π‘ The Ask Your Work Wife Yearly Career Audit
Before you totally check out for the holidays, take some time to do some 2024 planning for yourself. This is a practice the Work Wives have been doing informally for years before we codified it into the Ask Your Work Wife Yearly Career Audit. No other exercise has been able to highlight the blockers that were holding us back from exponential growth and the inspiration that would get us there.
And of course, there are steps:
π« Remove yourself from your routine
Stop the circus for just one day! We know this is a B-I-G ask, but reflection isnβt something to juggle. Create a distraction-free environment β both in time and space. Carve out an afternoon, put everyone on notice youβre not available, or even book yourself a staycation. The Work Wives have been known to hop a flight to Mexico for this!
ποΈ Ask Your Work Wife is a new podcast for ambitious professionals in Corporate America. Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
π€ Think about everything youβve done
Do you know what you did last summer? You better for the sake of this exercise. It might be painful or emotional or cringe. Donβt worry; thatβs part of the process. (After all, itβs not an Ask Your Work Wife meeting until someone cries.)
βοΈ Get it out of your brain
As more and more details come to light, write it all down. Get it all out of your brain so you can look at it and take stock. Vanessa & Holland love a journal, a sketchbook, a wall full of postits, or a whiteboard for this exercise.
π Stand back and look at it
Look at everything you pried out of your memory and sit with it. Reflect. You might even sleep on it.
π΅βπ« Got an aimless colleague? Niece? Neighbor kid home from college? Share this newsletter. It'll help.
π§ Let your brain do the work of finding like items
What jumps out at you? Sometimes you need everything laid out in front of you in order toβ¦
π‘ Have an Ah Ha! Moment
An βah ha!β moment is something you want more of. Something you want to move toward. Something that makes you say, βAh ha! I want THAT.β Think: leveling up, financial security, growing your team.
π© β¦or an Oh Shit! Moment
An βoh shit!β moment, on the other hand, is something you want LESS of. Micromanagement. Playing small. Feeling stuck. Anything that makes you say, βOh shit, I DONβT want this.β
Itβs incredibly powerful (and hard) to truly know what you want (and what you donβt). But once you see it, life will seem more at ease as youβre aligned with yourselfβ¦not with a job title, company, or even a salary. Then you can make work work for you.
Happy Auditing/holidays!
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