Looking at our past patterns can sometimes help us see the present more clearly!
In making contact with our work “passions” in life it is helpful to look back at our careers and experiences and analyze them in terms of what made us happy, and what didn’t. Here below is a format I use with my clients to help them to systematically identify patterns in their histories.
I suggest you write this out longhand with pen or pencil rather than on a computer. This exercise takes some time, but is well worth it; you may see patterns both in your approach to your working life, and in the actual experiences themselves, that you didn’t realize were there!
Photo credit: Alvimann from morguefile.com
1. Childhood/youth
a. As a child what did you “want to be when you grew up”? What were your dreams/hopes/secret desires?
b.What were your hobbies/interests? How did you spend your time during summer vacations?
c. What subjects interest you most at school? Which ones bored you the most?
d.What did your parents do for a living? How did that influence your decisions about your work and future? How did your parents’ value systems around work affect you?
e.What did you decide to study at the college/university level? How, if any, was that influenced by others (parents, friends, culture, etc.) Were there any aspects of yourself you felt you left behind in order to do what was expected of you by others?
2. Young adulthood/early career.
a. In college/university what did you plan to do as a career? If you didn’t know how did that feel?
b. If you took “elective” courses in school what were they?
c. Hobbies/interests/individual study issues? Special courses you took outside of school?
d. What beliefs do you think you had about jobs/careers at this stage of your life?
3. Adulthood
a. Your career history, List each of your positions or list them categorically and list the parts of these jobs you have loved, and the parts you have not. How have your personal desires changed as a result of each of your jobs? What did you learn about yourself in each of these jobs?
You can use this format if you choose to!
Years
Company and/ or Position
Things I loved
Things I didn’t like
What did I learn about myself?
b. List all your qualities as an employee, manager, and contributor: The talents and skills you know you possess, and also the personal skills/talents/characterisitics your colleagues, bosses and/or clients have commented on, informlly or in performance reviews:
As a Contributor I have the following talents and skills:
Managers/Bosses have said:
Colleagues have said:
Clients have said:
c. List the things you have NOT liked about your jobs and parts you would rather not do. This can also include “structure” of the jobs, time spent, etc.
d. With what things/issues do you see you have a pattern of behavior?
e. What have your consistent feelings been around your working life?
Conclusion
What are the trends you see in your own autobiography:
About your jobs?
About any repeated patterns?
About your own choices and behavior?
About how you have spent your time?
About your own fears/issues you perhaps did not want to address?
About your true “loves”/passions/qualities?
Given your considerations above and the working path you have followed, can you identify some of your “beliefs” and patterns of behavior around your working life?
How has money entered in to your choices about work… if it has?
What other patterns do you see?
What have you learned about yourself from this exercise?
Would you like to explore your autobiography, and what it could mean for your present and future? Please contact me with questions or comments.
