“Your Meaningful Work” Statement
For the past four days, you’ve come up with a list of your values, talents and gifts, interests, and audience; now, it’s time for you to construct ONE SENTENCE that sums up “Your Meaningful Work” – a statement that describes what you’d like to do and who you’d like to help, based on the things that are most important to you and the things you’re good at and like to do. In addition, you will have the option to include the effect/outcome of your meaningful work on others.
As you construct your statement, you should focus on using only one or two of your values, talents and gifts, interests, and audiences for your statement. Adding more than two options for each category for your sentence tends to make Your Meaningful Work Statement a little unwieldy. You may prefer to write several meaningful work statements, to see which ones resonate with your heart and soul most.
Just remember that your statement must be just ONE SENTENCE – but it can be a really long one!
Sentence Template
If you aren’t sure how to start or write for your statement, use the following template as a starting point to create your statement. You will just need to use the words chosen from the previous activities and insert in the template below:
“Knowing that I value (values) and have talents and gifts in (talents and gifts), I will use my interests in (interests) to help/serve (audience) so that they/in order for them to (achieve some benefit, achieve some level of success, overcome some obstacle, make a positive choice in their life, etc.).
If the template is too confining, just use the sentence completion below to write your statement:
“My meaningful work…”
On “Your Meaningful Work Worksheet,” use the space under “Meaningful Work Statement” to write your statement in one sentence, based on the four previous activities.
Bill’s Meaningful Work Statement
“Knowing that I value personal growth and wisdom and have talents and gifts in future-thinking and bringing out the best in others, I will use my interests in self-help, personal growth, and well-being to help/serve students, faculty, and staff in higher education to achieve more than they ever thought possible.”
“My meaningful work allows me to take my love for self-help, personal growth, and well-being and empower students, faculty and staff in higher education to discover their purpose and identify their most heartfelt dreams to create a vision for a bright future and a meaningful life.”
Once you create your statement, share it with those that know you best to see if they believe your statement aligns with who you are. Your meaningful work may not only describe what you do, but it may also describe who you are. And it will definitely be a great starting point to describe your “why” for being on this planet!
Feel free to share Your Meaningful Work Statement in the comments section.
DO NOT GO ON TO THE NEXT SECTION UNTIL YOU HAVE COMPLETED YOUR MEANINGFUL WORK STATEMENT!!!
Now that you’ve completed your meaningful work statement, it’s time to give your statement a test – a test to see if it’s truly your meaningful work! For the next six questions, answer YES or NO – maybe is not accepted!
- Could you do this meaningful work if you had to start out making little money, like minimum wage?
- Could you love engaging in this meaningful work on a daily basis?
- Could this meaningful work inspire you to get out of bed most mornings?
- Could this meaningful work allow you to use your gifts, talents, and/or strengths on a regular basis?
- Could you see time flying by when engaged in this meaningful work?
- Could you see the possibility of making more money doing this meaningful work?
If you answered YES for all 6 questions, you are on your way toward doing your meaningful work. If you have 5 or less, review your NO answers; are your NO answers things you can control or cannot control? And would would need to happen to turn your NO into a YES? For example, if your NO is to Question 1, you may need to find a way to earn additional income doing this meaningful work. Or, maybe you can accept minimum wage at the start, knowing that you will get an increase in pay at some point in the near future. You may even have several meaningful work statements that are equally compelling for you. My advice – start with one right now!
You have now completed the five days of activities used to identify Your Meaningful Work.
We’ve used the “Your Meaningful Work” results to help students choose major, minors, jobs, even create side businesses in the Design Your Life I (What Could I Do With My Life) and II (Creating Meaningful Experience Through Coaching) classes, as well as the Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurship class.
If you’d like to experience these activities, as well as many, many more activities/tools focused on helping students get clear about their purpose in life and creating a compelling, dream-directed vision for their future, consider attending a Purpose and Vision Navigator Certification Training Program. For more information about the training, click on this link: https://thedreamdean.wordpress.com/purpose-and-vision-navigator-certificate-program/
Thank you for participating in these activities, please feel free to share your thoughts or suggestions in the comments section or privately at whjohnso@uncg.edu.
The Dream Dean 
Knowing that I value health, happiness, and personal growth, and have talents and gifts in caring for others and coming up with new ideas, I will use my interests in care and aging to help serve people with dementia in order for them to continue to stay engaged in their lives in meaningful ways.
My meaningful work allows me to use my passion for personal growth, aging, and innovative thinking to support the quality of life for people with dementia and those who live with them. It allows me to exercise new ways of thinking about dementia and happiness which will change the way society views and interacts with people with dementia.
Your statements sound SO clear as to your next direction! Now it’s time for you to take your meaningful work statement and turn it into ideas using the calling connection worksheet. Look forward to hearing more! Keep up the great work!
My mission is to help people plan meaningful programs that positively connect, engage, and develop the communities that they live in. 🙂
So, my friend Chelsea, what are the meaningful programs yo plan to help people develop in order to connect and engage? Can’t wait to hear more!
Knowing that I value integrity and excellence, and have talents in networking/analyzing data, I will use my interests in foreign policy to serve the American public, so that threats of terrorism in the United States remain low.
Knowing that I value fairness, autonomy, and balance, and have talents and gifts in having conversations and reflecting, I will use my interests in world travel and the creative arts to create dialogues between conflicted minorities such that mutually beneficial solutions are reached and peace can be enjoyed by all people in the affected region(s).
My meaningful goal is to serve in the the military and provide medical services to the soldiers. Afterwards works with health educators to educate young children and high school students about the importance of healthy living.
Knowing that I value helping others and have talents and gifts in listing well, I will use my interests in mental and emotional health to help/serve Asian Americans with mental illness so that they can reach past the stigma of mental illness within the Asian American community and receive the right care they need.
My mission is to utilize my skills in math and economics to achieve high standing in business, and use my earned funds to travel the world and give back to the community.
Kyeong’s Meaningful Work Statement:
Knowing that I value family, education, religion and honesty, and have talents and gifts in being optimistic, learning from mistakes, appreciating things and brining out the best in others, I will use my interests in education, family, medicine, science to serve college students, medical facilities, immigrants and religious organizations so that they can have the necessary equipment and knowledge to succeed in society and give back to their communities.
Knowing that I value integrity, balance, and accomplishment, and have talents and gifts in encouraging, leading, and showing compassion for others, I will use my interests in leadership, relationships, and personal growth to help/serve leaders of all kinds, particularly women in and desiring to be in leadership roles, to achieve personal and organizational success, joy, and fulfillment.
My meaningful work statement is to utilize all the resources available mentally and physically to get the best and efficient output possible, which should guide me towards success. My goal is to bring in positive vibes in the environment where I will be at, boosting up and energizing my friends and partners, leading them towards creativity and achievements.