Defining Meaningful Work
What is Meaningful Work?
Our framework for meaningful work is inspired by the Ikigai method. The word ikigai is the combination of two Japanese characters, iki, meaning “life,” and kai, meaning “the realization of hopes and expectations.”
Our model adapts this idea of meaning to look at four areas that intersect in work and career:
- What you’re energized by: what gets you excited, what do you care about, what makes you eager to get out of bed in the morning, or what makes you outraged or inspires you to change or fix something?
- What your skilled at: what things come to you naturally or easily, what things are you dedicated and investing in learning and becoming better at
- What you can be paid for: we live in a society where money is needed to survive and it’s an important component to keep in mind.
- What the world needs: what problems in the world do you want to solve (whether it be in your local community, nationally, or globally) and what might you want to add or provide to the world

This model can help find the overlap between various parts of oneself in career exploration and planning. At various points of one’s life, some sections will matter more than others – for example, what you can get paid for may take precedence over what you’re energized by. The goal is the work towards the center as much as possible and balance each area out with the others, knowing that the definition will change and grow as you change and grow.
To identify what your definition of meaningful work is, use our meaningful work worksheet.