Increasingly individuals are seeking authenticity and deeper connection they want to align their values with their actions. Can your head follow your heart, instead of ruling over it? How can we bring our full selves to our life and work so that we can align our beliefs with our experience? Here are some considerations to create more happiness around your work and life balance.
Minimize disconnection
Do you separate how you act personally from what you do professionally? Working in ways that don’t support your values can be difficult to maintain. Compromising one’s integrity can become intolerable. Why? Because there comes a point when we can no longer delude ourselves. Many people try to live with ambivalence and separation, doing things that don’t reflect what they really care about, but eventually a breakdown will occur. Examples include getting passed over for a promotion that you were hoping for, or we having a car accident because you weren’t paying attention or falling down and hurting yourself when you were looking at your cell phone, instead of in front of you. Pay attention to signs that something may not be quite right. When something takes a personal toll, you will feel it and it will no longer be possible to ignore that something needs to change.
Here are some clues to help you realize that you may need to take some steps to re-prioritize your values and what is important in your life. Keep these suggestions in mind before it is too late.
RECOGNIZE THE SIGNS: Does something feel out of sync in your environment are you monitoring yourself or do you sense that your colleagues are completely different outside of work? Do you find ways to minimize or hide parts of yourself at work? This can be an indication that something may not be a fit. Are there ways that you may be compromising yourself that don’t feel healthy? Finding ways to fit in and get along with colleagues is important and helpful, but make sure that you are not losing sight of your key values check in if what you care about aligns with where you work and who you work with.
KNOW WHAT MATTERS: Are you clear on what is most important to you? Many of us don’t really know what we care about because we never stopped to think about it. Make the time to consider what values drive your choices. Evaluate if what you care about aligns with what you are doing for your work and the company you keep (both professionally and personally).
GATHER INFORMATION AND GET FEEDBACK: Do you know what’s working and what isn’t? Find out if there is room for you to bring more of yourself to work. Look for other people who seem authentic and find a way to connect with them to see how they manage to prioritize themselves. If you sense that there might not be a great fit with what is important to you and how you are currently working, evaluate whether you can promote change within your organization. For example, could you move to another role or set more boundaries around your work. If adapting within your business seems unlikely or challenging, it may be time to start exploring how to change where you work.
TAKE ACTION: The best way to make a change is to start with one step change up some aspect of your life. It doesn’t need to be a wholesale overhaul of every aspect of how you are living start small. Start paying more attention to the things that give you pleasure. How do you want to spend your free time? What do you really care about?
As we approach year-end, this is a great time to assess the past and look towards the future.
- Where are you now?
- What have you accomplished over the past year?
- Where do you want to be a year from now? In 3 to 5 years?
- What needs to change for you to achieve your goals?
These are some questions to consider as you think about what you want for yourself. Just as companies need to compare their annual performance to benchmarks they set at the beginning of each year, we can go through the same process for ourselves to evaluate what is next for us. We get to choose! If you would like some support around this exploration process, we offer a complimentary strategy session, and can share some perspective. Contact us to schedule your 30 minute call now. Why wouldn’t you want to be the best and happiest version of yourself?
