Pinkston News Service

WASHINGTON, DC-(Pinkston News Service) – New research by Prudential finds that one quarter of all American workers want to change their jobs immediately after the pandemic ends, while 48% of American workers want to change their job type altogether. The report further found that 53% of people would change industries if they were confident they could be retrained.

There’s no denying that American workers are eager for change. After more than a year of seismic shifts in the American economy, many of them brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, Americans have departed significantly from the status quo. Already by September of last year, about half of Americans were saying that their lives were permanently changed by the pandemic.

But the pandemic has also provided many Americans with more time to reflect on their lives and consider what they truly want to do. Americans are in a prime position to make major life decisions, like changing their job type or industry.

Pastor Tim Yee, author of “Finding Your TruCenter,” a 6-week small group study program for the TruMotivate personality self-assessment tool by Barna Group (https://www.barna.com/trumotivate), thinks that the time is right for millions of Americans to dig down and reconnect with their deepest motivations.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a huge movement of change in the way people think,” said Yee. “People today are thinking a lot more about the why behind what they do. In this context, it’s more important than ever before that people learn to ask the right questions and access the deep-seated motivations that truly drive them.”

Yee thinks that asking different questions may help Americans make better life changes after the pandemic. By last year, Americans were the unhappiest they had ever been in 50 years, with only 14% of U.S. adults saying they were “very happy.” For Yee, that’s a red flag. “Understanding your core motivations can help you approach your job in a new light. Perhaps you don’t necessarily need to change your job, or perhaps you do. But knowing your motivations helps you to find a deeper purpose in your work, whatever it is.”

To Yee, one of the biggest problems with the way most Americans approach major life decisions is they fail to find the intersection of what they are good at and what they love to do. “Based on past Barna research, we know that Christians who find high satisfaction in their work are twice as likely to find high satisfaction in their lives. I believe this applies whether someone is a Christian or not. We’ve seen a direct connection between satisfaction in work and satisfaction in your overall life,” says Yee.

To find that satisfaction, Americans need to take time to connect with what they really value and identify what will make their lives meaningful. For many, that can be their faith traditions, local communities and families, or even just their longest-held dreams. The important thing, according to Yee, is to find what gives you a sense of calling and purpose, and then pursue it with passion and a sustainable plan.

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