As a life coach, I’ve helped lots of my coaching clients create a personal development plan that specifies what they need to do to live a fulfilling and happy life. In most cases, a big part of personal development planning is about how to be more happy in one’s job – which makes sense, given that many people spend approximately 1/3 of their life at work!
I’m always sadly amazed at how many people are stuck in the trap of working a job that is slowly sucking their souls dry. I even see it in my new coaching clients – these are smart, educated, successful professionals who loved their work once-upon-a-time but as the years passed they found themselves giving more and more to their jobs (i.e more time and more emotional energy) and settling for a diminishing return on that investment (i.e. less time with friends and family, poor health and fitness, compromised values and a feeling of not living one’s full potential). To combat this, I’ve developed a short career personal development exercise that utilizes life coaching questioning models to assist people discover the type of work they need to be doing to get out of bed each morning, inspired for the day and ready to get started. If this sounds good to you, then please print out this page and answer the following 27 questions during your next lunch break.
This 4 part career personal development exercise will help you find the job that is perfect for you and start you on the path to taking charge of your own happiness, today!
Attention Life Coaches: If you are a personal life coach and would like to use this exercise with your life coaching clients, please feel free to.
Part 1: Get in touch with your “authentic self”
Authentic Self
What are your natural skills? What do you love doing? What really matters to you? You must reacquaint your self with your core authentic
happiness in order to make a good decision on how you are going to best spend 1/3 of our life. To do this, please answer the following questions.
| 1. What are your top skills and interests? |
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| 2. What are your top values? |
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| 3. What do you love doing? |
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| 4. What things do you do that are fun easy and satisfying? |
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| 5. What really matters to you? |
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| 6. How does your current job align with your authentic self? |
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| 7. How does your current job NOT align with your authentic self? |
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| 8. How could you better align your current job with your authentic self? |
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| 9. How could you align a NEW job with your authentic self? |
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Part 2: Determine the key factors that matter most to you about your work
It’s important to be honest with yourself about what you’re working for. For example, is it: high pay, a job you enjoy, security, a good environment, excitement, interesting colleagues, variety, etc. knowing this truth will help to keep you resilient through any hard times in the future.
| 10. Choose the top 3-7 factors that matter most to you about your work. |
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WARNING!!! The next 4 questions are intentionally brain twisting. Don’t dwell on them. Let your unconscious mind answer the question by going with the first answer that comes to mind.
| 11. What will happen if your job does deliver these factors? |
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| 12. What won’t happen if your job does deliver these factors? |
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| 13. What will happen if your job doesn’t deliver these factors? |
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| 14. What won’t happen if your job doesn’t deliver these factors? |
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Part 3: Understand what success means to you
What does ‘success’ look like to you?
The definition that I like for success is, “the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors”. This means that if you achieve whatever you have decided to attempt you are successful. Therefore, to know if you are a success of not, you need to know what do you want to achieve in your life. If you achieve what you have set out to achieve, you are a success no matter what anyone else may attribute to being “successful”.
| 15. In 3-7 sentences, paint a picture and tell yourself how you would like each area of your life to be. Write it down. |
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| 16. Given what you want to achieve (see above), how will you know when you are successful? |
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| 17. List 5 people who have different ideas about success to you. Then list 5 people who have the same ideas of success as you do. |
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| 18. How will you interact differently with each of these people in the future? |
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Part 4: Bring it all together and sprinkle a little 80/20 thinking on top
Bring it all together
When you find and try out different ways to capitalize on your authentic self, while meeting your most important factors for work, while also living up to your definition of success, you have found a perfect job for you. By completing the first 3 parts of this exercise you may be now telling yourself that you are already pretty close to your ideal job and some tweaking around the edges is all you need to do OR you may have discovered that you are way off track and need to make many changes from where you are currently. In either case, start the process today!
The 80/20 rule states that that 80% of results flow from just 20% of the causes. When you are planning your next career move focus on the results you want and find the easiest way to them with least effort, least sacrifice and MOST pleasure (for more reading on this topic, I highly recommend, Richard Koch’s book, Living the 80/20 Way.).
| 19. What types of jobs will best align with your authentic self, key factors for work and regularly be able to satisfy your definition of success? |
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| 20. List at least 5 people you could talk to that will help you better understand the types of jobs you’ve listed above. What specifically can they help you with? |
| Example: Sue Smith, Recruitment Manager – can help me to understand salaries and current demand for the types of roles I’m looking for.Answer: |
| 21. How many days/hours a week do you want to work? For what purpose? |
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| 22. How much money do you want to earn per week/month/year? For what purpose have you chosen this amount? |
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| 23. Where do you want to be in your career 3 months from today? |
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| 24. Where do you want to be in your career in 5 years? |
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| 25. Where do you want to be in your career in 10 years? |
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| 26. What is the easiest and most fun way to obtain the results you want in this area of your life? |
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| 27. What steps are you prepared to commit to today to get your ideal career started? |
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In conclusion
If you managed to get though all these questions, I take my hat off to you because it means you are committed to tying new things to change and possibly improve your current situation. I hope you found the exercise helpful in shaking up your thinking enough to start to see a new path in your career and would love to hear about your insights!
Most of us spend 1/3 of our life doing some sort of work. This time can be miserable, drudgery or it can be rewarding and meaningful. The cool and the scary part is that when it comes down to it, it’s your choice. 
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