How to find a job you love: Creating alignment between work, life and values.
5 proven steps for building a purposeful career and lifestyle.
Are you feeling like your life and work aren’t supporting one another anymore? You’re not alone.
Millions of people have quit their jobs due to burnout and misalignment in the past few years. Many have the desire to create a career that aligns more with their priorities and desires.
But where do you even start to figure out how to find a job you love? Start here with a guide on defining what happiness in your career means to you – and how to find it.
Creating Alignment in Work and Life
Too many of us are living and working at an unsustainable pace. We rush through our workdays, weekend to-dos – and ultimately, our lives.
Our task lists are lengthy, making it feel like there's always more to do. So it's hard to feel at peace with ourselves and stay in the present moment.
We tend to blame this feeling on the fact that we have so much to do in our busy lives. And I totally understand – you do have a lot going on. But I'm here to show you a different way.
You can achieve everything that’s truly important to you – while feeling at peace in your life.
But it requires getting intentional about your priorities, routines, and how you spend your energy.
If you're feeling overwhelmed, it's time to step back and examine. This feeling is often a sign that our lifestyle, work, and values are out of alignment.
Here are a few examples that show misalignment:
You aspire to be successful. But your workday requires you to work 80+ hours a week, which is out of alignment with how you want to live your life. So, you end up resenting your work and not showing up how you want to in your personal life.
You want to be a leader to the people around you. But you think you don’t have time to destress and take care of your body and mind. You regret the things you say when you’re stressed because they're out of alignment with who you are.
Deep down, you have a desire to share your true gifts. But you chose a career that "made sense" over one that uses these skills. Your career is out of alignment with the skills you want to cultivate and share with the world.
If you're feeling off, you may be living out of alignment with your deepest desires of how you want to show up in the world – in work and life.
To create alignment, you must first get clear on these deepest desires. Many of us haven't stopped to examine them for so long. We need to redefine what they mean to us.
Here's an exercise to help you get clarity.
Take out a journal and head to a quiet place in your house. Light a candle, open a window, or do something that makes you feel relaxed and comfortable. Take a few long deep breaths with your hands relaxed and at ease or on your chest.
With a clear head, journal what comes to mind with the following three prompts. Allow the thoughts to flow freely without judgment.
Core Values. Your core values are how you want to behave and show up in the world. These beliefs become the compass that guides the decisions you make.
For example, maybe a core value of yours is that you honor spending time with your family while being mentally present in the moment.
This guiding value helps you decide to make a comprehensive schedule that divides all your responsibilities. So when it's time to spend a moment with your family, you're not stressed about work or other to-do tasks – you know you'll get to it later.
By giving each aspect of your life time to be mentally present, you'll notice living by your values is more motivating than just pushing to reach a goal.
Skills & Gifts. What skills would you feel fulfilled cultivating and using each day? Think back to the skills and talents you used to love to use as a child. Be careful not to limit yourself with pre-existing beliefs here.
For example, maybe as a child, you loved to write. But somewhere in your life experience, you started to believe that you aren’t “good enough” to be a writer.
Awareness of your self-limiting beliefs can help you to set them aside and take the time to reconnect with what excites and energizes you deep down. Regardless of what your thoughts are saying, it's never too late to cultivate those skills again.
Lifestyle Priorities. Growing up, we tend to ask ourselves what we want to be or achieve. But we usually don’t think about what we want our daily lives to look like.
You thought you wanted to achieve traditional success. But now you’re overworked and barely see your kids – which is out of alignment with how you want to live your life.
Take a moment to get specific about what you would want your career and life to look like in an ideal world. Maybe that means working 20 hours a week, spending afternoons with your kids, and earning multiple 6-figures a year.
At this stage, don’t limit yourself to what you *think* is possible based on your current situation. You would be surprised at what is possible after the past few years. The idea of work is being redefined, and you have more options.
There is a way to work manageable hours each week, find a job you love, be healthy and well and be present for your family.
Finding this alignment may mean changing companies or the type of work you're in. But since you’re here, it seems that you’re open to hearing how you can radically shift your life to find a job you love.
4 Steps to Finding a Job You Love
Be sure to do the exercise in the previous section before taking action. Getting clear on your values is essential to finding a job you love.
Once you're clear on your direction, it's time to take tangible steps towards a career that aligns with your values.
Here are four actions to take to find a job you love:
1.Determine Type of Career. Find the type of work environment that would support the lifestyle you want.
Do you want to have the flexibility to work from home and be a stay-at-home mom? Freelancing or creating your own business could be the right fit for you.
Do you want to rise the ranks in the corporate creative industry? Look for companies that commit to supporting the life you want.
2. Find Value-Aligned Companies. If you decide to work for a corporation, be sure that you feel aligned with its mission and culture.
Early in our careers, we tend to go after the big-name companies due to their reputability. While this sometimes works out, it’s so much more important to actually feel aligned and connected day in and day out.
Ask questions about their values in your interview. What is their leadership vision, and how is that implemented through all the teams? What structures are in place to ensure everyone works efficiently and has time off?
3. Cultivate Skills Online. Do you want to change your career to use a skill you haven’t used in a while? You don’t need to go back to school or start at the bottom to do so. In today’s world, there are countless resources online.
For example, let’s say that you’re working as a project manager at a creative agency, but you’ve always wanted to be a copywriter.
You can take an online course that teaches you how to be a writer on the side of your job. Build up your portfolio, and when you’re ready, you can go after the role you want – without losing too much rank.
4. Create a Self-Care Routine. Self-care may feel like a different subject than a career transition. But self-care is how you continue to cultivate a connection with yourself and stay clear on your deepest core values.
When you remain connected to these values, you keep making decisions based on who you truly are – not anyone else’s standards of who you should be.
Some of the fundamentals of self-care are mindfulness, movement, and purposeful intention-setting. Create a daily routine with these aspects to cultivate your connection to your true self over time.
Does this sound like the life you want?
You no longer feel anxious and rushed the second you wake up. You get up for work in the morning and feel calm.
Work is no longer the only element in your life. You have time to spend with your family, hobbies, and just be.
You go to bed at night feeling confident that you worked through your priorities of the day – without burning out. And you let go of the need to “do it all”.
You feel fulfilled and purposeful, knowing that you’re sharing your true gifts and skills with the world and people who will benefit from them.
This is all possible for you when you create alignment between your work, lifestyle, and values. True alignment helps you integrate all aspects of your life, leading to peace, happiness, and harmony.
Get Help to Find a Career You Love
It may be overwhelming to think about shifting your career. You want to make sure you’re taking each step with intention, direction, and confidence.
If you’re ready to get clear about how to find a job you love, I can help. My whole-life coaching guides you through…
Connecting with yourself and clarifying your values
Making intentional shifts towards the purposeful life you want
Cultivating daily practices that provide a foundation of true health and wellbeing
To get started, schedule a consultation for my whole-life coaching today. It truly lights me up to help my clients find harmony in their lives and work. ⭐