Career Audit: How Much Worklife Bliss Did You Achieve?

Where Has “Normal” Career Planning Gotten You?

How are you doing in your career? Are you where you want to be? Is everything hunky dory? Do you end every day at work glad to be alive? If every answer isn’t an enthusiastic YES! Then it’s time to do a career audit and see just how much “bliss” you’ve got in your work and life. It may even be time for a Worklife Reset to get yourself on track.

Yeah. I didn’t used to be able to say YES! very often either. And, to be honest, that’s a tall order for every day even now that I’m there, but it’s not a tall order for most days when you’ve gotten your career on the Worklife Bliss track. 

What’s Worklife Bliss? Worklife Bliss is the genuine feeling that–even when things are not great–you’re making steady progress towards a career and a life that feels meaningful, with enough joy to make you glad to get up and keep going at it, pretty much every day. Or as my colleague and co-author on Worklife Reset puts it:

Worklife Bliss is a state of being where who you are and what you do are in a kind of joyous lock step. In the state of Worklife Bliss, what you produce and how you produce it flow together. . .

while opportunities and challenges both feel exciting.

Cindy Atlee

And the path to Worklife Bliss isn’t as hard as you might think it is. The hardest part is actually deciding what you actually want, and what you’re willing to let go of, so you can have it.

Where Does Worklife Bliss Begin?

The journey to anything begins with realistic expectations. Most of us ask ourselves if “bliss” is even possible. It depends a bit on your definition, then, doesn’t it? Most of us have an unrealistic idea of what bliss means. We think of it as a no-problem state. But Cindy and I prefer the definition Joseph Campbell came up with when he wrote “follow your bliss.” Despite what you think he said, here is what he actually said:

Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track

that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living

is the one you are living.

Joseph Campbell

Campbell never promised no problems. No hardships. No challenges. No fear. He encouraged us to find meaning and purpose in our lives. And when we follow this track, the hardships and challenges we can’t avoid are more manageable, and sometimes even enjoyable. 

Career Audit Step #1: Know Your Story Type

So where do you begin looking for bliss in your work and in your life? It starts with centering on your purpose, the motivation that gives all your work and your effort meaning. While “what’s my purpose?” sounds like a daunting question to answer, it’s much easier than you think.

It turns out that the work on psychological archetypes  pioneered by Carl Jung gives you the cheatcode for your purpose in life. I know it sounds too easy, but I swear it works. Just ask all our clients we’ve taken through this process. Once you know your core worklife archetype, you’ve got the kernel of your life’s purpose. It takes a little work to zero in on your own version of it, but you’re not not starting from scratch.

So that place to start your career audit is zeroing in on your worklife archetype. You can take a free assessment to learn your most likely archetype (story type) here. Learning more about the constellation of values, motivations, skills and strengths that are most aligned with who you are is a great place to start a career audit because you’re just comparing reality to the things most likely to bring you joy.

Join the InPower Women’s Mastermind in December 2023 to walk through this career audit process live!

Career Audit Step #2: Decide Who’s in Charge

Once you know how far from your ideal your 2023 reality is by learning your story type and comparing it to your reality, it’s time to consider becoming the driver in your own career.

It turns out that most of us don’t end up finding or following our bliss because–well–we let other people define it for us. And, note to self, other people do a crap job of defining what makes us feel most alive and purposeful. It’s not their fault. Even parents, friends, and partners who know us well. They’re just not US.

And the first step to finding purpose in your life is to claim the right to decide for yourself what matters. This means looking critically at your life and career and asking yourself:

• Am I a cog in someone else’s wheel? A company? A family? An old story?
• Or am I the wheel?

This is a deep inquiry to get honest with yourself about whether you make decisions in your life for yourself or others. There’s nothing wrong with factoring in others’ points of views, opinions and needs. But if you’re not owning most of your choices (i.e., I have to do this), then you are not much of a wheel. Take a look at the last year of your career and decide if you’re ready to be more a wheel.

Want some help figuring out how much cog and how much wheel you are? Do the worksheet on page 28 of our Worklife Reset book excerpt.

Career Audit Step #3: Be Your Best Self

Once you’ve assessed how close you are to living in alignment with what gives you meaning, and making decisions from this place, it’s time to ask yourself the final question of the career audit: are you being your best self?

The hardest part of this question is really to get used to looking at how you are being. In our culture we’re so focused on doing that we forget we were born a human being. But when you look at who you are at your best, you can find those qualities of being that not only bring you joy and meaning, but help make the world a better place at the same time.

To do your career audit, focus on who you are at your best and ask yourself, how often in my worklife these days am I being my best?

Want some help distinguishing your BEING from your DOING? Do the worksheet on page 37 of our Worklife Reset book excerpt.

Using Your Career Audit Results

Don’t be surprised if your results are a little disappointing. Whether you do the detail work to answer the questions above, or just check your gut in reading this post. Most of us, most of the time, come away feeling we’re not always our best self, or driving our life from our purpose,  in our job.

And most of us blame….someone else. The job. The boss. The coworkers. Our family.

And some of this blame is merited, but if you’re being the wheel, you learn to claim back more of this opportunity yourself. Because, no one can know your purpose, no one else can choose to live in alignment with it, not one else can BE YOUR BEST SELF…except you. 

This can be a hard truth to uncover, but I can tell you that the moment you commit to moving closer to a blissful worklife path, the more joy you begin bringing into your life every single day. 

Want to get started taking action right now? Do a Worklife Reset. Not only will you clearly see the gap between where you are and where you want to be, you’ll have practical steps to take to make it a reality. 

Start with the career audit, but don’t stop there. Keep going until you get there. If you’re like me it will take you the rest of your life, but every day becomes easier and filled with more joy.