It’s easy, but risky, to confuse the work we do with who we are. 

When we do, we can find ourselves more concerned with living up to others’ expectations of who we should be instead of engaging in work that’s most meaningful for us. 

After one of my clients lost his job and became desolate because of the length of his job search, I suggested he take a pen and piece of paper and complete the sentence beginning with “I am…” as a homework assignment. 

He later admitted that this was the most difficult sentence he had ever written. It had taken him two weeks to complete a first draft. Finally, when he read the sentence he had written out loud to himself, he broke into tears. 

There was no relationship whatsoever between the jobs he had held for the past 25 years and the sentence he had written on that page. 

“What am I longing for?” is a beautiful question Susan Cain, in her book “Bittersweet,” suggests we ask ourselves as a way to discover what’s most important to us in life. 

It’s also a great question to ask when we find ourselves feeling adrift after a layoff, or when we voluntarily leave a job after realizing we can no longer work for an abusive boss or a company whose values we no longer share. 

This Labor Day weekend, let’s take Cain’s suggestion. Let’s pause for a few minutes and ask ourselves, “What am I longing for?”. It’s a great way to remind ourselves that the work we do should serve who we are and not the other way around.