Four Mindset Shifts for Meaningful Work

“Not everything is a mindset problem.” 

Let me give you an example.


I had a client who said:

"I have a limiting belief that I'm not qualified to be an Executive Producer.”

"Aha. I don't think that's a limiting belief. I think that's a real limitation.

You're not qualified yet. Based on your experience you could get qualified quickly, but you're not qualified yet.

That's not a limiting belief. That's a limitation.

So we deal with overcoming the limitation itself because your belief about it is actually true."

Knowing his background, I said,

If you have a resource issue, changing your thinking alone won't solve the problem. 

If you have a mindset issue, loading up on more resources alone won't solve the problem.

If you've spent any time in the personal development space, you've probably encountered the concept of "limiting beliefs," or beliefs that hold us back. 

These are often unconscious beliefs about ourselves, how the world works, and what we're capable of. They're so powerful because they drive a lot of our behavior and choices without us thinking about them.

Working with clients, we absolutely identify and shift limiting beliefs as part of our work, because good luck landing your ideal job or maintaining a successful business with beliefs like "My needs don't matter," or "I have nothing of value to offer," running the show.

But just because we all have limiting beliefs doesn't mean every challenge we come up against is a mindset issue.

If you want to choose and excel in a meaningful career, here's a distinction you need to get: There’s a difference between limiting beliefs and limitations. 

There’s a lot of jibber-jabber about mindset in the personal development and coaching worlds, so let’s start here: 

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There is no coach, program, book, resume, recruiter, or marketing plan that can out-strategize your worldview that “this is as good as it gets.” 

“It’s possible for me to do meaningful work.”

And we are all entitled to our coping mechanisms, especially if you live in a time and place where meaningful work is hard to come by. But we have more options and career fluidity than most people and eras in all of history. If you’re reading this, you likely have access to more meaningful work and it is possible. 

One of our core values at Your Career Homecoming is “other-worldiness,” which means we devote ourselves to what is possible without denying what is. 

Will there be challenges? Certainly. It’s normal to feel doubt and fear at the brink of a change, which is why it’s important to intentionally build your hope, resilience, and self-belief by focusing on opportunities instead of challenges. And there’s a lot of opportunity when it comes to meaningful work, especially if you're open to creating your own path. 

Our systems don’t offer people a traditional means through which to solve many of their problems. If you have a big brain, big heart, and innovative spirit, you can be a problem solver in a profitable niche where there’s not a lot of competition. In a world of dime store, ChatGPT advice, people are looking for human wisdom and support that’s more tailored to them. 

I’m going to give you one more big reason to shift towards “it’s possible for me to do meaningful work”: 

It will affect what career options you think are available to you. 

“This is as good as it gets” and “work is called work for a reason” sentiments are more often coping mechanism than fact. They are beliefs to self-soothe if there’s no way to improve your situation. 

We’ve had clients come this close to walking away from what ultimately became their Homecoming Career because they didn’t think something about that option was possible for them. Through coaching support they reevaluated their assumptions, crunched numbers, rethought business models or industries, and BOOM. What seemed impossible became their sustainable, lasting, meaningful career. 

Just another reminder that strategy cannot compensate for faulty beliefs. Bad foundations = bad outcomes.

To Build This Belief

Make a list of 25 reasons why it's possible for you to do meaningful work, then review it and add to it daily. 

Writing this down one time won't make much difference, but if you put focus here daily you'll notice your mind and heart start to shift. 

If you want more joy and possibility in your life, then you have to take responsibility to create the conditions to experience those things. This is a great place to start. 

Out of all the beliefs we'll address in this piece, this one might be the one you have the most resistance to and I'll tell you why:

This is the one that requires the most hope, which makes it the most vulnerable.

Nobody wants to be caught daring to dream and it not working out. 

But I can tell you with 100% certainty that the only way you're going to get beautiful, sustainable career is if you do the vulnerable work of getting your hopes up.

Your skepticism won't save you from disappointment; it will just keep you disappointed.

Do the mind and heart work you need to do to prepare yourself to be the kind of person who does meaningful work.

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Most of us are raised with the binary thinking that you can have meaning, or you can have money, but you can’t have both. 

“I can have meaning and money in the same career.” 

If you are stuck trying to follow your passion, you will struggle with this. 

If you are stuck trying to “just be practical” and go where you think the money is, you will struggle with this.

That’s why it’s crucial to get out of this binary, either/or and shift to what I call The Purpose Paradigm of work, where meaning and money are inextricably linked, and that happens when you choose a career by starting with service. 

I go into much more detail about this in my 5 Keys free training, so if you’re curious about that you can learn more here. 

But know this: you can have meaning and money in your career. They are not polar opposites; they are inextricably linked. Making this mindset shift will open a whole new world of possible career options for you. 

Which belief will get you closer to the kind of experience you want to have in your work?

1. I have to choose between meaning and money. 
2. I can have meaning and money in the same career.

To Build This Belief

Listen to interviews with our clients. 

This will give you examples of real people with challenges and circumstances you can relate to who found careers with meaning and money. 

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Out of judgement, many people deny themselves the joy and the world the impact of more meaningful work.

“It’s not selfish to choose meaningful work.”

Tell me:

How does your suffering make your work more valuable to the people your work is for?

Where did the belief that work only "counts" if there's struggle involved come from? 

Do you wish the people whose work you benefit from to suffer?

Or would you rather they take pride and joy in their work? 

Tell me:

How does it serve those people for you to stay in a situation that could be improved?

Instead, what if you improved your situation and then used the expansion of your capacity, time, money, peace, or knowledge to help others improve their situation in some way? 

You might think you have no right to be more happy and fulfilled when other people already have it worse than you do. 

Tell me:

Do you fully acknowledge the blessing of what you already have, but still long to experience and contribute more?

That’s not being ungrateful; that’s being unfulfilled. 

You might feel that wanting more makes you ungrateful for what you have. 

You might feel like it’s greedy to want to be paid for something that you enjoy. 

You might think that work is only “real” or virtuous if you suffer while you do it. 

Tell me:

Is is possible that would could do even better work if you enjoyed it?

If you didn’t have to phone it in and just pass time to get through the day?

If you had a sense of mission and purpose around what you did?

Is it possible that doing meaningful work is the most generous option because it would allow you to serve at the highest level? 

Being fulfilled in your work creates the conditions that allow you to do your best work and be of the most service. There's nothing selfish about that.

If you feel like you have to choose between being a decent person and enjoying your work, you'll pick being a decent person every time. That means fewer people who actually give a shit doing their most impactful work. There are zero upsides to this. 

To Build This Belief

Write out your answers to the questions above. 

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