[Essay] Having purpose in work

This is an essay I wrote few months ago for my part-time job (we had some sort of managerial training, I resigned the job later because of lack of time). I will be grateful for any feedback, bad especially!

Having purpose in work

When you go to the mall, to the bank or walk on the street, do you see people happy? Everyone is busy getting somewhere, getting angry about petty things, not noticing small but happy things in life. That mindset may as well be the result of not having a feeling or purpose at the job. Work takes a lot of our time and if you don't have more positive thoughts than negative, then you might not be completely satisfied with your life.

The need of having a purpose is important for most people. But is it more important, than say recognition from your coworkers? Well, it depends. When a person starts a job with which he or she is unfamiliared with, the praise might be more important. He doesn't know if what he's doing is even correct and the praise and recognition helps to set sails to the right direction. But after getting some experience and internalizing that what you do is indeed good, things change. When a small recognition made you a lot more confident and motivated (and opposite) in the past, now it starts to become less relevant and you focus on the meaning and purpose of your work. Is what I am doing helping the society? Who will benefit? If you come to positive conclusions, it will motivate you a lot.

But who can generate the feeling of having a purpose? The coworkers, boss or yourself? I think all three can help of it but the main person who must do it is only but yourself. And when getting more responsibility at work and seeing the bigger picture, you can get the purpose more easily. As an inexperienced person doing some little menial task it might not come as easy. But you have to start somewhere. Every great porn star had to do a gay scene once or twice to move up the ranks. Well it's not that bad but you get the point.

As for goals, is it even possible to not have them when you have purpose? I wouldn't say so. Goals enable you to stay focused. They show you the direction you need to head to. And you might not see any progress for some time and that's where purpose comes in. Having goals and purpose comes hand in hand.

Is having a purpose the only important thing? No. But it does help you a long way and if you do not have this feeling then there's room for improvement.