Understanding what makes you tick means your career choices will be meaningful and make you happy. You can start by exploring your career values, skills and motivations.

Part One: Career Values

Career values act like an inner compass and give you laser- focused clarity for any decisions you need to make about your life and your career.

The power of the reflection

Whether you are at the start of your career or changing career, this is an exciting time with so many options, so many possibilities, it can feel overwhelming. How do you go about working out what is going to be right for you, make you feel happy and add meaning to your life? You don't want to be one of the unhappy people out there who feel disengaged in jobs and careers they don't really like, either because they just took the first thing that came along, you know, the kind of careers or jobs they just kind of fell into, or the careers that sort of fell onto them, through family expectations or labels that got attached to them earlier on in life.

Why is knowing your career values so important?

Knowing your values means you don't allow anyone to put a label on you! Your values are the lens through which you see the world, they impact how you make your life decisions, your choices, how you know the things you stand for and care about and they are as unique as you are and there is no judgement attached to them. By getting to know them and being able to talk about them to employers, you can find the kind of organisation you'd love to work for, whose purpose and values match yours, whose mission inspires you. You don't have to settle for just anything.

What else do you get from knowing your career values?

Getting clear on your values, increases your self-awareness, helps you set meaningful goals for yourself, helps you become more assertive because you know what your boundaries are and what you stand for. Your career values help you make the right career decisions for you, not for other people, not from peer pressure, family pressure, or even social pressure.

A match made in heaven

Working in a job that allows you to meet and live those career values means you will enjoy your working life, have jobs and a career you'll love, and be able to show up more authentically with a job or career that supports your wellbeing. Now doesn't that sound like time well spent? Have I hooked you?

How to get started

There is a simple process you need to move through, how long you spend on it is up to you. Here are some simple statements for you to compete to start to get clarity around your career values.

• I feel happy when I...
• I feel successful when I...
•  I feel purposeful when I...
• I feel fulfilled when I...

Now you have identified those good times, really connect with them, and make them bigger, brighter, bolder in your mind. Visualise them or get a real sense of them.

• What were you doing?
• Where were you? What kind of space were you in?
• Who were the people around you?
• Who were you helping/working with? What were you helping them do, achieve, or create?
• And why was this meaningful to you?

Think about your closest friends, your family, or even a celebrity or influencer you admire for who they are, what they do, what they stand for. Which of their values make you admire them? How does relate to what is important to you?

Unlock your potential!

Thinking about your career values helps you get to know yourself at a completely different level, it helps you build your confidence in how you present yourself to the world, in interviews and it helps you tell an employer why they should hire you. Try this exercise with friends and see how your values differ or match and complement each other's. How do your career values show up in your life?

Suggested Reading

> Self-reflection

> Check out this list of career values

> Find out more about being in the zone

> Gallup State of the Global Workplace Report 2022

By Anna Gordon - Certified Business Coaching Psychologist ABP CBCP