When connecting your purpose to your career, identifying your intrinsic motivators are important. Intrinsic motivators come from within yourself and will help you stay committed to your purpose and career goals. Personal growth, mastery of a skill, and a feeling of accomplishment are just a few examples of Intrinsic motivators that can help you to stay focused on the long-term goals and provide you with a sense of meaning. During difficult times, focusing on your intrinsic motivators can help you to stay motivated.

When it comes to finding your career purpose, you may need to make some changes. This doesn't always mean finding a different job, but rather assessing the current tasks and activities that you do and how they tie into your purpose. It could be a shift in perspective or a minor adjustment to the way you do things in your current role. Keep in mind that it is OK to experiment and make small adjustments, as this can lead to personal growth.

Aligning your career goals with your strengths can help you find purpose and satisfaction in your job. When your career is built around your strengths, it allows you to create meaning, is more fulfilling, and contributes to a sense of accomplishment. If you're not sure what your strengths are, consider taking the free Character Strength Assessment from VIA Institute on Character, which can help you discover them.

Identifying your core values is essential to finding your career purpose. Core values help you gain clarity on what is truly important to you in a career. They help you define the type of environment that suits you best and the people you want to work with, guiding you towards a career that is more likely to bring you long-term satisfaction and fulfillment. Try using this Reflection Toolkit to gain clarity on your core values.

Rather than spending a long time searching for your career purpose, taking small steps can help you gain a better understanding of what it is and what your goals are. These steps can include networking with people in your field, getting advice from friends and family, making a vision board of your long-term career objectives, and consulting with a career coach through the district's employee assistance program (EAP).

Achieving goals can be difficult due to something known as "goal competition." This occurs when our goals are "competing" for our attention and resources, making it hard to focus on any one of them. To overcome this, we must prioritize our goals and put the less important ones on hold so we can concentrate on one goal at a time. James Clear offers a number of strategies that can help you prioritize your goals:

• The Ivy Lee Method
• Warren Buffett’s 25-5 Rule
• The Eisenhower Box
• The 20 Slot Rule
• The Myth of Multitasking

Connecting and stacking new habits with current ones can be a great way to start reaching desired goals. As James Clear suggests, it is important to create a plan and fill out the sentence, "After/Before [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT]." This will help make the process of reaching goals easier and more achievable.

Setting an upper bound for your goal can help you stay focused and prevent you from overextending yourself. Having an upper bound gives you a range of success to work towards and keeps you motivated to achieve your goal. For instance, if you want to spend 30 minutes a day on professional development, an example of setting an upper bound might look like this:

"I want to spend at least 15 minutes reading today, but not more than 30 minutes."