How Purposeful Work and the SDGs Connect

Sustainable Development Goal 8 looks at the area of work and pushes us towards a fairer and more sustainable work world.

Should this goal stop there though?

Purposeful work is vital for a healthy and prosperous society and this is what we need to explore more if we want to ensure a brighter and more sustainable future.

In fact in many ways purposeful work and the SDGs are ideal partners. This week let’s look at why.

We’ve all heard the saying, “Do what you love and you’ll never work another day in your life.” It’s very easy to scoff at this notion but the idea behind it is very important when you’re aiming to build a quality life for yourself.

That being said, let’s look at “do what you love.” At first glance it’s easy to limit this to conventional concepts (“I like petting cats” or “I love drinking beer and eating nachos”) but there is a better way to read it.

That feeling that comes with doing what you love—call it joy, contentment, pride, etc.—is very important to the overall experience. If you can transfer that sense over to your job your experience will be greatly improved.

The SDGs are doing amazing things and improving lives for people across the globe. Helping to achieve them will most definitely give people a real sense of purpose and pride.

Purposeful work and the SDGs are also both good for business. Workers who believe in what they are doing are more productive which in turn is good for business.

Modern businesses seeking to attract top Millennial and Generation Y or Z talent will have to prove their purposeful and sustainable nature in order to attract and retain these workers.

This is one of the major reasons why corporate social responsibility is growing in the business world. Smart and socially conscious entrepreneurs and businessmen/women recognize its importance and adopt it in order to thrive.

Of course one of the major reasons purposeful work and the SDGs work well together is they are both focused on a similar goal: a better world for everyone.

Although the end game is the same, these two concepts go about achieving their goal in different ways. This, however, is a major benefit and is why they should be working together.

Good teams bring in members with different strengths and use these differences to their advantage. We need to use both purposeful work and the SDGs to help build the road to a better tomorrow.

Studies show the importance of purpose in our lives. Whether you’re looking at our emotional well-being, our physical health or our social interactions a sense of purpose improves our outcomes.