Signals that it’s time to take stock

Work can play a big part in our lives. Our work can become a place for which we lose energy, interest and will. What are the signals that it’s time to take stock and see if you need to leave the path you are on, or do something different while walking your current path?

The Signals…

Where you find yourself saying or thinking things like:

• I feel trapped
• I feel bored
• I don’t like who I am/am becoming
• I’m telling the same negative stories over and over again
• I’m frustrated with the people around me
• I don’t like what I see or hear around me
• I’m being asked to do things that don’t sit well with me
• Life’s too short (What I’ve got now isn’t really the most important thing)
• I feel I’m missing out
• I’m envious at what others are doing
• I’m feeling stressed – this can’t go on
• I don’t feel valued anymore

Taking Stock – what to do

Take a pause – Time out, time off and time away from the current situation can enable fresh perspective. Create space to explore and ponder. Escape normal life and turn off phone, email, say No to appointments and interruptions. Turn on the power of your mind and heart so things that may be bubbling away under the surface have a chance to emerge. Entertain multiple questions and possibilities, don’t limit yourself to a few.

Work with a coach – Engage a professional who can listen empathetically and tell you things honestly. Treat this as professional space, and don’t depend on your friends and ‘significant others’ to keep listening and advise you.

Take micro-breaks – Make solitary breathing space/time a regular occurrence. Daily or weekly. Do meditation or something that allows for stillness and healthy breathing.

Indulge your interests – Pick some books, podcasts, videos just because they are interesting and not because they directly relate to your work. Revel in the tangents these take you on. Be open to things you haven’t previously thought about or been exposed to.

Explore and (re)write your four stories – Reveal the past story. Articulate the current story. Imagine the future story. Define the gap story. The internal narratives you tell yourself are shaping your reality and your choices. Make them narratives that help rather than hinder you. (For more on the Four stories – see four videos on YouTube playlist.)

Hang out with new smart interesting people – Find a group where you are not known and be present. Listen and observe. See who you are and what you reveal with these unfamiliar people. Allow yourself to be influenced.

Re-examine what is value for you – Do the Value Exchange Ledger Activity and see what Value you seek to contribute, and what Value you seek to get from your work. These change over time, and can change in response to circumstances.

Take a values inventory – Think about the core values and beliefs you hold that guide your decisions and actions. Are you living in alignment with these? Is your current situation enabling you to live in alignment with your values? Have you shifted in what you believe in the past decade and does your present story align with your values?

Imagine potential futures – Be creative with writing, speaking or drawing as you engage in imagination. Play with concepts like ‘A Day in my Life 20 years from now’, or ‘What I would be doing tomorrow if I took a different path at 20’.  Dive into your imaginings by thinking about the physical environment; the people who would be around you; and the way you would do typical activities like dressing, travelling, etc. Don’t censor yourself. Don’t treat this as goal setting. Be playful with no expectation that you have to be constrained by what you know or have right now.

Keep a Joy journal – Keep a journal for 30 days. Note the things that happened each day that delighted you, made you smile, or gave you a happy buzz.  At the end of the 30 days, look over your list and consider patterns. What skills were you using? What conditions were involved? Note the factors you should attend to, to recreate joy moments in your workscape.

Play – Do something simply for the joy of doing it, not as a means to an end. Play can melt away stress and invigorate inquisitive exploratory parts of the brain to stimulate breakthrough thinking. Remember what you did as a child that excited you, and recreate that.

Choose your trade-offs – There may be hard choices to make about boundaries to be made or reinstated. Trade-offs often require a choice between multiple things you want. Ask “Which problem to I want? What do I want to go big on?” rather than “How can I do all things? What do I have to give up?” If you don’t act on the options yourself, then you are choosing to wait to be acted upon – and you lose control.

As the Sovereign of your workscape you have the authority and power to choose what you will do. Even when the choices are hard and not ideal, you still have control that you can exercise – including taking stock of your current situation. May you find and use the good energy that comes from purposeful action.

Author

Helen Palmer, Founder of Self unLimited, has not followed a traditional path in her ‘career’, nor does she intend to. It’s been her personal experience that she’s made plans, then life happened and things went in a direction that wasn’t anticipated. As a consequence she’s fascinated by the emergent and serendipitous approach to life and work. She thinks about ways to help others navigate the future of work, given the ambiguous possibilities and opportunities if there is courage to take that journey. And for good measure, she likes to inject humour and originality into her work.

(Amended) Photo by Crissy Jarvis on Unsplash