Last week, I wrote an article entitled “Passion Is Not Doing What You Love” that tackled the problem of focusing too much on loving what we do in order to find satisfaction. After only a few hours of putting it out, my website started to flux at the massive reception it got from readers.

Apparently we get it- focusing too much on what we do as a source of satisfaction causes more bad than good. And together we concluded that we are to focus more on who we do what we do for instead on focusing on what we do.

Today, another dilemma about the misrepresentation of what we do hit me. It came as I was reflecting upon a common issue I have. When I meet people who ask me what I do for a living, I usually have a hard time explaining my regular regimen to them. That’s because, admittedly, I do a lot of things. Here’s a quick run down of that:

• Communications and Events Administrator of Victory Iloilo.
• Operations Manager of Team Positive.
• Entrepreneur.
• Business strategy consultant.
• Social Media, content, email and brick-and-mortar marketing consultant.
• Public speaker and trainor on leadership development, human resource development, team building and productivity hacking.
• Blogger and writer.
• Most recently, aspiring author.

“What Do You Do?… Huh…?”

Most people would give me a long gaze after listening to that breath-taking enumeration. That’s because the more culturally accepted norm is to just say one thing. It’s either you’re an Engineer, Doctor, Lawyer, Call Center Agent, Pastor, Finance Person, Driver and So On. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I am in no way questioning uni-vocation people. But see my predicament has made me realize one thing.

Just as some people hurt their job satisfaction by limiting it to what they do, they often also hurt their identity by doing the same thing. We limit ourselves to simply being one thing. But see, you’re not just one thing. Businessmen can have day-jobs. Doctors can also coach people in finance. Pastors are also fathers and spouses. Students can also be freelancers.

I’ve always had a problem being just one thing from the start. And most would correlate that to a lack of focus, but that’s not true. I have laser focus. But my focus is not so much what I do. My focus is stuck on why I do it.

I’ve always had a problem being just one thing from the start. And most would correlate that to a lack of focus, but that’s not true. I have laser focus. But my focus is not so much what I do. My focus is stuck on why I do it. I do all that I do for one reason- to communicate meaningful and value-giving ideas. That’s why I do what I do.

Why Do You Do What You Do?

Leading Ethnographer and leadership expert, Simon Sinek once said, “People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.” If you’re the kind of person that’s stuck on what you do and can’t get to why you do what you do, you’ll never find meaning. Identity is founded on purpose not action. Not that action isn’t important, but all that we do springs out of our belief and calling.

Why do you do what you do? Do you feel internally wired to do it? Do you serve others through what you do? Is what you do aligned with the values and beliefs that you have?

When we know why we do what you do, doing things we do will make a whole lot more sense and will give us more meaning and identity. I hope we all know what we’re doing, but I hope even more that it’s clear to us why we do what we do as well.