CareerTruth goal is to guide your personal fulfillment through your unique career. CareerTruth believes it’s imperative to know that work is a part of our lives, not something to be balanced as an equal. We call this work life FLOW. Work Life Balance is a myth based on a false sense of parity. Your work must flow within your life. To properly establish your purpose and build a plan, we must account for your PERSONAL Prioritized Goals and your Personal Inventory. Over time, your personal prioritized goals and circumstances can change. You must be self aware to make conscious decisions to “know your flow”.
In one season of your career you may have very few substantial obligations that require your time and resources. In another season, you may have limitations to your freedoms that require you not accept more work responsibilities, travel for work or take risks that would jeopardize financial security. For example, early in your career you have much more freedom to learn and try new experiences with few limits. In the middle of your career you have many new expenses and may even have started permanent relationships or family. Obligations are created that require you to provide that may limit your ability to do whatever you want. Yet, towards the middle or later in your career, when your lifestyle has matured and some expenses are well under control, you may have a real yearning to do the work you feel provides a new level of impact or giving back to others. Recognizing where you are in any season of your career and making intentional choices is Freedom. Freedom is not the ability to do anything you want. We must recognize the choices that provide a “gain”, but also we must recognize those choices we make that are “opportunity costs” or sacrifices. In any season of your career, CareerTruth wants you to take account of these personal priorities of your time, flexibility, needs, wants, and use of financial resources to support the decisions you need to make your work life flow.
As you build your Personal inventory, you will document what is most important to you today as it pertains to personal prioritized goals related to your work. These include your wants and or needs on the following goals of your life delivered through work –
- How much money you want to make and major elements of benefits provided by an organization that employs you
- Flexibility in work location
- Commute or travel expectations for work
- How much risk or security you need from your work
- The type of impact your work will have in terms of span, scope, or mission
- Cultural elements of the place and people you wish to work with, and more
These choices and prioritized goals can help you get clarity on what is important to you and why as you are presented with options for growth in your career. CareerTruth expects that by prioritizing these personal choices related to work and aligning them to your professional development plan, you will be able to have a positive and confident discussion with your current company as to what you want to do to be better.
Next you will focus on the areas related to your life’s prioritized goals beyond work that you need to make sure are flowing well. These are those most significant goals in this season of your life that you must care for to be a healthy, well-rounded human with relationships and experiences beyond work. It is a CareerTruth that work must not cause personal life failures. If you have an ongoing account of what is most important outside of your work, you will be able to better manage the work itself – for Work Life Flow.
In this upcoming activity, you will be asked to prioritize important elements of your personal life beyond work such as your time with family, friends, improving your physical, mental and or spiritual health, needing to live in a certain location, traveling or activities for pleasure, and community involvement. You will use these prioritized goals later as we develop your goals and action plans aligned to these prioritized goals.
You also need to reflect on certain activities you will want to stop doing. Sometimes, we have habits, behaviors, or activities that are holding us back from being our best in our professional performance or personal life. This is private and personal to you. You may ask for input from others as you may not see it easily. In a future milestone of your Purpose to Plan Journey, you will build your personal Board of Advisors made up of people you respect and can count on for ongoing support. One of your Advisors could be helpful to this area of your continuous development.
For all the decisions you make in your career, we must make sure to account for your holistic life. They say “you can’t have it all” and that may be true in any one season of your life. You may at times need to make choices that focus on certain professional or personal prioritized goals while reducing your ability to do everything you want. By highlighting what is most important in any season, you can know the truth and be free to make the best decision for you at any time. This is a CareerTruth. There are always opportunity costs for every career decision you make. CareerTruth wants to help you see them and set the proper expectations for those decisions.
Remember, your career has three arcs – Mastery, Freedom, and Legacy. Soon we will work on your Values and your purpose. Your purpose will be the long-term legacy idea that allows you to move towards an outcome you desire even though you may need to make some tough decisions along the way. Mastery is about continuing to grow your capabilities to be your best you. Freedom is making great choices while realizing you only have so much time and resources. Later, you will dive into Legacy which is your ultimate unique purpose that is registered in how many people you positively impact…in your family, community, market, industry, and more.