Gap Year – A way to find your authentic vocation?
A recent report revealed that people facing redundancy are turning to travel - creating a generation of “grown-up gappers”.
The research showed that three-quarters of those hit by job losses are planning to use the time to take a version of the traditional student gap year.
This could be a great way for people to find their “authentic vocation” along the way.
An exercise I do with my career-coaching clients is called “Peak Experience“. I ask them to identify special, peak moments when life was especially rewarding or poignant.
What I notice is that they often reflect back to their gap year or time out traveling. They talk about feeling really alive and on purpose. They use words such as freedom, flexibility, connection to nature, adventure, friendship, fun, challenge, overcoming obstacles, simplicity etc.
These words are the client’s values that they were honouring in that gap year experience.
Values are who you are. They are the principles that you hold to be of worth in your life and career. Your individual values are as distinctly yours as your thumbprint.
Discovering your values in relation to your career is essential. They serve as a compass, pointing out what it means to be true to yourself at work. When you honour your values on a regular and consistent basis you enjoy life and your work is fulfilling. When your values are suppressed at work you can feel frustrated, anxious, upset or feeling that you are “going through the motions”.
Because values are such an important part of the way you order your life and make career choices, it is important to look in this area. Values could conceivably be examined either to help you make a career choice e.g. whether to go for promotion, take voluntary redundancy. Or to clarify and reinforce a course of action, e.g. make the transition from one sector to another.
You could ask yourself: “What is the value that would be honoured if I did that?”
To discover your values, try the “Peak Experience” exercise below for yourself. Go to a quiet place, get comfortable in a chair and close your eyes.
“Imagine a time when life was sweet. A moment when life was particularly poignant and rewarding. Notice where you are. Who is with you? Notice the quality of light. Notice the sights, sounds and smells”.
Jot down “What was happening? Who was present? And the experience”. Then pick out the words that you really connect to. These are your values – what makes you tick!
Ask yourself “how much am I honouring them in my career today?”
Written By Fiona Biggins
Career preparation expert and career coach
