NickVenturella.com 9-7-14

Where are you currently vs. your ideal

September 07, 2014

Hi ,I wanted to share an exercise with you this morning.  This is related to my Tiny Career idea.

The basis of the Tiny Career mindset is to think through your pursuits and approach your work on purpose, or rather with purpose...really both.

Anyway, what I want to share is a visualization tool to help you track where you are currently against how you’re doing toward meeting your ideal.

First, you’ll want to think through what you value within your ideal, meaningful work situation.  What you value should be your unshakeable North, as you follow your personal compass (we’ve talked about pursuing North in a previous newsletter, hopefully you remember).  Your values are what you are always striving for -- this is the ultimate end game as a result of your work and how you purposely pursue your work.

Next, you’ll want to think through your goals. What do you need to achieve to align your work/life with your values.

Below, I’ve built a basic table to share this idea.  On the left-hand side you’ll list your values (I recommend choosing between 2 and 4 of them -- few things you can really focus on).  

Below your values you’ll also list your goals.  The difference between your goals and your values is that you pursue and reach your goals to realize your values.  Your goals are the vehicle toward more fully living your values. 

Next, you’ll have a column labeled “ideally.† If you were already in your ideal Tiny Career, reaching your goals and living your values each value and goal would be checked off in this column as having been met.  Having everything checked off in this column is what we’re after. 

The next column will be labeled, “currently.† In this column you’ll check off which goals and values you’ve currently met in your current situation.

The purpose of this exercise is to help you visualize where you’re at and what else you need to work on to reach your ideal Tiny Career.  You need to answer as honestly as you can.  Once you see where you currently are versus your ideal you can begin to think through how you can put some more effort and attention into the areas not yet checked off on the list.

This may seem rather basic, but the exercise can be very helpful if you pursue it intentionally.

Below is an example of my own.  As you’ll see, I’m about half-way to where I’d ideally like to be.

Where are you, as you do this exercise?  Hit reply and let me know.

Values

Ideally

Currently

More Time with Family

x

Time/Space for Creative Thought

x

x

Sense of Purpose in Life/Work

x

Adequate/Desired Means (enough money to provide well for my family)

x

x

Goals

Doing Energizing Work

x

High Autonomy

x

x

Meaningful Work (positively affects others - is bigger than me)

x

Appropriate Compensation

x

x

Totals

8

4