What’s missing in your work is “you”

“I miss that part of myself,” I said to my then business client. My words hung awkwardly in the air, as if I had spoken a truth I wasn’t supposed to say. I’m sure my client wasn’t interested in hearing what I didn’t like about my work, but to me, my admission was like a siren piercing the silence of my own apathy. I couldn’t unhear my own words. It left me wondering what others parts of myself I was missing.

At the time, I was operating a business I now describe as “wearing the wrong clothes”. While I had great clients and was paid well to do a job that was relatively easy, I was less than fulfilled. It was empty work, devoid of anything meaningful to me.

When I blurted out my unintended personal disclosure to my client, I had been explaining that I had a degree in chemical engineering and how I missed the part of myself that got to engage in developing my own processes. But my client didn’t want me to have my own ideas, they wanted me to execute theirs. I was being paid to be their “keyboard monkey”. This is a term I learned way back in the ’90s at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. It seems another lifetime now.

In my 20s, I worked in the Creative Department for a high-profile sports and entertainment company. As a young graphic designer, it was quite common for a senior staff member, who was an internal client, to stand over my shoulder, point to my computer screen, and try to tell me what to do. It was diminishing, to say the least. To the company’s credit, however, as part of our ongoing professional development, our small department of four were privileged to be sent on research trips, visiting similar companies throughout the Pacific Northwest to learn from more experienced mentors. On one such trip, we were being given an eye-opening tour from the Head of Creative at Nike when he offered us this sage advice:

“You’re not a keyboard monkey,” he explained. “You have your own personal contribution to make.”

He went on to tell us it was our responsibility to stand up for ourselves, to own our expertise, and to assert our voice in the matter. This didn’t mean our ideas would always be implemented, or even received, but we had to give ourselves permission to claim our role in the larger conversation. This seed planted itself firmly within me and has become an important part of the work I do now with others.

I find it fascinating how a simple exchange with a relative stranger can embed itself within our being and go on to be expressed in many different ways throughout our life. This goes to show how far-reaching our impact can be without even our knowing. In retrospect, I understand the reason his comment stood out for me, in particular, was because he was speaking directly to one of my core values, which is contribution. I believe our work is meant to be how we make our unique contribution to humanity.

You have a contribution to make

All too often I meet people who feel little more than a cog in the wheel of commerce. They are told what to do and even how to do it. Their work contains very little of themselves, and they feel empty for it. And even though they have a niggling fear their life is being wasted, each have their own different reasons for accepting this is what work is. They attempt to compensate for the gaping void by devoting themselves to being a “good worker”, hoping this will provide the fulfillment they crave. But it doesn’t. Sadly, every company that allows this to happen is actually missing out on discovering the pure gold that is sitting right under their noses.

What it means to make a contribution is to give something of value that plays a significant part in something larger than just ourselves. But most people have a hard time pinpointing their personal contribution because success in the conventional working world is so bottom-line driven, we have been conditioned to overlook the obvious thing we have to give, which is simply being who we are. Our value is inherent to our being. So, if we are not bringing ourselves to our work, then our important contribution is lost to the world.

Every individual has their own unique contribution to make. We add value to the world simply by being who we are.

To be able to make a valuable contribution through my work has been its own evolutionary process. Even when I left the corporate world to start my own graphic design business, I was still prone to submitting myself to the wants of my paying clients. Thankfully, that eventually reached its own limits. There came a point when the call of my inner being became too loud to ignore any longer. I was to return to being myself. At the time, I didn’t know what that meant, but I knew I had to find out.

Bring yourself to work

Fast forward a couple of decades and I find myself having a similar conversation over and over with my current clients. They tell me, “I want me back.” However, when they say so, there is no awkward silence between us. Instead, I give them a resounding, “Heck, yes!” If we were in the same room, I’d also be giving them a high five and a hip bump. Then we set about doing the inner work of bridging the divide between “them” and their “work”.

It took me many years to integrate that separation within myself. It requires releasing all the overlays – the thoughts, beliefs, stories, and fears – that have been preventing us from being our true selves. In doing so, however, we reveal all the inherent goodness we have to offer. This may sound arduous, but it’s actually simpler than we make it out to be.

To find what’s missing in our work, often we think we need to learn more, know more, experience more, do more, but actually what we need is to be more. We need to be more of who we already are, who we’ve always been. Fulfillment in your work comes from one place only – being yourself.

When I say “what’s missing in your work is you”, what I mean is your work is a place for you to express:

• Your perspective
• Your values
• Your life experiences
• Your expertise
• Your wisdom
• Your strengths, gifts, and talents
• Your vision
• Your creativity
• Your energy
• Your consciousness
• Your presence
• Your playfulness
• Your heart
• Your joy

Even though I used to work in a so-called “creative field”, there was very little creativity in the work I was doing. The environment I was in didn’t allow for the rising and birthing of my own ideas. It did, however, spark a desire within me to create an arena in which I could bring my whole self to my work.

Each of us is here to create work that is unique to us and allows us to bring all of who we are to the world.

For myself, it wasn’t a direct route from graphic design to the work I do now, but I am happy to say that my work does involve creating processes. In fact, it’s what I do best. It’s also what I am paid to do. But instead of them being about chemical engineering, they are about people. I create processes that help people reclaim the missing parts of themselves and make their own genuine contribution through their work by being exactly who they are. This is meaningful to me. Because it is me.

The next time you find yourself longing for some missing part of yourself, that’s when you know it’s time to bring more you to your work. You will want to take responsibility for your life, claim your value, and share your voice with the world. You are nobody’s “keyboard monkey”. Not even your own.