Why do you do what you do?

The term "finding yourself" has somewhat of a bad reputation in the business world. That phrase tends to conjure up a younger person couch surfing or doing something random (or awesome) to figure out their place in this world. I think it means much more than that.

Have you ever walked into a room and forget why you went there in the first place? After you've established yourself in your career and are in the day-to-day of your work, it's easy to get buried so much in what you do you forget what it is that drives you to wake up in the morning and spend a significant portion of your adult life in that role. Even if you really enjoy what you do, it's good to take a step back, re-evaluate and remind yourself why it is you are doing what you do.

We did that as a team at DeMoss this last weekend. Every fall we take a company retreat to re-charge and take a step back and reflect on where we are as a company. Honestly, very little work is done on these retreats. We mainly spend time hanging out and getting to know each other outside of our work selves. Weekends like this provide me (and I'm sure my coworkers) the opportunity to realize why we chose the field we are in and why we choose to go to the same building with the same people every day to do our work.

It could be work. It could be a volunteer project. It could even just be a small hobby project. When you get bogged down in the work, it's good to pop your head up for air and remind yourself why you are in that work in the first place.

So, why do you do what you do?