Intrinsic Motivation at Work, 2nd Edition

8Building Your Sense of Meaningfulness

There’s a lot you can do to build a sense of meaningfulness in your own job. The building blocks for meaningfulness are these:

• A noncynical climate—giving you the freedom to care deeply
• Clearly identified passions—having insight into what you care deeply about
• An exciting vision—creating a vivid picture of what you can accomplish
• Relevant task purposes—making a connection between your work and the vision
• Whole tasks—taking responsibility for an identifiable product or service

Now let’s look at some actions that you can take to address these building blocks.

Creating a Noncynical Climate for Yourself

What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.

OSCAR WILDE¹