The Career Audit

Pretty soon, I will be gathering the receipts of 2010 and starting on my tax return.  Some folks dread the process, I actually enjoy looking back at my expenditures for the year and identifying places for improvement and growth.

The end of the year causes me to do the same with my life.  I break down my life into personal and professional.  I am particularly interested in my career.  I can easily fall into the trap that where I am at currently will remain the same or that I have somehow arrived at the destination.  I find that an audit of last year will help inform the next year in terms of planning.

Just like the financial statements help inform what has passed in a concrete way, your career tends to be much less concrete.  So, I am using a basic positive / negative or plus / delta.  Here are my questions:

• What is working really well? 
• What are the work activities that have given me spirit? 
• What are the work activities that have been draining?
• How would my colleagues answer those two questions?
• As I review the transcript of my mind, what am I saying to myself each and every day? Words that bring courage or words that bring anxiety?
• Did I reach my goals? Did I have any goals? 
• Where will I be in five years? Where do I want to be? 
• Does my current situation allow me to see that picture?

I have enlisted my career coach to walk me through this process to complete the audit.  Oh and by the way, no doubt I will be using my CPA this year to complete my taxes. I can only get so far on my own.

Passion

As I completed the values exercise, I pondered how I discovered that passion was on the top of my list.  I know that I am attracted to passionate people.  I know that I want and long to be person living a cause of passion. It hit me, there were two key moments in my life where a portrait of passion struck me.

The first was the antithesis of passion.  As a 7th grade boy struggling with self-esteem, I recall an angry teacher telling me that I was a loser and would not amount to anything. You never forget those words.  The second was my experience at Cathedral High School.  I was expected to become more than I thought I could ever be and I was surrounded by teachers of passion. Lisa Ford was the portrait of passion.  She expected more and believed in me.

Recently, I went back to Cathedral to honor her with a scholarship in her name and have invited others to join with me in celebrating who she is.  It is that passion, that helped form this key value in my life.