Robyn Pearce: Are you sure you're doing the right work?

We often do the work in front of us without really regarding what we want out of life. Photo / 123RF

COMMENT: We often keep our noses to the grindstone, doing the work in front of us and getting the pay-rises (if we're lucky), without really regarding what we want out of life. What are your values? Are they congruent with your goals? What do you want to achieve, not just today, not just this week, but further out into the future?

One of my clients discussed this values/goals issue with me over a 6-week period. It is often one of the hardest issues for people to get a grip on.

She was a very hard-working wife and mother and at that time a salesperson. All her life she had been efficient – the sort who unintentionally makes a less-organised person feel inferior, simply because she packed a huge amount of activity into every day. Her passion, however, was for the theatre.

Through our conversations she realised that her values – which revolved primarily round her wife, mother, theatre, and community service roles – didn't fit with her financial and work goals.

The lack of congruence between, on one hand, her work and financial goals, and on the other, her values, was causing an increasingly discomfort.

Also, her awesome amount of activity didn't actually make her feel fulfilled as a person.

Because she had such a happy home life she couldn't understand what was wrong. It seemed so ungrateful to be dissatisfied!

Although her income was useful to the family budget, it was possible for them to manage with less if necessary.

We brainstormed lateral ideas regarding her income creation. It was only when she gave herself enough time to really sit back and analyse her life that, like a bolt from the sky, she suddenly saw what to do.

By looking more closely at her core values, talking to me and others and expanding her thinking with reading and learning, she opened her mind to other possibilities.

A few years later she had her own drama school for young children. For a while she made less money, but in fact that was never the issue. She got her joy back, was happy, fulfilled, following her dream and making a difference in the lives of many youngsters.

By changing her work direction and carving a specialist niche in the drama field, she brought her values and her goals into congruence and achieved personal satisfaction.

- Robyn Pearce (known as the Time Queen) runs an international time management and productivity business, based in New Zealand. Get your free report How To Master Time In Only 90 Seconds and ongoing time tips at www.gettingagrip.com.