your unique work
How to find your unique work in this world
Imagine waking up on Monday morning and being excited about your work. Imagine that your work is so engaging you lose track of time because you are in a state of flow. You work for a few hours and notice that you are energized instead of drained. Then at the end of the day, you are a bit tired but it is a good tired. You notice a deep sense of satisfaction in the work you just did.
You are doing work that matters. You are making your greatest contribution to the world. Your work that helps humans thrive and flourish.
You love your work.
Deep down we all want this kind of work. Nobody aspires to be an invisible cog in some corporate machine. But many of us drift right into that.
Maybe you see that coming in your life. Or maybe you are worried that you will get stuck in your career. You want to pursue the the work you love, but you aren’t sure what choices to make now. How do you get there?
We know we are each uniquely designed by God. He has given us skills, gifts, passions, and dreams. We want to pursue the work that fits our uniqueness.
And we want to do this before it is too late. Before we lose the hope that it is possible. Before we settle into the boring routine of corporate America. Before the system rubs off what makes us unique.
The bad news is that system is working right now to make you like everyone else. The system wants to shape you into a cog to fit someone else’s machine. The shaping sounds something like this, “Don’t use any color on your resume.” “Wear this kind of shoe to the career fair.” “Wear your hair like this.” Don’t paint your nails these colors.” “At this company, we <fill in the blank>.” “Or we don’t <fill in the blank>.”
God made you for more than this. And it is not the industrial age anymore! You are not a human interchangeable part of the assembly line.
Most companies are still stuck in the industrial age mindset. They provide millions of white collar jobs that really just processing the next step in the machine. Read the binder. Follow the procedures, and I will tell you what to do next. Fill out the forms. Don’t improve it. Don’t think for yourself. Be on time. Be productive. And follow the system.
But it is not the industrial age anymore. We live in a connected economy.
You live in an unprecedented age to make your greatest contribution to the world. The world is connected like never before. You can share your gift with the world with a few clicks on your computer. You can create something and have it in front of thousands of people immediately. No factory needed. No micromanagement needed.
The greatest amount of wealth in the history of the world is flowing from person to person. As you add value to other people’s lives, some of that wealth will flow to you. As you add massive value to people’s lives, massive amounts may flow to you.
Some people in some parts of the world are in survival mode. They are not reading this. But you are. You are not in the survival group so don’t act like it. God has chosen you for something different. He gifted you with unique abilities and placed you in the middle of abundance.
You have a universe of possibilities before you. The real question is what are you going to do this opportunity?
Are you going to thrive and then help those in survival mode? Or are you going to live like you are in survival mode even though that is not the reality God has gifted to you?
I know that deep down, you want to do the work that God created you to do. You want to make your greatest contribution to the world. And you want to enjoy doing it.
You believe it is possible to find this uniquely satisfying work in the world. At least you really hope it is possible. You will not settle for mundane work for the rest of your life.
The big question is, “How do you discover the work that God uniquely created you to do? Where do you start?”
The answer is found in Ephesians 2:10. God will give the content here, and I will serve as your coach in how to walk through it. The verse says,
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Go ahead and read that again. Next, let’s do an exercise that will point you towards your unique work in this world.
1. Take a look at this verse and identity the main phrases. List the the major action phrases that are happening in this verse. Here is a hint: most people find four phrases, and the commas help.
2. Now take these action phrases in your list, and rearrange them into the order that they happen throughout all of time. Think really big picture here. What happened first, second, etc?
When I did this for the first time, I was startled by what happened first. It was not the order that I expected! I had never seen this in God’s word before.
So if you haven’t already, pause on reading this and do the simple steps of 1 and 2 above.
Now after you completed this exercise, keep reading. The truth revealed in this verse can be life changing. But you don’t just want to “know it,” you want to apply it. How next grapple with these next two questions.
3. How does the truth in this verse help you find the work that God designed you to do?
4. How does this apply to your current life direction or decisions? Does it give you any insight?
Answering these questions will uncover God’s plan for your unique work in this world. So spend as much time with these questions as needed.
And after you have done this four questions, I will unpack this verse for you as well. So only after you have discovered the answers for yourself, go and read my post: