Do you enjoy a relaxing cup of herbal tea to ease the worries of the day? Which combination of ingredients would be your perfect choice of tea? Perhaps your favourite is green tea with strawberry and vanilla or perhaps it’s apple and ginger. There are so many types to choose from, all with a unique flavour made from a combination of different ingredients.
What would happen if you made yourself your favourite green tea with strawberry and vanilla, but there had been an error and the vanilla ingredient was missing? It would be a different flavour, wouldn’t it? The tea would have a slightly different taste. Each ingredient of your favourite tea has an important part to play in balancing the flavours to make it unique. When an ingredient is missing, the balance of flavours is disrupted, and it will no longer taste like your favourite tea. You may not enjoy it as much and feel slightly disappointed when you take your first sip. It has done very little to ease your worries.
You are also made up of a combination of ingredients which make you unique. These ingredients are your values, the fundamental principles you live by and are of absolute importance to you. They make up who you are (your unique flavour) and motivate you to achieve what you want to achieve.
Ensuring you are living your life in accordance with your values is an important consideration when considering a career change. This is because when a value is not being fulfilled or an ingredient is missing from your life, the balance in your life is disrupted and you will become less motivated to achieve your goals. You become stuck, feel stressed and lose some enjoyment of life.
If you have lost motivation, now is the perfect opportunity for you to consider your values. Take some time to think about what is important to you right now. You may wish to use headings such as wealth, health, family, work, relationships and fun and recreation to help you. When thinking about each area, consider what positive values you get from this area and start identifying repeated values. Examples of values include love, wisdom, purpose and fulfilment. Remember, each value will mean something different to different people. What is important is what it means to you.
Once you have your list of values, you can identify any that are absent from your life right now and identify ways to incorporate them into your goals, including your career ambitions. Any frustration you have felt in the past may have been due to a conflict with one of your values. You will be more motivated at work if the content of your job and the environment you work in are aligned to your values.
It doesn’t seem that long ago when I was writing my 2017 round up and already we are looking forward to our next Christmas break. I wonder what lies ahead for your career in 2019. Will it be a career change? Will you be returning to work? Are you facing any uncertainty at work, perhaps through redundancy? Perhaps you are contemplating having a break from work? Is there a promotion you have your eyes on?
Now I know many of you will own a work mug and feel a strong attachment with this mug, especially when others request to use it. Often it is the design of the mug reflecting part of our personality that forms this strong bond. It becomes part of you and who you are!
At a wedding I attended a few years ago, I started chatting to a lady during the reception. The reception was taking place in a marquee in the beautiful countryside and, as expected, everyone was in good spirits. The lady I was talking to was extremely friendly and, having introduced myself to her, I asked:
My third interview is with Toni Sharp who talks about how she created an inspirational portfolio career spending part of her working week in her role as an Employment and HR solicitor whilst also spending time working as a travel consultant. Portfolio careers are a great way of creating a career which matches your interests and provides flexibility. The increasing range and variety of jobs available allows for a more creative and flexible approach when designing your career path. Toni’s journey in creating her portfolio career is an inspirational read as she details how she made her decisions to find different roles which match her passions, skills and interests.
Job applications can be time consuming and it can be tempting to throw everything down on paper and get applying! However, if you’re keen to perfect your CV there are a few pitfalls to be wary off. Avoid these and you can write a brilliant CV that stands out and impresses recruiters in no time. Below CV-Library explains what these pitfalls are and how you can get over them with some helpful advice.
ns for secondary school students. Working with this age group is always a good reminder of the importance of being prepared for the evolving job market by initially moving them away from choosing specific job titles and instead creating a career vision. As these young people may not be entering the world of work for another 7+ years, a vision will enable them to be adaptable when faced with different and changing options for progressing their career as well as focussed when making the best decisions for them.
Tessa Armstrong 