Page 138 - Talane Miedaner - Coach Yourself to a New Career_ 7 Steps to Reinventing Your Professional Life (2010)

126 COACH YOURSELF TO A NEW CAREER

The Core Values and Passions List

Another way to discover your values and passions is by simply
studying a list of the most common ones and seeing what pops out
that you most want to do. Review the extensive list that follows,
and circle the words that strike you as something you’d love your
life to be about. If you’d bounce out of bed in the morning to be
involved in it, that is a good indication it is a core value. You can
circle the heading or subheadings—it doesn’t matter; just select as
many values as appeal to you. If you weren’t worried about money
or status and you could wake up and do what you most desired,
what would it be? Imagine that money is no object. Remember
that this is not the time to be practical or realistic. Just pick what
makes your heart sing. If you hold a value that is not provided on
the list, feel free to add it.
The list entries are mostly verbs or other action-oriented words.
These are the things we most want to do in life. Some people find
that there is some overlap with their list of top four needs from the
Personal Requirements Quiz in Step 2. The difference between a
need and a value or passion is that you must fulfill your needs or
else there will be a negative consequence or reaction. For example,
if you don’t win, you may get crabby or irritable. However, if to win
is one of your values, that means that you would love your life to
be about winning or would prefer to win on a regular basis, but if
you don’t win, it isn’t the end of the world and you would be a good
sport about it. Conversely, if you have the need to win, you may
find it very difficult to be a gracious loser and may even storm out
of the room in anger if you lose a card or board game.
In other words, our personal requirements are what we need
to be our best, whereas our core values are about ultimate ful-
fillment in work and life—that is the state when we feel we are
fulfilling our destiny and living our purpose, when we are excited
about our work and are naturally motivated and energized. When
our careers are an expression of our core values, we are naturally
excited about life, and we eagerly embrace any work there is to