I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions; they are often contrived and dropped rapidly. However, I am a huge advocate of setting goals. It’s a key component to my work with clients, and the arrival of a new year fits many folks’ mindset as a good time for self-analysis and goal setting. My work with clients is often about stepping back to reassess what’s happening in the job search or job itself. What could be different? What goals could be set towards positive movement or change?
I often ask what may seem like a silly question. However, it does a deep dive into the essence our work identities and career management. So, I pose it to you, my readers.
Why do you work?
If everything else about a job is peeled away, I believe one thing is left: Values. They are at the heart of every career decision and move. Do you work to contribute to something? To earn a living? To make a name for yourself? These are all value-based reasons; and there are many others. The point is that values are at the center of every career decision and movement.
No matter who you are, what you do, or what your aspirations are, you want the same things from your work that I do and everyone else does:
- Work that is interesting in and of itself
- Work that you can be appreciated for
- Work that has some meaning or importance for others
Certainly, you may need to earn a living to pay the bills. But if your work does not fulfill any deeper need than survival, it will gnaw away at you and easily spill into your overall satisfaction with your work and life.
Broken down, I believe there are four value aspects by which you can assess how your values align with your work: material, emotional, social and spiritual.
- Material: What will I earn from this job? Will I make a good living to support my family in the style we wish to afford? Enough to go back to school, retire comfortably, pay down my debt, or other goals dependent on finances?
- Emotional: Will I like the work itself, the actual experience of doing the job? Will I look forward to going to work? Will I feel challenged? How will I feel about the inevitable problems or issues that will arise in this work environment? Will the positives outweigh the negatives?
- Social: Am I comfortable being with the folks at work as much as I am with the work itself? Do I like and respect them? Will my connection with them move into my personal life? Do I enjoy interaction with others in this job, i.e. clients, vendors, supervisors, top leadership?
- Spiritual: Will this work make a positive impact in some way? To people? Projects? Services? To making something better? How? Do people appreciate the work I do? How much would my work be missed if I were not there to do it?
Life is not black and white; not neat or simple. These four elements of Values are not embraced equally by people, but I believe they are part of every job or career choice. I highlight them here, because any dimension ignored completely will no doubt come back to bite you. An example:
- You make a salary with built-in increases that will provide you a secure living, budgeted and aligned with your lifestyle. Material. Check.
- You love your actual work. It allows you to create outdoor architectural landscapes. You can be creative; you can see permanent results from your work. Emotional. Check.
- You know that the companies and residents love your work that is green and sustainable in addition to being beautiful. Spiritual. Check.
- The people you work with have habits of speaking about topics that make you uncomfortable. Their conversations typically extend into complaints about the employer organization, off-color jokes, and politically-charged comments. How long before you will want out of this situation? Social. Not Checked.
No job is perfect. There will be pros and cons. I challenge you to create a value-based resume. I challenge you to think about due diligence when job hunting. Finding the job surprisingly is often not the hard part; it’s staying interested when you’ve discovered a value out of alignment. It’s worth researching and vetting to improve your chances of landing a job where you are doing something you value, affecting those around you, feeling part of something worthwhile, and making a comfortable living at it.
Your values are important. Don’t settle too soon for a job that doesn’t give you what you need. You deserve to have your work mesh with your four value aspects as much as possible. Sometimes, you can change the work to do this, rather than change jobs. In my next post, I’ll share some tips on three changes you can make in your job if it’s not ticking all the boxes.
So no; I will never tell you to make a list of New Year’s resolutions just for the sake of doing it. They dictate and focus on the DO. But setting value-driven goals will always ring true; they will help you BE who you want, doing what you want and where you want it. Don’t you deserve that?
Photo: Living Equals Learning
