Page 148 - Talane Miedaner - Coach Yourself to a New Career_ 7 Steps to Reinventing Your Professional Life (2010)

136 COACH YOURSELF TO A NEW CAREER

MY HIGHLIGHTS/
PEAK EXPERIENCES CORE VALUE EXPRESSED

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Use Your Core Values and Passions

to Assess Your Career Options

As advertised, you are now set to start designing your career
around your core values and passions. The more closely your
career aligns with your core values and passions, the happier and
more fulfilled you’ll be at work. This is when work truly becomes
play. I usually ask my clients to start by creating a values-based
project or two, regardless of what else they are doing in their lives.
For instance, when I was working at the bank, I decided that in
order to express my value to lead and inspire others, I could start
by leading the First-Time Home Buyers’ Seminar. I wouldn’t have
wanted to make a career out of this, but it was good practice for
speaking in front of an audience.
Let me relate a personal example of the power of core val-
ues—this may seem a bit out-there, but it isn’t. When I decided
I wanted to become a professional speaker (to express my values
to lead and inspire), I started by taking courses on how to lead
seminars offered by a personal growth and development com-
pany. At one point, I had a major disagreement with the trainers’
values (they had an aggressive, hard-sell sales strategy that ran