Care

What do you care about?

Does your life make sense in the context of the things you most care about?

You will work far harder and more successfully on the things or with people you actually care about and that make sense to you.

This is a unifying and sense-making force. It isn’t the “why” of your work (we all tend to retrofit purpose or think about what we “should” have as a “why”). This reflects what you care about rather than why you care about it.

What you care about is material, yet can be elusive. We rarely take the time to reflect on what we care about and consider the opportunities that opens up for us in our career.

As you reflect on your life and career or vocation, in the context of the preceding four categories of questions, what aspects of what you have done and are doing, and what you have accomplished do you feel a sense of satisfaction or pride in?

Don’t ask “why,” don’t be tempted to rationalize it. Simply observe the things you have enjoyed and cared about. This is a discovery exercise that should lead to unencumbered insights.

Armed with these insights, you can consider whether there are career paths and opportunities that you hadn’t previously considered but which chime with what you really care about.

You might, for example, really care about status. Which will explain why you chose a career path, or a college or job role that doesn’t feel great, but looks great.

No judgment here. It just means that status is something you really care about.

By working through this, your path to date should make more sense to you. A feeling of success is predicated on your life and career making sense to you, and what makes sense will ultimately flow from you doing more of what you care about in life.