When it comes to developing your career, you’ve heard the advice: Define your values, follow your passion, and find your purpose. But we all know following this advice isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Identifying and understanding our values, passion, and purpose takes introspection and self-discovery. It requires us to examine our beliefs and motivations to gain clarity on what truly matters to us. And that’s only the first step.
Once you understand what you actually want, it’s another challenge to apply those aspirations to your career. Should you follow your passion or purpose? What if your values clash with your dream job? Is there a way to align your vision of a fulfilling career with the job market?
The only way to answer these questions is to truly understand the concepts of values, passion, and purpose, clarify your own perspective on each, and reflect on what they mean for you and your career.
Values
Think of your values as the foundation for your passion and purpose — they define what is important to you and thereby can influence the passions you pursue and the purpose you seek to fulfill.
Your values are yours answers to questions like “What is important for you in life?” or “What are your nonnegotiables?” Having an answer to these questions will bring clarity and direction when it comes to making decisions about your career and can help you balance when you feel frustrated or overwhelmed.
Defining your values
To define your values, start by writing down the things in your life that matter to you most. Maybe it’s friends, family, financial stability, creativity, sustainability — it’s entirely up to you.
As you think of your list, it’s important to be honest with yourself and focus on what is truly fundamental for you. Don’t worry about what values will make you look good in the eyes of others — you never have to show anyone your list if you don’t want to.
Once you have a list of words, it’s important to also define what those words mean to you. You’re not looking for the textbook definition — you’re looking for an explanation of each value that is useful to you. For example, the way I define my value of happiness (the joy in the process of what I am doing) might be different from how you would define it.
Know that it might take time to find and stabilize your values. It took me a year of ongoing reflection before I felt firm on mine. You might start with a set of values, and months later, end up with a very different list. And it’s likely that they will change as your grow in your life and career.
Even so, it’s important that once you’ve defined your values that you know them by heart. Here is a test for yourself: If I woke you up in the middle of the night and asked you what your values are, would you be able to list them? If you can, you’re more likely to use them in an effective manner.
Using your values
Finding and defining your values requires hard work, but that is just the beginning. Values are not just abstract concepts — they should manifest in your actions, decisions, and behaviors. When your values are in alignment with your actions, you will experience greater satisfaction and authenticity. To reap the benefits of value identification, you also need to live by them day in and day out.
Let’s consider the hypothetical example of Val — a recent graduate. One of Val’s core values is freedom. For her, freedom is about having independence in her actions and decision-making. This is a nonnegotiable for her. She found that when she was micromanaged in her internships, she would leave feeling unhappy and underutilized. People told her that this is just what it’s like when you’re early in your career — you need to follow the rules if you want to advance. She understood that she might not have total freedom to pursue the exact career or roles she wanted, but she knew it’d be possible to find a job that would allow her the freedom to create initiatives or act on her ideas. When she began interviewing for jobs, she made it a point to ask her interviewers questions about how tasks are delegated, how new ideas are processed, and what room there would be for growth. Based on their answers, she was able to weed out organizations and managers that were likely to infringe on her value of freedom.
Passion
Passion is what drives you to explore and engage in activities aligned with your values. Fundamental to passion is the strong and intense emotional drive that fuels its pursuit. It’s the deep, fervent interest and enjoyment you derive from a particular activity, cause, or field.
And it’s this emotion that often creates a high level of commitment to one’s passion, even when times are hard. Take the many artists that continue to pursue their passion for art even if they never see the financial benefits during their lifetimes.
Finding your passion
Passion often arises from within, driven by personal interests and desires. It’s something you do because you genuinely love it, not necessarily because of external rewards or expectations. When you’re passionate about something, you’re naturally drawn to it, and the mere act of engaging in that activity or pursuing that interest becomes intrinsically rewarding.
What activities or pursuits in your life bring you a sense of joy and fulfillment just by engaging in them without any external rewards or pressures? Will you still do that thing even if nobody is watching or nobody will ever find out about it? If so, that is an indicator that you are truly passionate about it.
Keep in mind that you can have multiple passions in different areas of your life. For example, you may be passionate about painting, cooking, and environmental conservation. It can feel overwhelming to have multiple passions, but know that you don’t have to choose (unless you really want to). You can prioritize and re-prioritize them and make space for all of your passions in different proportions and at different times throughout your life. You may choose one to pursue in your career, and focus on others outside of work. Or, you may follow one passion at the beginning of your career, and make a shift later in order to satisfy a different one.
Using your passion
Knowing what you’re passionate about can guide you in many different ways — from helping you find a career you’ll love, to deciding on what moves to make on your path, to balancing your work and life.
Take the hypothetical example of Nisha. For as long as she could remember, Nisha’s friends felt comfortable talking to her about their problems, and Nisha loved being that sounding board for them. She was deeply passionate about helping others and knew she wanted to pursue a career connected to people. When the time came for her to choose a career path, she resisted her family’s suggestion of going into finance and insisted on exploring a career where she could directly work to support others. She learned more about psychology and discovered that being a therapist closely aligned with her passion. This helped guide her as she made decisions about her college major, whether or not to attend graduate school, and what roles would be fulfilling.
Purpose
Purpose is a broader and more profound concept that encapsulates how your values and passions come together.
It is your deeper reason for existence — it’s a sense of meaning and direction in life that goes beyond personal enjoyment or fulfillment. Purpose often involves contributing to the greater good or serving a cause larger than yourself.
Discovering your purpose
In order to find your purpose, ask yourself questions like “What do I believe is the ultimate reason for my existence?” or “What social or environmental issues do I feel strongly about and in what ways can my skills, passions, or resources contribute to addressing these issues?” These are big questions that might require time to process, so don’t rush.
Your purpose will likely be more focused and singular compared to your passion. It represents a specific, overarching goal or mission — it’s not a vague notion, but a clear and concrete objective that gives your life direction and meaning.
Think of your purpose as a mission statement for your life. For example, somebody’s purpose might be to alleviate poverty in their community by providing financial resources to micro-entrepreneurs. In that case, they might target jobs in banking or other financial institutions so they can learn the system from the inside.
Using your purpose
Like your values, your purpose can help guide your actions and serve as a constant reference point for decision-making in your career. It can be a helpful guidepost for long-term planning, helping you understand your career in the context of what you ultimately want to achieve or the legacy you want to leave behind.
Take the hypothetical example of Paola, who identified her purpose as improving accessibility for people with disabilities. Paola was unhappy in her career, so when it came time to rethink her path, she considered her purpose. Her passion for nature also drew her focus to accessibility at national parks, so she began thinking through ways to pursue this opportunity. She could try to find a job directly in the National Park System. She could work for an advocacy group or the government to influence policies and funding. Or she could work for a company that designs infrastructure for people with disabilities. Given these options, she also considered her values — which path would allow her to also fulfill her values of financial stability and family?
Know that using your purpose for career decision-making may require you to prioritize your mission over short-term gains or comforts. Make sure you’re clear on your nonnegotiables (aka your values) and the sacrifices you’re willing to make to fulfill your purpose.
Harmony and Tension between Values, Passion, Purpose
In summary, values are your non-negotiable foundation, passion is about what excites and motivates you, and purpose is your deeper reason for existence. These concepts are deeply interconnected, and aligning them will give you the best chance at having a fulfilling life and career.
But having perfect alignment isn’t always possible. It’s likely that you’ll encounter challenges in trying to live by your values, pursue your passion, and find your purpose. They may clash with each other — you may value financial security, but your passion is playing live music. They may clash with your current skills — your passion is video game development, but you didn’t go to school for computer science. Or they may clash with the current job market — your purpose is to fight poverty and leave the world better than you found it, but finding a nonprofit job is harder than you expected.
Still, there are steps you can take to get closer to that alignment. If you are an accountant who enjoys playing music, you can get a job as an accountant in a music production company and play music on the weekends. If you’re in sales but want to develop video games, you can get a sales job at a video game company while building your skills. And if you’re looking to make a difference in the world while still making money, consider a job that can offer you financial stability and the ability to donate to nonprofits.
As you navigate advice around your career and applying these concepts, know that it’s okay not to have all of them perfectly defined or aligned. You may need to prioritize them based on what’s most useful to you in this current moment. There will be times when your values are driving you forward, and other times it will be your passion or purpose.
The truth is, “values,” “passion,” and “purpose” are just words — they will impact your life depending on the meaning you assign to them. It’s up to you to discover what they mean for you and your career.
