4 Free Personal and Career Development Assessments:

4 Free Personal and Career Development Assessments:
Everyone has their vices...and one of mine is taking career and personality assessments online for fun!

So, here are some links to my fave FREE resources for career exploration. (These are NOT affiliate links in any way, I am not getting paid to share them).

1. Sixteen Personalities: Uses the Myers-Briggs Personality framework to help you understand your personality and tendencies. The results also include information on career interests to consider. https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test

2. Career Explorer: This is focused on your career direction and gives you job titles to consider and information on your unique qualities from a career perspective. https://www.careerexplorer.com/

3. 123 Test: This is based on Holland Codes theory of career and vocational choices. It looks at six personality styles and uses your response to provide you a list of potential vocations. https://www.123test.com/

4. Via Strengths: This is a strengths test that can help you determine key skills to emphasize and market in your job search, as well as to help you to better understand your strengths. https://www.viacharacter.org/

Being “Too Emotional” at Work

I've worried about being emotional before. And about feeling like I can't control it - the ups, the downs. At those times, it felt like the emotion was a part of me, defining me.

But I now see that when I view an emotion as "a part of me," what I actually do is attach myself to the emotion. I collapse who I am into the single instance of the feeling, in that moment, at that time. So I give up my own control by confining myself to the emotion itself. This isn't wrong or right or good or bad, but it does explain why I've like I am emotional (instead of just noticing when I am feeling an emotion).

So now instead, I like to view like this.

I'm having an emotion.

It's like having an ice cream sundae, a messy hair day, or an emotional wave.

It's not me. It's just something I've noticed. Something I've focused on. Something to experience - not to own.

It helps me to realize the sensation of the emotion, without making it all of me.

It also allows me to accept that I can't always control the emotional sensations in my body - just like I can't control how the hot fudge drapes over the ice cream in my sundae. But it does let me to see it.

And to live, even in the midst of an emotion.

So sometimes I'll still take a pause, when the emotions are really big. Other times, I'll notice it there, under the surface. I don't push it away. But I don't attach to it either. This is the difference between EXPERIENCING the emotion and RESISTING or ATTACHING to the emotion.

Let's stop owning the sensation (unless we want to), and instead let ourselves experience them.

Honoring the Choice

We are faced with endless decisions, every decision made seemingly leading to another choice presenting itself. Again and again and again, we must decide - what do we want? What's right for us in this moment?

It can feel overwhelming. And yet, it is the gift of choice that allows us to carve our path in this life, one of our own. So let's not lament the decisions, but embrace them. And also, let's help ourselves work through the decision fatigue that can sometimes set in.

One way to do so is to make decisions ahead of time. This allows you to focus less energy on the monotonous decisions of the every day so you have more to give to the decisions that matter most to you. For instance, plan ahead what you eat, knowing of course you can always flex in the moment if you are inclined. Decide when you'll work on certain tasks, so that you don't have to waste time thinking through if now is the time to start. This sort of planning gives us power and allows us to be less reactive in our decisions.

So let's honor the choices we get to make, remembering they are our way to create our life. One of our very own. So, do you like the decisions you're making? Do you like the life path you're embarking on?

Serious: To Be or Not to Be?

My Motto: Serious about my work without taking myself too seriously.

You see, things don't need to be so serious all the time.

I'm serious about what I do. I believe in the transformative power of coaching. I am on a mission to help people do their work, their way, with soul. I believe we are all here for a reason, and all live life with purpose. And I will fight fiercely for my clients' right to be themselves as they do their work.

But how I do all that - it also matters. I used to take myself so seriously. Because I was so serious about work being an avenue for spiritual transformation, I felt I had to be professional (aka serious and boring). But I've come to realize that is NOT the case.

Because sassiness, humor, and NOT taking myself so seriously is not only freeing for me - it's freeing for my clients. And it's in integrity. Because I want to live by example - and what I do is help people do their work in their way. And my way, well it's a bit silly. There is play. There is fun. There is spice.

Sometimes I have to remind myself of this, when I get too on my soap box. So I take a step back, and I remember to be me. To be real. And laugh, find humor, and enjoy as I go. That's my way.

So what about for you? What's your way of doing your work?

Your Relationship with Your Job

Every time we interact with someone or something, a relationship is formed. The relationship is represented as the connection (or lack thereof). This even applies to our jobs.

When our work feels like "just a job", it's a symptom. Of disconnection. Of separation. This may mean that we aren't letting ourselves express ourselves at work. It also may mean that the work we're doing (and/or how we're doing it) is out of integrity with our core values.

I was just coaching someone on this the other day. What they realized is they had been approaching their work based on how they thought they were supposed to, instead of based on what felt right for them. This led to a lot of forcing and a lot of energy expenditure and a lot of second-guessing.

Seeing this, she has shifted her approach. She has reconnected to her gut - which is where she experiences her inner knowing. And she uses her body-based wisdom to help her decide how to show up at work and what to do. It has allowed her to be her at work. It has let her hear advice from others differently. She has more energy and less force. And people are noticing. Clients are seeking her out now. When before it felt like she was dragging herself in each interaction.

I share this because, like any relationship worth investing in, our relationship to our work can be repaired.

So what about for you - how is your relationship with your work? What do you like about it, and what are you ready to change?