Does empowerment come from within or from those around us?

When we operate within our values, we run the risk of not being fully satisfied even when we achieve success. It's not just the end result that matters, but also the journey we take to get there. Year after year, I was achieving my career goals, yet I still wasn't completely satisfied. It felt as though I was not fulfilling my own purpose, but rather someone else's. Despite choosing my own goals, there was something inauthentic about it. It wasn't until I did a values assessment on myself that I realized the way I was reaching these targets each year was not truly aligned with who I am.

It's important to know who we are and what we value. Self-assessments help shape our identity and give us the spark we need to act on our goals. Feedback and external support may not be enough and paint the full picture, we also need to find our own spark. My career counselor and I recently discussed this and realized that my next step was clear, but I needed to find the spark within myself to make it happen. I discovered that my personal operating style was the key to igniting that spark.