2.1 What’s to love about work?
For this week and the next, the focus is on the first step of knowing yourself. This is the foundation for finding and thinking about opportunities that work for you.
In this next activity you’re going to think about the aspects of work that are the most appealing to you. Remember to jot your thoughts down in your notebook, so that you can look back at them later.
Activity 2 Your work – what do you enjoy about it?
If you decide to commit to a specific type of work, then you need to know that it suits you, personally and practically, and that you can secure opportunities to do it. How do you know what work is going to suit you, though? One place to start is by considering what you like about the work you are doing or have done, be it paid or unpaid.
To get an idea about what to consider, in the following video you will hear a skydiving photographer tell you what he loves about his job.
First watch the video and then jot down your thoughts about why he loves his job.
Now answer the following questions about your work. Some people may need to think more broadly than the usual idea of what work is. You may be a volunteer, a student, or have a role as a parent or carer.
- What do I love about work?
- What do I like least about work?
- Am I clear about what I think?
Comment
Whatever you have noted down, it will be very personal to you and could well be very different from somebody else. That is just fine – your answer is the right answer for you.
This may be the first time that you have sat and thought about work in this way and you could be wondering, ‘why bother?’ Well, taking the time to sit and reflect on something can help you develop new insights and more self-understanding. Or, simply just help you to order thoughts that you are already aware of. Developing this better understanding of yourself and your situation allows you to move on. That’s why it is important you write down your answers to the activities in your notebook. By the end of the eight weeks, you’ll have a very valuable personal record of where you started from this week, the journey you took to reach Week 8 and hopefully how you plan to continue from there.
Perhaps your answer to the last question posed in Activity 2 showed that you were fairly clear about some things but less sure about others. That is perfectly normal! Activity 3 in the next section is designed to help you to clarify your thoughts a bit further. You will think about how well your current or past work experience has satisfied you and draw some conclusions from this.