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 What You Want to Do: Work That Has Meaning
Once you have mental (or, better, written) lists of what you CAN do and what you LIKE to do, what do you WANT to do? Of course, you want to do what you like to do and it may seem there is no difference, but we are using "want" in its deeper, more meaningful sense. You WANT to do things that give your life meaning, that provide inner satisfaction, that rate high on your scale of personal values.
Looking into the past will help you identify what you want to do just as it helped identify what you can do and like to do. Surprisingly, for many of us, our work is what we wanted to do. It's easy to understand how people in the "helping" professions--doctors, nurses, teachers, ministers and the like--find meaning in their work. But accountants, salespeople, factory workers--even lawyers--often report finding a deep sense of meaning in their work. They feel that they are providing a service that other people need, and they are earning a paycheck to support their family, which has great personal value for them. When these people retire, however, they can feel bereft--they are stripped of their work and their paycheck, and their sense of self-worth can quickly deteriorate.
Some of us did not find meaning in our work. Bolles and Nelson point out: "As people age, they are increasingly likely to question whether their lives had meaning. When the answer is no, the result is often despair. Retirement can be a major blow for such people. If they never found meaning during their careers, they may now fear that it's too late to ever do so."
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