It is crucial to know your work values if you want to find your ideal job. Your work values are those things in your work life that you consider to be important. When you design your career based on your values, your motivation will be greatly increased and your chances of success and fulfilment improve hugely. Otherwise you’re faced with spending 1/3 of your life doing something that doesn’t fulfill you.

Are you aware of your work values?

Taking the time to think about the things that really matter to you is a good starting point for finding your ideal job.

Find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. Relax your body and mind. Look at the values listed below. Make a note of the top ten values which are most like you and the five that are least like you. Take as much time as you need.

• Independence

• Helping others

• Risk taking

• Change and variety

• Stability

• Making a difference

• Prestige and the social status

• Leadership

• Teamwork

• Advancement

• Material benefits

• Security

• Artistic creativity

• Work environment

• Self expression

• Adventure/excitement

• Working outdoors

• Recognition

• Competing with others

• Influencing others

• Work-life balance

• Sense of achievement

• Intellectual stimulation

• Challenge

• Structure and predictability

• Making decisions

• Supervision

• Public contact

• Working with… (children/data/machines/numbers/ideas/hands/tools, etc)

• Working alone

• Working for a good cause

• Physical work

• Traveling often

• Being an entrepreneur

• Working in a fast-paced environment

• Having regular work hours

• Setting your own hours/having flexibility

• Location

• Having fun at work

Now that you’ve discovered your values you should be starting to get a sense of what is important to you in terms of your career plan.

Write a few sentences describing or summarizing how your values translate into your ideal job.

Consider how each is reflected in the work you currently do. Don’t assume that to find your ideal job you have to change careers completely. If you like your job but you are not happy with long working hours, is there scope for you to negotiate fewer hours ? Maybe your job allows you to work from home a couple of days a week ? Be imaginative ! Changes don’t always have to be drastic to be effective.

If you are happy with your career but find yourself working for a company whose values are totally different from yours, you are in the wrong place. In this case, you might consider applying for another company whose values align with yours.

If work-life balance is very important to you but you spend 4 hours commuting each day, this will take valuable time away from your family and the ability to pursue other activities that you would normally enjoy. Start looking for a job close to your home.

If you are sure that changing careers is the only way you will be happy, then start preparing yourself for the transition.

Remember : Confucius said, “Find a job you enjoy, and you’ll never work a day in your life.”

It’s time to make a dramatic career change to your dream job! If you don’t jump out of bed every work day when the alarm goes off eager to do some work, you are likely not all that enthusiastic about your job.

Perhaps you complain, roll over, and contemplate whether you can get away with calling in sick for the third time this month. In this case, it is quite clear that you need to find something more challenging and satisfying. A dream job will do the trick.

Here’s the bottom line: The best time to pursue your dream career is twenty years ago and today!

You don’t necessarily have to move on today. Indeed, it is wise not to jump straight into something immediately. But today is the day that you should start taking steps to discover your dream job.

Business Week magazine recently surveyed 500 American business executives about their job satisfaction. Surprisingly, almost three-quarters (72 percent) were not in their dream jobs.

The first question is: What would executives rather be doing? Many, in fact, named creative professions when asked about their fantasy careers.

The second question is: Why don’t more executives move on to something better if they are not in their dream careers? Clearly, most executives are trapped in the corporate system and don’t have the guts to do something different.

Yet many ordinary people with fewer skills and financial resources than corporate executives have managed to leave corporate life to pursue dream careers. These ordinary people have become happier, wealthier, freer, and more satisfied in their lives.

One reason why so many individuals end up in distasteful work is that too many get caught up on the money side of careers. They see it as a choice between “love the work you do in poverty” or “hate the work you do in abundance.”

Sadly, most people believe that you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Some of us know otherwise we have gotten ourselves two cakes. This way, we get to keep our cake and eat it, too.

Put another way, we have discovered work that we love. Better still, we manage to earn a decent living. Indeed, many of us earn a better living than 90 percent of corporate workers who hate their jobs.

Above all, ensure that you end up working at something that you love instead of working just for the money. Working at something just for the money is something fearful people do. It is a sign of their lack of self-confidence in their ability, talent, and creativity to earn money doing something they enjoy.

Truth be known, a typical corporate job is a goal much too small for millions of creative individuals in this world. Indeed, if you are not just a dreamer but also a doer a dream career does not have to be an unattainable fantasy.

Chicago advertising executive Robert Cochrane warned Carl Laemmle with these words: “Don’t be a salary slave! If you are going to do anything in this world, you must start before you are forty, before your period of initiative has ended. Do it now!”

In short, it’s seldom too late to discover and pursue a dream job or unique vocation. But it is better to make that career change to your dream job sooner than later.

Download the free E-book (in PDF format) with the first chapter of Real Success Without a Real Job at:

Now begins the hard questions that you have to explore to make your decision. You need to begin evaluating who you are and what you want in life. Maybe a different job and not a different career is what you really want.
You won’t know until you really take a good long look.
Step One – Identify What Suits You
The first step one should take when considering a career change is to make a list of jobs you want to explore. There are free career tests online to help you narrow down the list and decide what you want to focus on. Next you want to research your list.
Take a good long list and research all the jobs on it. Look into all aspects of these potential occupations you can think of.
Get a book from your local library so you can see all the good and potentially bad aspects of the occupations and get a book on career change while you are there. Career change can be scary but worthwhile.
What would bring you more happiness in your life? Are you looking for more money or are you more interested in affecting social change?
Step Two – Sounds Like A Plan
Any career change is going to require you to set some goals and make an action plan. Are you willing to get further education? Try to talk to someone in the occupation you are interested in.
Grill them about the skills needed, how they got started, what they see as the challenges. Any career change requires some flexibility on your part. Are you willing to go all the way and do what it takes to be successful. Do you feel passion when you think of it?
Trying to get an internship is one way to test your career change. Is it all you imagined it would be? Before you go out and get a degree, answer these questions.
Step Three – Tactics In Your Existing Job
If you are currently employed, keeping quiet about your plans may be the best thing for you. That may mean not telling co workers you are close too. You especially don’t want anything getting to your boss if you are just testing the waters.
Remember many people before you have made a career change and were happier people for it. Finding a mentor to guide you can offer valuable career change advice.
This opens up a whole new network of people for you to gain experience and may eventually lead to a job.
For most of us the thought of a career change is so scary. But, if we all just stayed right where we are right noe, what more can life offer us? Look inside yourself and take inventory of what you want out of life and it is entirely possible that the fear is the only thing holding you back.
Sometimes it only takes one initial step to overcome fear and to get you up and running.