90,000 meaningful career hours. Really??

For the last two years, a significant part of my time has been dedicated to writing a non-fiction book on rethinking your career mindset. As I eagerly discuss my upcoming book and podcast on purposeful work, “Work That’s Worth It,” with clients, colleagues, and friends, the most immediate revelation often occurs when people realize that their career spans approximately 90,000 hours of their lives. Hence the need for a non-fiction book on career choices and the intention behind each choice.

To be clear, I didn’t come up with this number. I saw it in an article by the Harvard Business Review called Why You Should Stop Trying to Be Happy at Work by Susan Peppercorn, PCC, and it quite literally changed the course of my life. It’s basically half the amount of time you’ll spend awake during your life here on planet Earth. And knowing that made me realize just how valuable that time is. Crafting a fulfilling career that will lead to 90,000 hours for a fulfilling life seems like a lot. But is it?

That number obviously varies depending on factors such as when you start your career, how many hours you work each week,  how many years you work, and how many impactful career choices you’ve made. But regardless of your exact number, it’s a significant portion of your life. I find it helpful to think that every five years you “spend” approximately 10,000 hours. So if you start working full time at 25, and work until 70 years old, you will accumulate the 90,000 hours.

I was struck by the thought of how much good my own 90,000 hours for a purposeful life could contribute, and also how much good my collective family of five could deliver to the world with our cumulative 450,000 work hours. How much could my Harvard Business School class of about 800 students accomplish in our collective 72 million work hours? The global impact could be amazing if we all did work that was worth it!

During one of the early conversations, I discussed this concept of 90,000 meaningful career hours with a fellow Harvard Business School classmate from the class of 2001—at the time we were approaching the age of 50. We both wondered why did we not know this in our 20s. Together we imagined our younger selves and how we never saw this big picture of our careers as 90,000 hours…let alone 90,000 hours of potential.

He also remarked: “If the well-known author Malcolm Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in something, you could have 9 expertise in your work-life. And how much fun would that be to think that way instead of plugging along year after year”. Having the big picture in mind, we both agreed that we would have “spent” our earlier hours more intentionally.

But what would that actually look like, and how could I have been more prepared to spend my hours for a career that is worth my time and energy? This got me focused on a new personal mission for my “last” 40,000 hours—to show my younger self just how to do that!

Ready to make your career count? Explore the profound insights in ‘Work That’s Worth It,’ and discover how to craft a fulfilling career that truly matters. Dive into our podcast and join the journey toward meaningful career hours. Let’s shape a purposeful life together!

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