When meaning becomes unavoidable

Making sense of work doesn't hit you like a hospital waiting room.

It shouldn't be all-or-nothing. It shouldn't be personal.

But this week, sitting with my wife before surgery following a serious skiing injury, I felt something I have rarely felt at work:

Unavoidable clarity.

My awareness acute, and eyes diallated as a way to let in the full meaning of emotion of what is at stake. Presence not moving beyond the moment in front of me. Every movement and action fully focused on the next critical move—intentional and coherent on making the best possible outcome a certainty.

And it made me realise what's missing in most of our professional work.

We move through our lives believing that meaning is made evident by the actions we take, the tasks we complete, the roles we fill.

But meaning can't be fully expressed or experienced if it's only realised at a transactional level—that interchange of "I am doing this because that's the task, or what's been asked of me."

This approach may be clear on the surface.
It's even expected in organisational settings.

But there's little meaning behind it.

Things change on the surface, but belief doesn't shift.
The value it brings to others never lands.

Emotion is what's missing.

Sensing on some deeper level that what you're doing matters beyond the exchange of task and effort.

A gut feel.
A pull of energy.
An expansion—feeling connected to something bigger than the process.

That's when commitment turns into conviction.

In our personal lives, meaning becomes omnipresent through moments of loss or highly emotional experiences. Clarity happens in an instant—like shifting from looking at a mosaic from a distance to looking through a telescopic lens at a single expression.

Meaning-making at work does not hit this level of emotional intensity.

And that's a good thing.
It's not—or shouldn't be—personal.

But if we're to evolve and transform work toward something that makes sense and is meaningful, then opening ourselves up to the emotion and humanity behind our actions seems like the way to connect our work to what's at stake for all of us.