Over the past few months Idealist Careers has posted some very helpful articles related to this concept of "meaningful work". The term is frequently tossed about, no matter what stage of your career or job you're in, and is often particularly relevant to people after they receive a cancer diagnosis. Having cancer changes many people, and often causes them to reassess what they do for a living. After receiving a cancer diagnosis, people often realize that what they have been doing for the past 10, 20, or 30 years isn't gratifying in the way that it once was, or maybe it never even was. This can bring up a lot of tough questions about finding meaning in work, and how to get to place where you feel like the work you are doing is meaningful to you.

To help sort through these questions, here is some advice from the recent Idealist Career articles on meaningful work:

• Practice "Job Crafting": Job crafting is the process of altering a job to increase the meaning. The main ways to do this are by changing tasks, changing relationships, or changing approach to work. For more information, read Lost the meaning in your work? Here are 9 ways to get it back
• Understand the difference between the "desire to feel and the desire to do". For more on this concept read How do you define meaningful work?
• Know the definitions of "passion" and "purpose" and how they can help you fit meaning into your career and your life. For more on this idea, read The difference between passion and purpose and how it affects your job search

For more information on this topic, check out our section on Finding Meaningful Work.