Post 3 of 10 · Thinking About What’s Next
And we don’t mean your Myers-Briggs from 2011.
Most of us are better at describing what we do than explaining why we do it.
Ask someone about their job and they’ll give you a clear answer. Ask them what they actually value in work — not the LinkedIn version, but the real, specific, lived version — and they’ll hesitate.
That hesitation is where this post starts.
Values: not a poster on the wall
When people hear the word “values,” they often think of corporate mission statements or self-help mantras. That’s not what we mean.
We mean the things that, when they’re present in your work or life, make you feel like yourself — and when they’re absent, make you feel like something is quietly off.
Values aren’t aspirational. They’re already in you. The work is noticing them — and then being honest about whether your current life is actually honouring them.
One of the people we spoke with described leaving corporate not because she had a plan, but because something had become unmistakably misaligned: “Corporate just didn’t feel right anymore. I didn’t even know how to name it at first. It took some reflection to realise — it was a values thing.” Once she named it, she knew what to look for next.
A practical way in: your role models
If values feel too abstract, try this instead. Think of two or three people — real people, not celebrities — whose lives or ways of working you genuinely admire. They don’t have to be famous. They could be a former boss, a friend, a relative, someone you’ve observed from a distance.
Now ask: what specifically do you admire about them?
Not their title or salary. Not their LinkedIn profile. The specific qualities you see in how they move through the world — the way they make decisions, what they seem to prioritise, how they treat people, what they’re willing to give up and what they refuse to.
Those qualities are a mirror. The things you most admire in others are almost always the things you most want to live more fully yourself — and often the things that feel most absent from your current situation.
Try this now
- Name two or three people whose working life or approach to life you genuinely admire. Write their names down.
- For each person, write two or three specific qualities that you notice and respect in them.
- Look at the list. Which of those qualities are already present in your current work or life? Which feel like they’re missing?
When do you feel like yourself at work?
Here’s another angle. Think back over the past year or two at work. Not the good performance reviews or successful projects — but the moments when you felt most like yourself. Switched on. Doing something that felt natural and worth doing.
One person we spoke with spent years in corporate consumer insights before a single realisation changed the direction of her career:
“I realised I was never actually excited about insights. I was excited about the process of cracking things. Solving problems. Connecting dots. The function was just the vehicle. Once I figured that out, I knew what I needed to find — not a new industry, but a new kind of problem.”
— N, 35, made a significant pivot at 30, now works in the intersection of AI and healthcare policy
N wasn’t doing values work in any formal sense. She was just paying attention to the difference between when her work felt alive and when it didn’t. That contrast is usually enough to start.
Notice when you feel distinctly not like yourself too — when you’re going through motions, suppressing opinions, operating in ways that feel like performance. Those moments are just as informative as the good ones.
Strengths and energy: a quick note
Values tell you what matters to you. Strengths help you see how you naturally operate — your instinctive patterns of thinking, doing, and relating. They’re different lenses on the same question, and both are worth exploring.
You don’t need a formal assessment to start. Write down three moments from the past year when work felt effortless, or when time disappeared. What were you actually doing? The pattern across those three moments is usually telling.
Think of the last time you felt genuinely proud of something at work — not just successful, but proud.
What was it about that moment that mattered to you?
That answer usually contains something important about what you value — and what you want more of.
SecondAct 