Imagine: we spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, from ages 18-70 working. That is a huge part of our lives. So why spend it doing something that makes us unhappy?

I truly believe that everyone can find a job or career that to some extent fulfills them in their everyday lives. Is it easy to find? No. Is it always easily attainable? No. But once you have a direction, it makes it much easier to search for and manifest that in your life. As a certified life coach, I have created a six-section worksheet for my coaching clients that I am going to go through here with you to help you find your happy in work and career.

This exercise is broken down into six sections: the first four with a set of questions, and the last two sections as a reflection based on your answers. Feel free to fill it out for yourself as we go through it!

1.       What brings you happiness in life?

This section is totally separate from career. This is where you include anything and everything that brings you joy in life. This can be riding your bike, cooking, or writing – write down as many points as you like, but at least five. I am going to use an example to demonstrate during this post.

At this point, this is a random list of what we like. As we go through the exercise, try to separate each section within your mind and don’t base your future answers on previous ones. This is the time to let your imagination run free.

2.       What causes you anxiety in life

This section is about everything you hate in life – big and small. For example, you don’t like germs or you don’t like when people get too close to you, or you hate public speaking – this could be anything! Here is our example continued:

Again, this is a very broad overview of what causes this individual’s anxiety, but lets continue onto the next two sections, and then we can see how this all connects at the end.

3.       What do you love about your job/career?

Now this is where we focus on specifics. If you want, you can reflect on your current job, or combine the jobs you have had in the past and include the best of all of them. For the sake of our example, this individual is an Administrative Assistant to a High Level Manager at a corporate company. Here you can include everything big and small that you love about where you work. Let’s continue to fill out the next section with our example.

4.       What do you dislike about your current job/career?

Now that we discussed the good, it is time to write down the bad. Again, anything big or small can be added at this point – nothing is too trivial! You really want to think deep inside yourself and give honest answers. Let’s continue with our example:

Awesome! Now that we have filled out the good and the bad, let’s take a look at the takeaways from these answers.

5.       Common themes

This section is really a reflection on your points, and looking at common themes. Here I will give you three examples of some of the possible common themes we can see from our example.

Based on the colored points, we can see that this person is organized, and likes to plan, but doesn’t like waking up early or being on a strict schedule. To me, that would mean a common theme is that they would prefer to work on their own schedule, and would be equipped to organize their time accordingly.

Based on these colored points, we can see that the individual likes being around people, but doesn’t like the corporate environment and dislikes reporting to someone. A takeaway for this would be that this person is independent, likes to work with others, but would prefer to call the shots themselves.

Based on this set of colored points, we can gather that this person has a lot of hobbies, and they enjoy taking their time and having time to do them. They want to feel like they can grow with everything that they do, and want to feel appreciated for their work. This means they need a job where they have an outlook for growth, and a positive environment where what they do matters.

6.       Takeaways

So now that we have completed five out of the six sections in this exercise, we can get a good idea of the type of job this individual would be good at or would like. Obviously, having a 1-1 coaching session would bring out much more information that would be even more helpful in determining the career direction this person is interested in, but for the sake of this exercise, I am going to give you some possible directions this person could go in their career based solely on their filled-in handout.

·         Personal chef

o   Since this individual likes to cook, this would be an assumed good career. Working in a restaurant can be very demanding and means long hours. Being a personal chef means this individual can do what they love while being independent, working for themselves, and organizing their own day-to-day schedule.

·         Blogger

o   This individual likes to write and read, which is why a blog would be a great step! Since they like to cook, it could be based around that, or their love of adventure since they like to bike. Being a blogger means you run your own site and social media platforms, work when it is convenient for you, and make your own schedule. You can also collaborate with others so you don’t feel alone.

·         Brick and mortar business owner

o   Whether it’s owning a bookstore or a bike shop – this person could live out their hobbies in their day-to-day. Running a business means you are your own boss and you can make the rules. Having a brick and mortar means you have a physical place customers go, so this individual will always be surrounded by people.

This worksheet is meant as a starting point for you to find the direction for your job or career when you feel lost. To reap full benefits, coaching sessions would really help elevate this to the next level! For coaching or mentoring, you can contact us at doubletake.lifestyle@yahoo.com.

Hope you found this helpful – comment below with any other questions you might have!