Hello, and welcome to this second episode in a small series I’ve called: “What Drives You – And What Drains You?”

And I thought that that would also be a fitting title for today’s episode.

In the previous episode (the one I called “Your UN Career Project Starts Here” – which is episode number 2) I talked about how we can easily get so caught up in work and the struggles of daily life that we lose track of what we really want for ourselves.

So, for many of us, we’ve gotten a bit out of touch – or maybe actually a lot out of touch - with the person we dreamed to be. And the professional life we dreamed to have when we started out in our career.

Of course, what you want could have changed over the years. But do you ever set aside the time to reflect on what it is?

Where are you going?
Imagine that you’ve been driving your “career car” for a while now. You’ve been driving a bit fast because it feels like you’re late all the time. The traffic is dense and you’re starting to feel tired and in need of a break. You’re busy following the GPS instructions, so you’re not really noticing the direction you’re taking. And you’re no longer entirely sure what the address is that you put in? Or if that is still the place you want to go to? And with the weather conditions and the traffic – you’re also not completely sure that you’re even following the best route?

So, this is your opportunity to pull over, get out of the car, have a good stretch, look at the map (remember those paper maps that you fold out to get an overview of the landscape?), and ponder the best way to go from here.

Set aside a bit of time to put a spotlight on you and your dreams and ambitions for your UN Career.

And the best way to start is by taking a good hard look at the present realities. To stay with the “career car” image, you need to know where you are right now in order to get the best use of the map.

So, in the previous episode, I advocated that you should invest some time in collecting data for your “Project You” – your own personal UN Career Project. Just as you would if starting on a new work project.

In essence, I recommended that you write down what you’re doing every half hour for at least a day – and preferably up to a week. And that you put a smiley next to each task or activity. Using happy smileys, neutral smileys and unhappy smileys.

And if you did what I suggested last time, you then reviewed everything you wrote down - your log - and tried to think a bit like an anthropologist. Being curious and investigative about all the various activities you’d written down.

I thought I would share that the reason why I recommend this exercise is that it’s very helpful for many of my clients. But also because it’s been enormously useful in my own life.

I did it first time around 12 years back when I worked with a psychologist to get back to work after stress leave. There it helped me find the times of the day that were the most stressful for me and find solutions to those.

And later I’ve used it exactly like we use it here today – to find out what were the tasks and actions in my work that gave me the most energy and made me feel good about myself when I left the office at the end of the day. And this became the starting point for the way I changed my own career tracks.

Digging deeper
So, today, we’re going to go more into detail with the analysis of the data you collected – your log. And we’re going to start looking at what you can do to get more of “what drives you” and less of “what drains you”.

Last time, I suggested that for each day you count how many happy smileys, neutral smileys and unhappy smileys you have... Go to Barbarakandersen.com/3 to see the full show notes.