My “good on paper” job doesn’t fulfill me. How do I find purpose?
Feeling stuck doesn’t mean you’re out of options. Start here to redefine what purpose can look like—right where you are.
Careers are deeply personal; most executive career advice isn’t. Crux is here to help.
Ask a Career Expert
I’m in a corporate job that looks great on paper—good salary, great benefits, and a lifestyle that works for me right now. But honestly, I’m feeling pretty unfulfilled. I know it’s not the time for a big career change or even a job switch, but day after day, I just feel like I’m not really doing anything that matters. With everything going on in the world, it feels even more amplified. It’s hard to ignore this sense of “stuckness” I’ve been feeling.
So my question is, how can I find more fulfillment in my current role? Is it possible to find purpose where I am, or do I need to look for meaning outside of work to feel more balanced?"
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A Career Expert Says
Your question gets to the core of what it means to lead a meaningful and, dare I say, happy life.
What is clear is that your job likely satisfies your basic needs right now—whether that’s flexibility, financial security, comfort, benefits, and so on. It sounds like what is missing for you is that deeper level of fulfillment and purpose.
Before we can move forward to parsing out whether fulfillment and purpose are accessible to you in your current job, I want to offer two exercises to get really clear on what those values each mean to you.
Fulfillment Exercise:
Sit down with a good old-fashioned pen and paper and write out your responses to these questions:
1. What does fulfillment mean to you?
2. When do you feel the most fulfilled?
3. What factors contribute to that fulfillment (who is present, where are you, what are you doing)?
4. What is important to you about being fulfilled?
5. What would more fulfillment in work bring to you?
While you can do this on the computer, or even aloud, physically writing is scientifically shown to bring different levels of creativity to your brain.
Purpose Exercise:
Now, let’s do the same for these questions:
1. What does purpose mean to you?
2. When do you feel like you're achieving your purpose? Where are you? Who is involved?
3. What's important to you about that?
4. If you were to capture your purpose in one sentence, what would that sentence be?
Now let's find the through-lines:
What are the themes you are noticing around fulfillment and purpose?
What are creative or unexpected actions that can contribute to feeling fulfilled and purpose driven?
What clarity do you now have after completing that exercise?
Here’s an example from a recent client:
A client of mine, Leva, did this exercise and found that her theme through-lines between fulfillment and purpose were energy, helping, creativity, and joy. She was shocked that creativity was so present for her in this exercise since it was something she realized was completely lacking from both her personal life and her work life.
Let's bring it back to your original question:
Is it possible to find more fulfillment and purpose at your current job?
Now that you’re more clear on what fulfillment and purpose mean to you, consider these questions to help get to your answer:
What would it look like to add more fulfillment and purpose to your day at work? And your week?
Brainstorm a list of ideas that could help you find that fulfillment and purpose with your current role. Write down everything that comes to mind. What are the obvious answers? What about the less obvious answers?
To go back to that example above, here’s what my client came up with when doing this.
Leva realized that because the obvious missing component of her personal and work life was creativity, it would be really beneficial to think of how to add it in. She immediately identified that it would be fun to take some art classes and immerse herself in creativity in her free time. That felt obvious.
What felt less obvious was how to integrate creativity in her very corporate career. We did a brainstorming exercise to help her identify how creativity can fulfill her other than art and we came up with creative problem solving and trying to consider challenges at work from a creative lens, rather than a strategic or logical lens.
Take Action
Would you be willing to do an experiment? Would you pick the most resonant idea that you came up with above and commit to doing it this week?
Write out your reflections after you do it and consider where and how you felt. What it was like to add in more fulfillment or purpose? What are you taking away? What do you want to do next?
The truth is, the answer to your question is probably one that will take some time and experimentation to find out, and I encourage you to do the Take Action exercise above a few times over until you find more clarity.
Now the reality is that you may never find the amount of fulfillment and purpose you want in your job right now. I want to be realistic that not every job has a hidden silver lining. And if that’s the case, and you don’t feel leaving is an option, I recommend doing this same thought exercise for your life outside of work. How can you use your weeknights and your weekends to find that fulfillment and purpose that you deserve?
Meet the Expert of the Week: Shira Baron
In her own words:
Shira Baron is a Certified Professional Coach. She has a Juris Doctorate from Fordham Law School and a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from University of Michigan. Shira specializes in career and leadership coaching both in individual and group settings. Her unique approach combines traditional coaching methods with neuroscience and positive psychology to ensure her clients integrate lasting clarity, confidence, and development in all aspects of their career and leadership paths
Shira’s Go-To Resource: 16 Personalities Test
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