Monday, November 21, 2005

What Should I Do With My Life?

Back in 2003 I finally did the exercises in What Color is Your Parachute. I had a list of exactly what I wanted and no idea what kind of job would have those characteristics. It felt awesome to feel clear about my wants though. Because I had such clarity, when I heard about my grad program, I was able to make a quick decision. Now that I'm going to graduate, I need to clarify again. It's hard for me to stop in the middle of all my life tasks and do the neccesary writing and thinking to get clear. It feels like it will take too much time and I need to HURRY and LOOK FOR A JOB. (panic, panic.) However, I know from experience that being really clear about what I want will speed my search up. Ok, deep breath, calm down and go write...

What Should I Do With My Life?
...you'll be a lot happier if you aren't fighting the value system around you. Find one that enforces a set of beliefs that you can really get behind. There's a powerful transformative effect when you surround yourself with like-minded people.

3 comments:

jo_jo said...

Go, Braidwood! Being in a good place around good people greatly increases my happiness - part of why I'm in the blogosphere. One exercise I often use with clients is a values identification matrix. Email me if you want to try it and I'll dig out a copy for you. Basically, you come up with 15-20 things that are important to you, from chocolate to family to self-actualization, and rank them. Because whatever job you get, if it doesn't allow you to express a few of your top five values, it's going to be a hard slog.

Cheers,
Joanna

Catana said...

And if you're not lucky enough to find like-minded people to surround yourself with? Your values may be different enough that you need to acknowledge that being yourself and doing what's important with your life requires being more or less alone. Fighting the value system around you might be what you need to do with your life. Your job isn't necessarily what you want to be doing with your life. It's just a way of surviving so that you can tackle more important things.

Braidwood said...

Hi Catana,

Yes, it sounds like you have had to be a value warrior before.