Set a New Direction: Re-evaluate Your Values and Update Your Identify to Re-ignite Your Mojo

If your drive is going nowhere, you feel like you are at a crossroads, or worse you feel like you are at a dead-end, now is the time to set a new direction and re-ignite your mojo by re-evaluating your values and updating your identity. As you continue to read, consider the analogy of using current GPS technology. 

Values Change and Evolve to Align with a New Reality

Youthful ideals may not follow us into middle age, and appropriately so. I watch my young nieces developing their values and reflect on my own when I was their age. Our values were and are set on our varied realities, then and now. My current reality is significantly different from each phase in my personal and professional life.

A healthy positive attitude toward the current reality is to accept what is. Either be happy with what is, or do something to ignite change. Doing something to ignite change requires a shift that aligns with the direction in which we want to proceed. Sometimes the shift requires a little course-direction. Other times the shift requires a totally new direction. 

The challenges in our personal and professional life at middle age or when returning to work after a critical illness, often dictate a totally new direction. A critical step in setting a new direction begins with updating our values to reflect our current reality. 

Reflect on Where You Are Now Before Setting Out on a New Direction

Reflect on who you are in this present moment —what makes you “you.” How has this identity shifted from that of your younger self? Ask yourself the following questions. Tip: An effective tool for this reflection is a favourite photo of yourself from 10 years ago.

1. How have I grown in the last decade? What ignited my growth?
2. To what extent would I want to trade places with who I was 10 years ago?
3. How much do I romanticize my earlier years?
4. Who do I think I want to become—and how close am I to becoming my ideal self?

Imagine yourself one year in the future. Everything has gone as well as you had planned and as you had hoped. What would that life look like? What kind of a person would you have become?

What is something small you can do to take you in the direction toward that better life, that ideal "you?"

How Has Your Professional Life Steered Your Direction?

Whether or not you have been conscious of how work has become central to who you think you are, at this time it is important to explore and identify your ideals at a deeper and multi-faceted level. Take practical steps on becoming and evolving. Tap into what motivates you in the here-and-now to find passion and energy.  

I know of no better way to explore these issues to do this deep personal work than working with an accredited coach who is trained and qualified in navigating through work/life transitions and who has your best interests in mind. If you aren't working with an accredited coach, find out how to find one suitable for you on the International Coach Federation (ICF) website - "Need Coaching?". Choosing the best coach for you is a very personal decision – especially when you're paying to invest in yourself. This decision is so personal and critical to your success, that you want to find the best fit.

If you would like further help, I would be happy to talk to you about how to find the best coach for you. To begin, I offer a no-obligation call to help determine if there is a fit for us to consider working as partners in a coaching relationship. If there is not a match, I would refer you to a few select accredited coaches who are trained and qualified in specific work/life transition disciplines. I refer only to the best-in-class. 

I’d love to hear from you. Contact me at  [email protected] and on LinkedIn

Related Blogs:

• When Your Drive is Going Nowhere, Engage Your Values
• Re-Ignite Your MOJO. Make Your Work More Meaningful and Fascinate the World Around You
• Help! I Lost My MOJO