Mindfulness & Your Career Values
Mindfulness & Your Career Values
Are you thinking about taking a career break or making a whole new change of career? Are you a bit stuck in a rut in your current position and wondering what your options are?
Does the very thought of all this send you into fits of anxiety? You’re not alone and one thing I’ve started doing with clients is a bit of mindfulness at the beginning of each session. This could be a bit of breathing, some visualization or calm meditation on a specific area.
Let’s sit down calmly and think about your career values. Start by taking 3 deep relaxing breaths into your tummy, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Sit up nice and straight but relax your shoulders down. Close your eyes if you feel comfortable to do so.
Think about where you are currently in your career:
➤ How do your belly, chest, and head each feel when you think about work?
➤ What are the emotions that you can associate with these feelings?
➤ What would have a positive effect on your work at this point in time?
➤ Have you spoken to anyone about how you are feeling? Are you going to now?
➤ If you make some changes in your work life how will you feel then?
Slowly start to open your eyes and come back into the room. On a scale of 1-10 how are your feeling about your work life?
Now that you have meditated upon the above try to answer the following questions:
· What are your values when it comes to your professional life?
Here are some example Values:
§ Autonomy
§ Building & Creating
§ Camaraderie
§ Casual work environment
§ Challenge
§ Changing the world
§ Collaborating with others
§ Competition
§ Creativity & Innovation
§ Diversity
§ Employee benefits
§ Fast pace
§ Fun
§ Helping others
§ Influencing others
§ Intellectually demanding work
§ Job security
§ Location
§ Moral/spiritual fulfillment
§ Opportunities for advancement
§ Opportunities to lead
§ Opportunities to learn new things
§ Physical work
§ Power
§ Prestige
§ Recognition
§ Risk-taking
§ Routine and Structure
§ Sharing ideas or information
§ Solving problems
§ Supportive management
§ Team membership
§ Time freedom/ Flexibility
§ Travel
§ Work/life balance
§ Working outside
· Are these values being met in your current position and/or current company?
· When have your values been most severely tested and why? What was the outcome? Does this still affect you now?
· What values are most difficult for you to maintain and why?
· What practices, structures and relationships do you have in place to support you in maintaining your values?
· What practices, structures, and relationships do you have in place that makes it difficult to maintain your values?
You should now be starting to understand a bit better what’s holding you back and perhaps what you could leverage to help you put your best foot forwards.
Now that you have ascertained your values – which companies do you know that have values which are similar to yours? It’s always important to understand a company’s Mission, Vision & Values such as: Safety, Worker’s Rights, Diversity, Quality, Inclusion, Equity, Flexibility, Environmental Conscience etc
So here is your homework:
· Research different companies in your field and their positions which could be of interest to you;
· Find at least 3 companies who have the same values as you;
· Make sure that your CV, Cover Letter & LinkedIn make your values noticeably clear;
· Reach out to relevant people in those 3 companies and start a conversation with them about your values, add them to your professional network;
· Write an article for your LinkedIn which you can post to start an active conversation centered around your values
And let’s see what happens when you start to focus on the things that are most important to you! I’d really be interested to hear from anyone who gives this Mindfulness exercise a go! What were the results you found from it?