Blog Talk About Career Ownership | Thinking Rich | Inner Experience

Mind Your Own Career: Your Guide to Right Working for Right Living can help you to explore important questions about how you, your work, your career and your life are integrated, and to understand, and even to change, the answers you find.

The guide lays a foundation with a basic philosophy and some practical tips for changing your answers to these questions, so your answers become more suitable for who you are, what you need and what you want – in your work, as well as in your larger life.

Mind Your Own Career

You make choices about the work you do – choices rooted in who you are, what you need and what you want. Your choices about your work may be deliberate, may be not, and may be a bit of both.

You do the work you’ve chosen and that work becomes your career. You may have intended for your career to be what it is, or your career may seem to be something that just happened. Either way, your career becomes a part of who you are, what you need and what you want – your career then affects the ongoing choices you make about the work you do.

So, minding your own career is about who you are, what you need and what you want. Minding your own career is making clear choices about the work you do, the career your work becomes, and the effect your career has on who you are.

When you mind your own career, you can easily answer questions like these, and more than that, you are pleased with the answers:

How well does your work reflect who you truly are – can you always “be yourself” at work?
How well does your work support you in getting your personal needs met, either directly or by giving you the resources, e.g. the time, money, networks, etc., to get your needs met outside of work?
How well does your work support you in getting you what you want out of life, either directly or by giving you the resources to get what you want outside of work?
Is your work worth the time, energy and attention that you give it?
How often do you wish that you could work less, or that you could earn more money, or both?
How effectively do you work? Does your work give you anything that is relevant and important for you, e.g. an appropriate and enduring sense of achievement or recognition?
Does your work enable you to spot, and to respond effectively to, your opportunities, whether for your work or for your larger life? Can you benefit in any scenario?
How readily can you find enjoyment and meaning in your work?
How easily and effectively can you maintain control of your work circumstances?
Do you have full and effective control of the direction and pace of your own career growth?
Can you make confident, timely and appropriate choices for your work and for your life in general?
How does the work you do – and your resulting career – affect and reflect who you are, to yourself and to others?
How well does your work support you, directly or indirectly, in improving yourself and your life? How well does your work enable you to contribute to improving others and their lives?
How well does your work respect your personal integrity, values, boundaries and standards?
Do you generally know what to do in any work situation, and when and how to do it?
Are you happy with your work? Are you happy with your career? Are you happy with your life?

The basic philosophy for Mind Your Own Career – the basic philosophy for right working and for right living – is described in detail in the section About Right Working and Right Living.

This philosophy incorporates both traditional views of working and living, such as the Buddhist Eight-fold path, as well as some of the latest thinking and research from the fields of psychology, business and personal development.

The practical tips which you can find throughout the Mind Your Own Career guide include:

Self-assessments to help you develop a clear snapshot of your current career situation and to monitor changes on a regular basis.
Checklists to help you explore and develop your awareness and your knowledge in relevant areas.
Personal reflections to challenge your perception and interpretation of your inner and outer experiences of work and money.
Practices to help your explore and develop your capability and your capacity in relevant areas.
Guidelines to help you develop your own personal self-assessments, checklists and practices.
Recommended reading so you can further explore specific aspects of the philosophy and practice that are most relevant and important for you.

You can benefit from the ideas and exercises described in the Mind Your Own Career guide whether you are an employee, a manager or a business owner and whether you already actively manage your career or are just working away and letting your career take care of itself.

Depending on how you currently view work and money, you may be challenged by the basic philosophy described in Mind Your Own Career.

You may need to suspend judgment while you apply some of the ideas and the practical tips to your own experience.

Accept the ideas and apply the practical tips presented here according to your own level of readiness, ability and willingness.

For now, set aside whatever ideas and practical tips you do not feel ready, able and willing to accept and apply.