Day 1’s challenge was about coming up with the things you want your career to give you.
These “things” like work-life balance etc are all being driven by values important to you.
And when you live your life in line with your values you will be happy, if you live against them you will be sad.
It’s likely you are taking this challenge because you are dissatisfied with your career for one reason or another.
And I can guarantee it’s because your job is impeding one of your core values- the question is what one?
I’ll leave that thought with you.
But now onto Day 2’s challenge.
I once had a family lawyer (I believe an attorney if you are from the US) come see me asking to change careers.
He had the work-life balance, the salary, the status, the lifestyle – I was sitting there thinking “why have you come to me?! You’ve got it all!”.
After exploring further, it turns out he was so unhappy in his career because he didn’t like the day in and day out of his role.
He wasn’t utilising his skills to their full potential, and he loathed the admin side of being a lawyer (which unfortunately is nothing like you see on TV- It’s all admin very little action).
So it doesn’t matter if you have the best career in the world, if it’s mundane, boring and not fulfilling then you will still be unhappy.
Which is what day 2 is all about.
By making sure what you will do, day in and day out – is what you’d enjoy doing.
Because when you don’t enjoy the daily tasks.
The bread and butter of the job you’re doing.
You’re going to hate your job.
The job might give you everything you want (WHO YOU ARE / VALUES).
But you will HATE the day in and day out of the job (WHAT THEY DO).
Anyways, let’s get stuck into the task.
What I want you to do today is think about your average day.
And I want you to think about the times…
When you feel engaged. (Think about activities that you can concentrate on easily).
When you feel energised. (Think about activities when you feel motivated and energetic).
And when you feel inflow. (fully immersed in a feeling of energised focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity – basically when you could blink and hours have passed before your eyes).
When you notice yourself doing something that makes you feel like the above?
Take note and write it down if it made you feel energised, engaged or inflow.
ACTION 1: I want you to come up with at LEAST 10 skills/activities you enjoy using/doing at work.
For example, I find a lot of people in retail love organising things.
Whether it’s people or warehouses.
We all seem to LOVE it (I know I do lol).
Catch the time flying when you are organising?
Then stick it down, that’s a skill you enjoy using and you’re probably pretty good at it too!
Like yesterday’s activity, don’t filter anything.
Just because you don’t think it’s an important activity.
That doesn’t mean that’s the case.
Don’t you think there’s a job out there that’s sole job is to organise things?
Of course, there is!! (e.g event planning, project managers, logistics, coordinators and so on!)
Here’s a tip if you’re getting stuck.
Try looking at the following…
Environments – what around you made you feel that way?
Interactions – what people (or types of people) made you feel that way?
Objects – what tools or things were using that made you feel that way?
Here are a few ideas from past clients of mine…
Leading people.
Managing people.
Delivering excellent customer service.
Helping people.
Organising people or things.
Problem-solving.
Analysing numbers.
Spreadsheets (lol definitely not mine).
Working as part of a team.
Working on your own.
Being creative.
Communicating with people (be it written, visual or audio).
In summary, a day is made up of many moments.
And it’s your job to try and capture what made that day at work great or bad.
The best thing about this task?
Is that it will start to give you potential career ideas.
Say you feel in flow when your organising things…
Well, type “organising” into a job search website and it will bring up jobs with that keyword.
You’ll start to discover jobs you’ve never thought of using this approach!
But more on that later in the challenge!
RECAP
(1) When work gives you what you want (your values).
(2) And it aligns with what you do (using the skills you enjoy using).
(3) That’s when you find meaningful (and work you will LOVE!).
Come up with at LEAST 10 skills/activities you enjoy using/doing at work.
Remember to post your lists in the comments below!