Making Your Work Meaningful

Does your work feel meaningful? Do you want it to? Here are some practical ways to go about it - for yourself, your team, those you serve, and beyond.

Jul 16, 2025

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Twenty-two years ago, when I first started my business to help people engage in meaningful work and purposeful lives, I spent a lot of time educating organizations on the business case for supporting employees in finding meaning and purpose in what they do. ‘That sounds nice,’ I’d hear frequently, ‘but we’ve got more pressing issues.’

Nowadays, thanks to increasing research, numerous workplace studies, companies reeling from the costs of the ‘great resignation’ and ‘quiet quitting,’ and a generation of employees asking about meaning and purpose at work before they even sign on, smart businesses are already well aware of how creating an environment of meaning and purpose benefits them in countless ways. I’m still happy to educate, but I’m even happier that meaningful work has become part of the everyday ‘let’s take action’ conversation rather than the ‘wouldn’t that be nice’ one.

Beyond The Myths

For a while - and maybe even still today, to some extent - we’d hear about workplace ping pong tables and periodic food trucks as if they were miracle cures for low engagement, employee dissatisfaction, turnover, and burnout. And while such features can bring moments of happiness (I can’t help but think of the ‘pretzel day’ episode of The Office as I type this!), they won’t necessarily do much for sustainable engagement. We might compare that to eating a piece of broccoli every few months and expecting that alone to be enough to sustain our health.

According to Gallup1, nearly 80% of employees worldwide are not engaged - or are actively disengaged - at work. The business impacts of this include decreased productivity and profitability, increased absenteeism and turnover, and a whole host of other costly outcomes.

And what has Gallup found to improve engagement? Here’s a line from that same article on their website:

“People want purpose and meaning from their work. They want to be known for what makes them unique. This is what drives employee engagement.”

Whether you lead a company, department, or team - or whether you simply want to improve your own sense of meaning and purpose at work - read on for practical ideas to begin bringing that reality to life.

Making Work Meaningful

Gallup’s research has led them to identify five key drivers of engagement - and guess what the very first one they list is?

Purpose.

They go on to describe this as “doing work that feels meaningful and mission-driven.”

Driver #2 on their list: Development - or “having opportunities to learn and grow.”

These key drivers align with what I’ve experienced in my work as well, which is what my purpose coaching addresses (you can learn more here). But whether or not you enroll in coaching, there are steps you can begin taking immediately to bring greater meaning to work.

First and foremost, I’d suggest starting by defining what ‘meaningful work’ means to you. (And for leaders, helping your individual team members do this as well.) You might think this seems superfluous, because doesn’t it mean the same thing everywhere, to everyone?

Well, no.

In their book True Work, Michael Toms and Justine Willis Toms discuss work that makes you wake up feeling good about starting your day and having a sense of contribution. Cal Newport talks about deep work (and wrote an excellent book of the same name), where instead of scratching the surface of a million different things, you spend time engaged in meaningful focus and depth in your subject matter. I’ve had clients describe meaningful work as everything from ‘knowing that what I do makes even one life better’ to ‘leaving a legacy by design’ to ‘changing the world.’

While we can look up definitions of meaningful work in various sources, we also want to personalize our definition so it strikes a chord deep within us - not just tell us what it ‘should’ look like.

So, ask yourself what meaningful work means to you. How can you tell if work is meaningful? What evidence might you see? How does it feel differently to work that doesn’t seem meaningful? At the end of the workday, how would you assess whether you engaged in meaningful work? At your retirement party or your 95th birthday party, what would make you look back and say, ‘Ah, yes, my work has been meaningful’?

(I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about your potential responses to these questions! Powerful stuff.)

Here are a few more ideas, which you can adapt as either a group/team leader or as an individual:

1. Participate in, seek out, request, and/or initiate growth opportunities.

Keeping your definition of meaningful work in mind, engage in opportunities that support your purposeful growth and development. Examples might include:

Working with a coach
Participating in a mentoring program
Earning a new certification in your field
Enrolling in a course or conference to expand your knowledge
Attending or arranging lunch-and-learn opportunities
Launching a personal growth book club
Joining a mastermind group

I could go on and on - the possibilities are endless! Consider where you most want to grow, learn, or expand your skills/knowledge, then brainstorm from there.

2. Keep a Success Journal.

Even if you’re not a fan of journaling, hear me out. I’ve been recommending keeping a Success Journal to clients for over two decades, and the vast majority have found them helpful - even if they shuddered a bit at the word ‘journaling’ first! :-)

Unlike many forms of journaling, a Success Journal takes around two minutes (at most) and can reap benefits immediately and for years to come. Pull out a special notebook or start a new note on your phone. Then, every day for the next three weeks, jot down one win you experienced that day - in this case, something that felt meaningful or delighted you about your work that day. Maybe it was an opportunity you had to utilize one of your favorite strengths, or a conversation that felt forward-moving and difference-making, or the fact that you finally hit ‘send’ on an email that you were nervous about but knew was important. A quick bullet point is all you need.

After just a few weeks, you’ll have an entire list - written proof - of your successes. This can, first of all, clue you in further to what makes work meaningful for you. For example, do you notice that several of your points reference connecting with a customer in a positive way? Or completing a project or task that at first you weren’t sure you could? Or having solution-oriented conversations rather than avoiding problems? Or collaborating with others? Or learning something new? See if you notice any patterns in your list and consider what that might mean for making your work even more meaningful.

Second, you may notice you’ve started seeking out wins so you’ll have something to document, which has prompted a more positive approach to your days and your experiences. This mindset shift can become more and more second-nature the more you engage in the practice.

And third, reviewing your list before an important discussion, interview, or even just when you’re having a challenging day can provide an incredible boost in your own morale. I’ve gone from ‘Am I doing anything right anymore?!’ to ‘Oh yeah, I forgot about all these wins that show me I’m doing plenty right!’ in a matter of mere minutes with my Success Journal.

3. Start with one.

Although a complete overhaul can feel exhilarating, it’s not always possible - and also doesn’t tend to lead to sustainable success. But don’t underestimate the power of one small change taken consistently over time.

In this instance, I’m suggesting you choose one of your core values, then look for ways to bring it to life every day. For example, one of my core values is respect. If I have this top of mind throughout my workday, I am going to look for ways I can respond to comments respectfully, I will write articles and posts that encourage respectful dialogue, I respect the intelligence of my clients and readers, I will pause and ask myself how I can approach any given situation with respect. In other words, I will bring respect to the forefront in whatever ways I can.

And by honoring my core value so fully, I will naturally feel more aligned with what I’m doing and how I’m doing it, which in turn can make even the smallest aspect of my work more meaningful.

Even if I switched careers and held a role other than professional coach, respect is something I can practice anywhere and at any time. I can be respectful of other drivers and of my passengers if I’m driving a cab, I can treat my customers with respect if I’m serving food at a restaurant, I can listen and speak with respect if I am leading a community meeting.

And in this way, when we live out our core values and honor what matters most, nearly all work can become meaningful work.

Know someone who could benefit from this article? It’s available to all - feel free to share.

One of the biggest difference-makers for me and so many of my clients involves writing a personal purpose statement, then intentionally living that out at work (and everywhere else). I encourage you to give this a go as well. And again, if you’d like help with this process, consider enrolling in purpose coaching here.

Your work matters - whether paid employment, volunteer service, raising a family, caregiving, or something else. Of that, I am certain and have no doubt. I hope this article helps you know that as well, and also provides ideas for making it even more meaningful and purposeful to you. So much of meaningful work depends on the meaning we give it - and when you think of the number of hours you give your work, spending a bit of time to ensure it’s meaningful is time well spent.

Thank you for who you are, and for what you do. Here’s to your meaningful work and purposeful life!

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Reading And Purpose

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