For individuals
The best investment you can ever make is investing in yourself. Learning comes in many forms and we can all do with a little guidance.
Know yourself
Getting the support of a specialist to guide you through a self-discovery journey is a practice I always recommend everyone to go through. That path takes a bigger commitment so make sure you select the right type of professional that fits your preferences, beliefs, and ways of thinking. If you don’t have the budget, the time or that’s simply not really something for you, doing a self-assessment is a lighter and quicker way to get some signal. I have done many throughout the years myself and recommend retaking the same one every few years. It keeps you grounded and also provides you with a historical view of your personal development. You can then reflect on the most recent results and changes taking into account your circumstances and experiences in between tests. There’s a ton of options out there. I recommend these 2 free ones to get started:
16 Personalities is a free short personality test that gives a really good and simple description of who you are and why you do the things you do. It combines 16 different personality types into 4 groups with details on strengths and weaknesses, behaviors and preferences on relationships, parenthood, career pathing, workplace habits, and more; leveraging the well-known Myers Briggs type indicators throughout their classifications.
A more recent offering is principlesyou by Dr. Adam Grant, Dr. Brian Little and Dr. John Golden. It provides 28 archetypes grouped in 10 categories giving details on how you prefer to think, act and engage with others.
Find your purpose
Ikigai (生き甲斐, "a reason for being") is a Japanese concept referring to having a direction or purpose in life, which then the person may take actions towards, giving them satisfaction, a sense of meaning and fulfillment. It is composed of two words: iki, which means life, and gai, which describes value or worth. It’s essentially what gets you up every morning and keeps you going. It’s about feeling that your work makes a difference.
Transform this graph into questions to start outlining what your own Ikigai looks like: What do you love doing? What are you good at? What does the world need? What can you be paid for?
The answers to these questions might not be straightforward and that’s ok. Think of what you’ve been spending time on and getting better at. Ask people close to you what they value most about you. Search for people online with careers that you admire and review their backgrounds. Take the pressure off getting it perfect and get it done. Anything you do in a self-discovery journey is a lifelong skill that you’ll get better at with practice. We can all change for the better and it’s good practice to review every now and then our interests and aspirations. Whenever we review, we update our own representation of what moves us.
Articulate your core values
Yourdictionary provides a list of 100 examples of the most common values. James Clear also posted his list. Gather inspiration online and define what your top values are. Whenever you face a decision, bring these values to the table. They will help you prioritize what’s truly important staying true to yourself. They will guide you to act and decide with consistency. Review your values every few months and check if they pass the test of time.
Create your goals
Build a hierarchy of goals; from short-term ones to longer term. If it’s hard to think of what you want to do in the next 5 years, start by thinking about what you want to do next week.
Get to a place where you have short-term (3-6 months), mid-term (6-12 months), and long-term goals (>12 months) to look forward to. Goals should be aspirational and achievable and set yourself in the desired direction. Make your goals SMART : specific, measurable, attainable, and time-based. Once you have them, share your goals with your community. By sharing them and getting feedback, you’ll fine-tune them and make them clearer. You will start building commitment with yourself and others to attain them.
Have a plan
Break down your goals into activities and tasks that will enable you to achieve them. For example: if your long-term goal is to become a writer, mid-term you might want to write a book, and short term getting to write a few pages per week.
Start and progress towards your goals and adjust as you come to terms with reality. Progress is better than perfection. You are the owner of the plan and timelines. Build the necessary habits to get things done and stop investing time in what’s not part of your plan.
Build a system
Have a system of review. This should encompass your goals, your purpose, and your self-assessment journey. Write down your system and stick to it for a while. Go through it and evaluate the results.
Consider what type of person you are and what works for you. I’m quite structured and find comfort in having detailed documentation and frequent evaluations. I have a progress check on goals every month, a review every 6 months where I look at how I’m trending for longer-term achievements, and a yearly self-assessment check in to look at my purpose, core values and re-do a self-assessment. This might be the right way for you too or you might want to design a more open or flexible system. There are life events and unplanned circumstances that will create the need for changes off-cycle and that’s ok. Be flexible to accommodate them and at the same time do not start from scratch too often. Now that you have this guide, it’s time to get started!