Purpose isn’t something you FIND, it’s something you CULTIVATE.

The idea that you can “find your purpose” can be obstructive in the quest for a meaningful life and career. It can mean you get lost in rumination rather than taking the actions that will lead to clarity. Navel-gazing on the sofa isn’t going to get you there but you can waste so much time trying (years in my case!)

And yet, purpose matters. A lot…

As I write this, I’m sitting at a table in a kitchen with three other lovely local women having a ‘coworking’ afternoon. We met through choir and barely knew each other before today, but decided to do this because we were all feeling isolated in our various remote work set-ups.

Here in the UK, the end of lockdown is finally in sight, but with many employers telling their staff that remote working is now permanent policy (a survey of 278 execs by McKinsey in August 2020 found that on average, they planned to reduce office space by 30%), it’s important to put measures in place to protect your home-working wellbeing.

I’ve been WFH for a number of years now, and these are some of things I’ve found helpful.

I’m speaking to so many people at the moment who have been using the last few months of lockdown to reassess their work situation and what they want from their careers. It’s an irony and a challenge of the current climate that while the enforced pause has prompted many to realise that their current jobs have not been fulfilling them, it’s also potentially a tricky time to find something else.

So what can you do if you are desperate for more meaning in your work but, for now, you feel you have to stay put in your current job?

Why do we value the work of someone caring for our car more highly than the work of someone caring for our children?

This is the question I heard someone ask on the Radio 4 programme ‘Woman’s Hour’ this morning, and it really knocked me for six.

Of course, I’ve thought about this before – how what is seen traditionally in this country as ‘woman’s work’ – childcare, cleaning, possibly even teaching – is somehow seen as less valuable than the traditionally male pursuits of say, managing finances and fixing things.

There’s no doubt about it, wherever you are in the world and whatever your circumstances, the future feels pretty uncertain right now. Nobody, not even our political leaders seem to know how long this health crisis is going to go on for, or how it is likely to affect our economy.

In the midst of these worrying times, it can be tempting to sit tight and to stay with what is known and safe, while we wait to see what is going to happen.

AND, what I’d argue is that the people who will thrive in the new reality in which we will eventually find ourselves will be those who have started preparing themselves and their career for the future.

[…] If you really want to make sure that this is the year that everything changes for you, you’re going to need a bigger and more fundamental shift in how you are approaching your career change. You need a rocket up the proverbial backside as big as the one I had when I became a mother last year - one that completely shifts your priorities and your beliefs about what’s possible.

Are you hiding your light under a bushel? Do you feel like a catherine wheel that’s never been taken out of its plastic wrapping and is sitting in a box somewhere in someone’s attic?

I write this in the UK on the day leading up to Guy Fawkes Night, when the sky comes alive with explosive beauty and colour, and normally quiet residential streets resound with a fizzing cacophony of bangs and booms.

Who’s on your team? Do you have people you can reach out to when the going gets tough?

 If you’re planning a career change, you’ve got to get a supportive tribe around you. You probably wouldn’t try and organise a wedding all by yourself and a career change is potentially a far more complex and challenging project.

What are your career priorities right now and how do they differ from previous stages of your life? What do you think will matter to you in the future that isn’t so important now?

Last week I was in a card shop picking up a “new baby” card for a friend, when I realised I also needed to buy one for a funeral (of a very dear ex-colleague) and a wedding – all of which took place in the same crazy week. Also last week, I was speaking to a friend whose children are just about at the stage of going off to university, leaving her with the exciting, but also potentially daunting, possibility of completely re-shaping her life and self-image, no longer bound to the primary role of parent. Unsurprisingly, these experiences got me thinking a lot about life and the “big questions”…