Increase Job Satisfaction through Seven Stories Exercise

Here's a great exercise to help examine the most satisfying activities over your life and discover those you will want to use as you grow older. The key in using this exercise is to identify things you did well and also enjoyed doing. You can include activities when you were younger and throughout your life. For example, perhaps you earned a merit badge in Girl Scouts.

Here are some additional examples:

• Got media coverage for a new product launch.
• Coordinated blood drive for company's division.
• Came in third place in tennis tournament.

For each accomplishment, describe what you did, i.e., the role you played and your relationship with others (member of the team, working alone, leader, etc.), the subject matter, the skills used, etc. Next, notice the threads that run through the stories to discover things you do well and also find satisfying.

Next, you will want to analyze your Seven Stories. Answer the following questions for each of your Seven Stories:
Story #1: __________________________________________________________
1) What was your main accomplishment?
2) What about it did you enjoy the most?
3) What did you do best?
4) What was your key motivator?
5) What led up to it?
6) What role did you play?
7) What was the environment like?
8) What was the subject matter?

Next, identify the skills you used in each of your Seven Stories. Here are a few examples to get the juices flowing: administration, analyzing, client relations, coordinating, fundraising, leadership, organization, research, teamwork, training, troubleshooting. Tally up how many times you selected each skill that you identified in your Seven Stories. Do some skills show up in many of your Seven Stories? That will be key in determining which activities you would find the most satisfying going forward.

Source: Navigating Your Career: Develop Your Plan, Manage Your Boss, Get Another Job Inside by Kate Wendleton.