1. Natural Abilities: perhaps the most fundamental aspect of the career puzzle, natural talents (a combination of nature and nurture) stabilise by age 14. Unlike skills, they don't improve with practice or go away with neglect. Unlike interests and personality, they remain stable throughout work life. Intelligent and motivated people can work against their natural abilities but they are rarely happy, satisfied, or as productive doing so. Conversely, strong abilities that are not used account for a great deal of dissatisfaction.

2. Skills and Experience: what you have learned to do. They are acquired and can be lost if not practiced or used regularly. Skills can be an acquired knowledge base (corporate law) and you can continuously make additions to your skill base.

3. Interests: what fascinates, what you are drawn toward, what you are passionate about. They are what make "work" fun, can turn your work into an 'art form', and need to be a priority. They should come from you - not from what pleases others.

4. Personal Style: how you interact with others. Some of the things you should take into consideration about your personal style and how it affects your work include:

- how you get energy - from contact and interactions with others or from being alone. This one personal style issue can account for a huge amount of stress yet can be managed quite easily once ascertained.

- how you process information. Are you more likely to do this out loud or quietly in your head?

- is your preference one-to-one interactions or group interactions?

- do you prefer communicating on the phone and face-to-face or in writing and by email?

- do you feel more satisfied working as part of a team or working autonomously?

- is it easy or difficult to delegate?

- your communication style

5. Family of origin: this is where you get your first ideas about 'work', where you learn the importance placed on 'work', and where you also learn where 'work' fits into the family's priorities. Another tremendous force can be your family's acceptance or rejection of your choices.

6. Values: what you hold most dear in life. These may seem like a nice extra, but not critical, to incorporate into your career. However, lack of congruence between one's values and work is one of the most important causes of career stress among between aged between 38 and 45. It is crucial to articulate the connection and the "PIA&V/motivation" Self-Discovery Session will do this for you. Click here for more.

7. Goals: internalised drives that make all of us go. Successful people know where they want to go, what they want to be, and what they want to accomplish. Goals point you in the right direction and help you determine when you've arrived. It is important to set goals for all important areas of your life including career/professional, financial, social, spiritual, intellectual, cultural and physical/ recreational.

Goals should be: concrete (written, specific and prioritised); attainable and challenging; provide feedback - be able to see them yourself; valued and have meaning to you; and ENJOYED when reached!

8. Career Development Cycle: you can view your work life as going through stages of development similar to your personal life. Your career goes through turning points and building stages, following a pattern. Career turning points are those periods when you ask yourself questions about your career. In your 20s it is usually "which career?", in your 30s it can be "why am I unsatisfied in this career?", in your 40s or 50s it may be "is this all there is?". This may also happen at unexpected times such as redundancies/downsizing. At each of those points you may question whether or not you are on the "right track", would like to explore new possibilities, expand or retract your work responsibilities, or start something brand new. Click here for a turning points exercise to help you get outside your current thinking systems.

The world is in a constant state of flux - much more in the last century in than in previous ones. There is no longer any job security, for example. In fact the situation in larger companies is even more erratic than job change in smaller, entrepreneurial operations. (Extensive research reveals that the smaller, rapidly growing, highly flexible businesses are creating the majority of new jobs.) Yet major changes are by no means confined to our professional lives.

Studies by the Census Bureau show that adults today undergo at least twice as many important "life changes" as their parents and grandparents did. Once upon a time a typical person passed through five major life-cycle transitions: childhood, marriage, childbirth, child rearing and the eventual dissolution of the marriage. But today the typical person will have at least twice that many life transitions. These include a foreshortened time of childhood innocence, a period of independent living before marriage, marriage, divorce, remarriage, and so forth. With divorce ending one out of two marriages, the loss of childhood innocence may be the biggest change of all.