you show up.
One of the biggest myths about work is that we care deeply about what organization we work for. What we really care about is who we work with. We care about whether our team has our back and whether our manager sees us.
A powerful example: finding meaning in unlikely places
A 2001 study of hospital housekeepers revealed something remarkable about how people find purpose at work—not through official job descriptions, but through how they actively shape their roles.
Researchers Jane Dutton and Amy Wrzesniewski discovered that some housekeepers had intuitively reimagined their jobs in three key ways:
Task crafting – They changed the scope or nature of their tasks. One housekeeper rearranged patient photos and personal items to bring comfort. Another took extra care in cleaning rooms of particularly vulnerable patients—not because it was required, but because it mattered.
Relational crafting – They deepened their interactions with patients, families, and staff. Some chose to spend more time talking with patients or comforting families, seeing themselves as an emotional support—not just custodial staff.
Cognitive crafting – They reframed how they thought about their work. One said, “I’m an ambassador for the hospital.” Another shared, “I help patients heal.” Their roles hadn’t changed—but their mindset had.
These housekeepers didn’t wait for someone to assign them more meaningful work—they created it. They took agency in how they performed, connected, and thought about their roles. And as a result, they reported feeling more engaged, motivated, and fulfilled—even in a job that others might overlook.
The 20% rule: you don’t need to love everything
Did they love every part of the job? Of course not. But research shows that if you love just 20% of what you do, that’s enough to feel more engaged and fulfilled.
Marcus Buckingham, workplace expert and author of Nine Lies About Work, calls these moments “red threads”—the parts of your job that light you up. He encourages us to ask:
Was I excited to work last week?
Did I get to use my strengths every day?
Did I do something I love?
These “red threads” may be brief, but they matter. They are clues to the kind of work that brings you alive.
You have more agency than you think
This is where professionals—especially those in professional (aka white-collar) roles—have an incredible opportunity. Most of us have far more flexibility than we realize to shape how we work, even if we can’t change what we work on.
You can shift the way you approach tasks. You can deepen relationships. You can reframe the meaning behind what you do.
So if you’re feeling disconnected from your work, the solution may not be to reconnect with your organization’s mission which may feel far away from what you do every day. It might be to reconnect with how you’re showing up—moment to moment, day by day.
Where purpose actually lives
You’ll find purpose in the way you:
Support a colleague in a 1:1 who really needs your help.
Unpack a pile of data and tell a story with it.
Lead a meeting that helps the team align toward a shared goal.
Solve a problem that makes someone else’s job easier.
And above all, you’ll find purpose by paying attention to those red threads—and making sure they show up at least 20% of the time.
Try this reflection
Let me leave you with a few questions. When was the last time…
You lost track of time doing something?
You felt completely in control?
You surprised yourself with how well you did?
Someone had to pull you away from what you were working on?
You didn’t want the activity to end?
The answers to these questions are not just interesting—they’re revealing. They point to the places where your purpose lives. And often, they’re closer than you think.