The million dollar question

8 April 2024

In this article we continue to explore our core values and the impact they have on your career.  If you have been travelling along with me so far you will have made an initial list of your core values, then tested them for their authenticity. In this post we give your values one last shake to make sure they are solid and ones you have adopted rather than ones you think you 'should' have.

Many of us will have daydreamed of what we would do if we won the lottery, or were left a hefty inheritance from a long lost relative. It's a fun mental exercise, and an enjoyable conversation to have with a loved one over a slow dinner, but it is a conversation few of us take seriously.  Well, in this next stage of testing your values I would like you to do this daydreaming with a bit more gravitas.

Seriously!  

By yourself, or with a loved one, sit down and delve deeply into what you really would do if money suddenly became something you never had to earn again (assume full physical and mental health).  Get concrete and write down exactly what it is you would do.  Describe how you would fill your days. After the initial flurry and enjoyment of paying off your major debts and possibly doing some gifting what activities would you like to wake to each day?  What do you want life to look like in 6 months, 3 years, 8 years?

Are you spending your time being creative?  Have you pursued that business idea that has been tugging at your mind for years?  Are you volunteering at the community centre?  Have you booked yourself into 6 monthly yoga retreats in India?  Has nothing changed at all and no one knows about your windfall?

This exercise is useful, not because it is likely to happen, but because what you choose to do when you are totally free to choose gives you a wonderful window into your values.

Review your multi-million dollar daydreams against the emerging list of your values.  Are your daydreams of being a lottery winner reflected in the values you have listed?  Often there are little adjustments to be made - a value to let go from the core list, a new value to add, or simply a slight refocus.

Have fun with this, then I will see you in a couple of weeks when we explore tensions that can arise between our values and what this means for our career (and life) decisions.

As always, wishing you a flourishing career.

Katherine