Work & belonging
Finding work that fits you starts with an ordinary week.
When work feels out of step with you, it is tempting to start with a new job title. First, look more closely at a week you know. The tasks, pace, relationships, and purpose inside a role give you specific things to reflect on and discuss.
Look inside the job title
Write down five activities from a recent working week. Include paid work, care, study, or volunteering as they apply to your life. Be concrete: preparing a presentation, organising a shared space, explaining something, solving a technical problem, or helping someone make a decision.
Beside each activity, describe the setting. Were you alone or with others? Was the task familiar or new? Did you have enough time? Did you understand who would benefit? These details let you explore what made the experience satisfying or difficult without asking one job title to explain everything.
Notice patterns, and keep the context
Choose one activity you would like more of and one you would like to approach differently. Describe what you enjoyed or missed in each. Perhaps you liked explaining an idea but found the rushed meeting difficult. Perhaps you enjoyed the company but wanted more time to work through the details yourself.
Avoid making a single hard day stand for your whole relationship with work. A tight deadline, unclear expectations, an unfamiliar task, or a difficult interaction can all be part of the story you are describing. Keep those circumstances beside your notes and look at another week before drawing a broad conclusion.
A moment to reflect
- Which task held my interest, and what about it mattered to me?
- When did the pace of the day suit the way I wanted to work?
- What would I change about one task if the role itself stayed the same?
Bring your archetype into the conversation
If you have taken the Meraki quiz, use the four axes to ask more specific questions. Source can prompt reflection on making and connecting. Motion can help you name your appetite for exploration or depth. Lens invites you to consider how you want to reason through a choice, and Aim asks what you want your contribution to serve.
Compare that language with your weekly notes. An archetype does not determine which career you should pursue, or measure your ability to do a job. You may enjoy a task you are still learning, or be skilled at work you want less of. Write down those distinctions rather than treating a preference as a limit.
Design a modest experiment
Choose a change that is realistic within your current commitments. You might request a clearer brief, reserve a short block for focused work, invite a colleague to exchange ideas, or try a small creative project outside your usual routine. Where a change affects someone else, make it a conversation and agree on the boundaries together.
Define what you want to learn before you begin: ‘Does a written brief help me get started?’ is easier to explore than ‘Is this the right career?’ After a week or two, review the experience. Keep what helped, adjust what did not, and notice the questions that remain. Those observations can make a future conversation about your work more grounded and more personal.
Your next small step
Bring the question
a little closer.
Explore how you create, connect, and find meaning with the Meraki quiz. Receive a reflection based on your answers and a small practice to try.
Discover my MerakiFree quiz. Enter your email at the end to see your result and receive it by email.
