Why Seeing Your Career as Purpose Leads to Success

There are numerous and significant benefits for individuals who feel their career fulfills their purpose. These include being more deeply engaged in their work, being more effective team players, being more committed to their occupations and organizations, and being more satisfied overall.

Career as Calling

People who perceive their career to be in line with their purpose view their career as a calling. And those who pursue a career as a calling have: - Greater confidence in their own ability to make correct career decisions - Greater intrinsic work motivation - More meaning in life - Greater commitment to their careers, team members, and employers

Purpose not only improves quality of life for the individual — it also creates major value for society and the economy.

Purpose Closes the Achievement Gap

There is a stubborn achievement gap between privileged and underprivileged youth. Professor Jane Pizzolato of UCLA suggested that a feeling of positive purpose may contribute to greater student achievement.

In a study at a low-income high school in Pennsylvania, thirty students went through a purpose and control intervention program. The results were remarkable: the median GPA of participating students increased from 2.58 to 2.77, compared to the control group's modest increase from 2.57 to 2.66. The increase was directly associated with the increase in purpose the students experienced.

Purpose Breeds Control

When a student finds their purpose, they also become empowered to take control of their lives. They no longer feel that they are going to school because they are being forced to. Rather, they feel they are doing so because it will lead to their own self-identified positive purpose. They are making the decisions about their own education and future — they are in control.

The Connection Between Passion and Purpose

Peter Benson convincingly argued that each human is born with what he termed a "Spark" — the development of which is necessary if they are to thrive. Benson and his colleagues at the Search Institute found that youth who know their sparks, compared to those without, have:

1. Higher grades in school 2. Higher school attendance 3. Are more likely to be socially competent 4. Are more likely to be healthy physically 5. Are more likely to volunteer 6. Are more likely to have a sense of purpose 7. Are more likely to report "I am on the road to a hopeful future" 8. Are less likely to experience depression 9. Are less likely to engage in acts of violence

16 Things That Foster Purpose in Youth

Research has identified sixteen things empirically proven to cultivate purpose:

1. In-depth discussion about purpose with students 2. Engagement of entire school communities — staff, families, and students 3. Long-term approaches rather than one-shot lessons 4. Teachers integrating purpose into their classes 5. Positive youth development programs 6. Experiential and service learning activities 7. Goal-directed activity with like-minded peers and adults 8. Youth engaging in goal identification themselves 9. Reflecting on how current activities relate to purposeful goals 10. Connection between classroom and community 11. Identifying steps needed to achieve purposeful goals 12. Active participation — purpose cannot be found for them 13. Knowing which tools they will need to reach their goals 14. Seeing the direct path to their purposeful goals 15. Interacting with adults who have different jobs than their parents 16. Being exposed to adults who model purpose

Our Approach

Our process has two parts: Part one identifies the individual's "shape" based on their passions and character strengths. Part two guides them to figure out where their shape uniquely fits in the world, and therefore what they are able to uniquely contribute.

The result? When people engage fully in this process, their self-assessment scores go up dramatically — and more importantly, they find a direction that truly fits who they are.