Finding Meaning In Work - May 2026

Finding Meaning in Work

For people who are doing fine on paper, but know something in their work needs closer attention

You can be capable, productive, and outwardly successful and still feel that something in your work is not quite right.

Maybe the job is fine, but it no longer feels like yours.
Maybe you have built a career, but have not stopped in a long time to ask what it is all in service of.
Maybe you are functioning well on the outside, while inwardly sensing a gap between the work you do and the life you want to live.

Finding Meaning in Work is a small-group workshop for people who want to step out of drift and think more honestly about work, identity, and what matters.

This is not a lecture. It is not networking. It is not career coaching dressed up as inspiration.

It is an active workshop with guided prompts, writing exercises, structured reflection, discussion, a workbook, and a personal manifesto to take home.

Why people come

Most people come because something in their working life is asking for closer attention

You may be asking yourself:

• Why does my work look fine from the outside, but feel increasingly thin from the inside?

• Have I built a career that fits me, or just one I learned to perform well?

• What do I actually want my work to be in service of?

• What parts of myself have I left behind in the rush of getting on with it?

• What would more meaningful work look like in practice?

These are not abstract questions. They shape real decisions about energy, ambition, burnout, identity, and direction.

What happens in the workshop

This is a participatory workshop from beginning to end.

Across the afternoon, you will work through a series of structured exercises and guided prompts that help you examine your relationship to work with greater honesty and clarity.

You will explore:

• the difference between job, career, and calling

• what meaningful work actually is, and what it is not

• your values, strengths, and deeper motivations

• formative experiences and early clues that may still be pointing somewhere important

• how to connect who you are with the kind of work that feels more fully your own

You will not just be listening. You will be writing, reflecting, making connections, and building something personal and concrete as you go.

Each participant receives a workbook and leaves with a personal manifesto developed during the session.

What you’ll walk away with

You will leave with:

• clearer language for what feels aligned in your work and what does not

• a better understanding of the values and experiences shaping your choices

• a workbook full of reflections and notes

• a personal manifesto you can return to after the workshop

• a stronger basis for future decisions about work and life

This workshop does not promise a perfect answer or a neat five-year plan. What you will leave with is clearer bearings: a better sense of who you are, what matters to you, and how to move toward work that fits

What a past participant said

After the first workshop, one participant, Bala, said:

“The workshop helped me connect my values, my passions, and the work I do. I left still asking deeper questions about why I work and whether it feeds my soul.”

He also described one of the workshop’s central ideas in a way I liked:

job, career, calling

A job pays the bills.
A career builds capability.
A calling asks a deeper question:

Does this work feel like mine?

That is the territory this workshop is designed to help you explore.

Why I’m hosting this

This workshop is personal.

It comes from my own long search for meaning in work, and from lessons distilled through close to 40 episodes of the Finding Meaning in Work podcast and more than 70 essays written on the subject.

Like many people, I’ve wrestled with the tension between what pays and what feels alive.

I know what it is to function well, to be productive, to meet expectations, and still feel that something deeper is unresolved. I also know how easy it is to keep moving without giving that feeling the attention it deserves.

This workshop is my way of creating a room to explore that tension honestly, with structure and care.

Who this is for

This workshop is for you if:

• your work is working in one sense, but not in another

• you feel a growing gap between competence and conviction

• you are at a crossroads in your career, or quietly approaching one

• you want more than generic career advice

• you are hungry for a more honest conversation about work, contribution, and the shape of a good life

You do not need to be in crisis to attend.

In many cases, this workshop is most useful before things become a crisis.

This may not be for you if you’re looking for

• job search tactics

• résumé or interview coaching

• networking

• a passive lecture where you can sit back and listen

This workshop asks for your attention and participation.

The more honestly you engage, the more you will get from it.

Capacity is limited to encourage intimacy, reflection, and conversation. Lunch will be included