Separating Provision and Purpose in our Careers
It is deeply human to pine for freedom from circumstance. We are all fighting for some sort of freedom – from suffering, anger, pain, sadness, work, money etc. In the corporate world, I came across many people looking for various types of freedoms, paramount usually financial freedom.
In the realms of our careers, we have conventionally been conditioned to focus on attaining a specialization of skills or expertise, towards a long term, economically advantageous career. However, we have also pressured upon our careers, the burden of not just provision, but also a higher purpose. That marriage of purpose and provision is what we’re conditioned to believe will set us free. That conflation of purpose and provision often traps us on the burnout highway.
While that higher purpose can be attained via the realities through which we provide, the harsh truth is, the increasingly mundane and automated nature of tasks in the world means that purpose is harder and harder to find within the realm of conventional careers.
In the corporate world, individuals often expect to find karmic freedom upon the attainment of a certain level, status, salary. When this doesn’t happen, this conflation of purpose and provision is realized, often deep into pyramidical structures, smack in the middle of careers. It often creates fear led executives, lost within the weeds of niche organizational dynamics, with all their self worth tied to a position. And increasingly, with layoffs becoming so commonplace, a loss of a position, especially in the absence of another similar position, can feel like losing a big part of your identity. This cocktail of economic context, technological evolution and nature of society is creating fear based people in general.
Find freedom through a separation of purpose and provision
To be free, in the current economic context, there is a case to be made to separate your sense of purpose from what helps you provide. We have to accept that while some of us are trying to colonize Mars, many of us will be creators or hustlers, in some form. This is the beginning of a new model of labor economics, one where firms will not be in charge of increasing employment, and task / skill based gig workers will take over, creating a nimble, adaptable AI and internet driven economy. As a worker, you have to adapt or die! This has already been achieved to a large extent and will affect how future generations think about work itself.
Within a decade, it will not be possible to generally find purpose and provision within many conventionally defined career paths we have accepted as fixed. This is because rapid technological change will drive shifts in what is deemed productive in an economy. Apart from highly specialized jobs, workers will have to adapt at a breakneck pace.
To adapt to this evolving world, as a worker today, it makes sense for your emotional well being, to separate your sense of purpose from what helps you provide. Pivot your provision to being just that, something that is a means to help you find time for things that bring you purpose.
Since my layoff at Google about 2 years ago, I have explored many passions, like photography, travel, writing, mentoring and have taken steps towards monetizing them in some form. My upcoming book ‘Burnout Highway’ fulfils a lifelong dream of mine while also fulfilling my purpose of helping people through social insight. I also founded Mountains & Mahals, a travel website and Wide World View, through which I am trying to help people exist emotionally sustainably in corporate setups. All of this serves my higher purpose.
However, my provision comes through investments and trading – an area of expertise I rationally developed over years, armed with my background in Economics and Political Science, along with my past analytical experience. This separation of activities that serve my sense of purpose from activities that support my subsistence, has brought me a true state of mental freedom.
If you’re burnt out, or are feeling trapped, why not break down what serves your purpose vs what helps you provide? Doing this can help you develop a nimble set of skills that you can choose to provide for you and some that drive your purpose. And who says you can’t swap between the two to keep things fun? In the economy of today, and the rest of our lives, that menu of skills with a nimble mindset that does not conflate purpose and provision, will future proof you, and enable you to feel free.