Blog Talk About Career Ownership | Thinking Rich | Inner Experience

Mind Your Own Career: Your Guide to Right Working for Right Living can help you to explore important questions about how you, your work, your career and your life are integrated, and to understand, and even to change, the answers you find.

The guide lays a foundation with a basic philosophy and some practical tips for changing your answers to these questions, so your answers become more suitable for who you are, what you need and what you want – in your work, as well as in your larger life.

Career Consciousness Self Assessment

The following Career Consciousness Self Assessment, based on findings documented in Power Vs. Force The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior by David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D., can give you some insight into how you view your work, according to the feelings you experience at work.

For each of the fourteen statements, consider whether you never, rarely, frequently or always have the feeling described when your time and/or your attention are on working.

The assessment moves from the least desirable feelings, e.g. ashamed, guilty, trapped, etc. and moves to more desirable feelings, e.g. pride, confidence, fulfillment, etc.

Ideally, you have work that rarely or never gives you the feelings described by the earlier statements (1 through 7), and that frequently or always gives you the feelings described by the later statements (8 through 14).

The more you never experience the feelings described by the lower numbered statements and the more you always experience the feelings described by the higher numbered statements, the better suited you and your work are for each other.

1. I feel ashamed by the work that I do. I avoid talking about my work, and am not completely candid when I do talk about it.
   
   
2. I feel guilty about the work that I do. I have ways to hide or to justify what I do for myself and others.
   
   
3. I feel trapped by my work. I need to work, and do not believe there is anything better for me.
   
   
4. I feel sad that my work could have been much better than it is. I feel like I always miss the best opportunities.
   
   
5. I am afraid that I might lose my work. I am wary that change may hurt the nature of my work, or my ability to do it, or its value, or what I can earn …
   
   
6. I feel driven to work toward achieving higher and higher goals, and to gain financial or other rewards for achieving my goals at work.
   
   
7. I feel “work rage”. I am frustrated by my lack of progress at work and resent the people and situations that get in my way.
   
   
8. I am proud of the work that I do. I take pride in the recognition I get from clients, colleagues, friends and family.
   
   
9. I feel empowered by the work that I do. I have opportunities to learn and to grow, and I feel that I can handle any challenge.
   
   
10. I feel confidence and well-being in the work that I do. Sometimes I get my way, sometimes not – it’s all OK.
    
    
11. I feel fully engaged in my work. I am willing to do whatever is necessary to do the work well, and to be responsive to the needs of others.
    
    
12. I accept total personal responsibility for the work that I do. I am quick to resolve issues and to fix problems.
    
    
13. I am intelligent and practical in my work. I can make quick, sound choices even when handling complex information, situations and relationships.
    
    
14. I am truly happy in my work. I focus on the good and the positive; I can easily grasp a total problem, focus on the core issue and dissolve barriers to get quick resolution.

Whatever your view, work cannot be only what you do for the Corporation; work must be something you also do for yourself and, ideally, something you do for others. And work cannot be the only thing you do; work must fit the space you allot for it in your life.

Read more articles from Mind Your Own Career: Your Guide to Right Working for Right Living.