Episode 24: Discovering Your Seven Stories

Purpose in the Process

What accomplishments are you most proud of? When you think of the "top stories" of your life - those where you felt most empowered, full of joy, or simply had a great time doing something you were really good at - which experiences rise to the top? More importantly, what specific attributes seem to be common to each of those stories?

On the heels of a couple deep philosophical episodes about finding “purpose,” I wanted to offer some concrete advice about the “process” someone might use to start figuring out what they want to be when they grow up. I’ve mentioned the “Seven Stories Exercise” in several past episodes and have promised to unpack that process at some point…at long last, here it is!

In this episode, we discuss:

• The importance of doing “the work” in discovering what motivates you, not just what you are good at!

• The Seven Stories process I have used (and have taught others to use) that will help you brainstorm career change ideas; or how you might stay in your current role but in a more meaningful, happy way

• How you as a candidate can use this tool to come up with questions for your next job interview

• I offer a free, practical evaluative tool you can use once you have done this work to sift through potential job opportunities and life changes - I hope it benefits you!

Links:

A pretty good example of someone else’s tool to do the first part of the exercise (i.e., to spot your essential traits)

Then, here’s the simple free tool I designed myself in Google Sheets to compare various opportunities and track my own desired job attributes against those prospects (this tool gives you a final output of the 7 stories process).