Meaningful Work

Why This Post?

When I discovered Barbara Sher, and that I am a scanner, I bought two of her books: "Refuse to Choose" and "I Could Do Anything: If Only I knew What It Was." Even though she wrote "I Could Do Anything" first I finished reading and doing the exercises in "Refuse to Choose" because I had to learn about and activate the true scanner inside of me.
But now I started on "I Could Do Anything" and I'm working through the activities she suggests in that book. The first one I'm doing here is to define what "Meaningful Work" means to me. The premise of the book so far is that inside we really know what we want to do but have built a wall of reasons that keep us from actually doing anything. The purpose of the book is to identify and address the bricks in the wall, or the hurdles in the race or whatever mind blocks and barriers we have devised for ourselves.

My Nebulous Concept of Meaningful Work

So what is meaningful work? Right now I work in manufacturing making low power computer chips that mostly get used in consumer electronics like cell phones and laptops. My job is to help improve the yield from our manufacturing line. I frequently feel like my work is not meaningful, that it doesn't improve anyone's like for the better. I mean, whoop-dee-doo I helped make your battery last 5 minutes longer (indirectly). So I apparently think that meaningful work improves the quality of people's lives.
You could argue that making cheaper and faster cell phones and laptops makes them more accessible, and that technology and information improve people's lives. But somehow I feel like it's not making an impact in an area that really matters or to people who really need it. So nested in those feelings are two more concepts. First, meaningful work involves improvements that are considered more than just convenient. Second, meaningful work serves people who have greater than average need for improved life.
Somewhere in my brain is the idea that meaningful work is also something that could be universally recognized as "Good." Somehow, if others can't recognize the immediate value of a labor then to me it doesn't seem to merit the label of Truly Meaningful Work. This would be opposed to the concept of immoral or amoral endeavors, so I think there is an implied morality in my concept of meaningful work. There should be some underlying principle, motivation or cause that underpins and gives a foundation upon which the work is based.
That's really nebulous, I know, but that is what's in my brain. Sorry for being simple-minded?

Examples of What I Would Call Worthy Work

The following list is not perfect, not complete, and not necessarily things I want to do as a career. But it is a list of things that I tend to think of as being meaningful.

• Researching Cures for Physical Ailments and Disease
• e.g. Cancer, Malaria, Ebola, Infant Mortality, HIV/AIDS, Polio, etc.
• Work involving disabilities
• Education
• Counseling, Social Work, Community Improvement
• Energy Research, Improvement, Innovation
• Community Services, Fire Department, Police, Military, etc.

The Gist of this Exercise

The interesting thing is that practically none of the occupations that interest me fall under this classification. I'm more interested in technology, making things, video games. But when I think about those jobs I get a nag in my mind that says, "Those are just fanciful pastimes. They don't actually make people's lives better, and they have plenty of negatives associated with them."
In her book, Barbara basically says that this self-made picture of worthy work may be working as another impediment to doing the work that really makes us happy. Should be interesting to see if such an important seeming concept can really be altered.