Page 48 - Free Yourself From

Taking Action for Knowing and Being Yourself 31

handful that are nonnegotiable. These are your few core values and
thus your compass. They will help you to define your success and
make choices. These are the ones to make transparent to yourself
and others, especially during job interviews and discussions about
promotions.

Values in Action

For an example of how values fit into situations, consider this hypo-
thetical example:
Sue is considering taking a new job. It will give her a promo-
tion she’s been wanting, great visibility, and a nice salary increase.
She feels flattered and excited that it’s been offered to her, but as
she tries to imagine herself doing it, she keeps getting a knot in her
stomach. She doesn’t know why because she knows that she thinks
it’s an amazing opportunity. She explores the job further and real-
izes that the knot settles in when she tries to figure out the travel
it will demand—she’ll be on the road 50 percent of her time. But
Sue just had her second child and she’s realizing that her family hap-
piness—balancing work with being a mother—are top priorities
right now, and this job, fabulous though it might be, conflicts with
that. She decides that taking the offer would create more frustra-
tion, unhappiness, and stress than not taking it and asks them to
keep her in mind in two or three years when she might be in a dif-
ferent place.

Assessing Your Life-Work Values Exercise

The following values chart (Table 2-1) will allow you to avoid run-
ning headlong into the type of conflict Sue had to wrestle with. Use
it to assess your level of satisfaction with your personal and work