Introduction

Increasingly, people are feeling like their lives lack a sense of meaning. Many people are looking to work to fill their lives with meaning. However, work often does not fill the meaningfulness void. When people do not find meaning in their work, they are less productive and more likely to quit. When people are able to do meaningful work, they are more physically and emotionally healthy, more satisfied with their job, more productive, less likely to quit, and the entire organization performs better. So how can people get all these great benefits from meaningful work? The common advice is to “follow your passion.” The reality is the other way around. The research on which this book is based found that people who first answer a calling to fulfill their life’s purpose then experience meaning in their work and following that become passionate about their work.