Does your heart sing at the thought of “going to work” on Monday morning or quiver with anxiety? If it is the latter, perhaps taking a look at how your career and personal values align with your current situation, may help to find what will make your heart sing.
My bumble bee picture was taken 2 years ago, when I was starting to really question what made my heart sing in terms of my personal life, and whether my values were aligned to my life. For me this picture represents my life moving forward, aligned to my core values and what makes my sing in terms of my career and personal life.
I posted the LinkedIn post below a year ago, and I was reflecting on it today. Wow, 12 months can make a massive difference.
Despite currently working from home, I still make and prioritise a to do list for Monday morning before I finish up work for the weekend. PS. I’m looking forward to the time when I can make another batch of my chocolate orange brownies to share with my team. I hope that it will be before the end of the year.
Personally for me, Lockdown 2.0 here in Melbourne does seem harder than before. Despite this, and feeling tired at times, especially from too much screen time, I still look forward to work on a Monday morning, and my postgraduate studies which is keeping me on my toes, but in a good way. I love the fun interaction with my team, and this is something that I know is helping to sustain me during Lockdown.
Below are some tips / pondering questions and quick activities to help you identify your values and what makes your heart sing. I hope you find these helpful.
People have commented that I use the phrase “what makes your heart sing” when describing the things/actions that bring joy & happiness to your life.
I encourage you to think about your work, & what brings you joy & happiness in your career.
I’ve listed below some questions to help you reflect on ‘what makes your heart sing’. These could also be adapted to use in other parts of your life
* List 3 things that attracted you to your current role
* How do you currently enjoy yourself at work?
* Who have you, or do you really love working with?
* What qualities do these people have?
* Which of your qualities do you most enjoy using?
Are there other questions or activities people use to help identify what makes their heart sing?
Our values serve as a compass pointing out what it means to be true to oneself, but when was the last time you took time to identify and/or clarify your values?
When considering a career change or before applying for a job, aligning your personal / career values with the position is helpful
Below is a quick activity to help clarify your values.
* Use several related words together to form a string describing the value. Separating the words with slash marks makes the string easier to read.
For example;
Integrity / Honesty / Walk-the-talk
Integrity / Whole / Congruent
Leadership / Empower / Collaborative
Leadership / Decisive / Powerful
Here is a quick values sorting activity
* Make a list of values you identify in your current role. Sort this list into the following columns: Love / Like / Tolerate / Dislike or Hate
* How do these values align with your personal values? Take it one step further & repeat for previous roles. Do you see a pattern of values appearing?
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