Your Story Worksheet

This form will guide you through a process where you will list enjoyable activities OR
roles from various times throughout your life.

Focus on those times in your life when you are doing what you enjoy most and feel you are doing well
(no matter how small or unimportant you think it might be).

Write about what is important to you, not what you did to please others. Identify those activities that
gave you an intrinsic sense of pleasure and satisfaction. You are the star of these stories! These are
your achievements so there is no need to be modest. If you were part of a group or team you can
certainly include it - just describe the enjoyable activity that you did. It doesnt matter what other
people thought, whether or not you were paid, or when in your life the experiences took place. All that
matters is that you felt happy about doing whatever it was, thought you did it well, and experienced a
sense of accomplishment.

Indicate your active participation in enjoyable events or activities. Avoid listing passive activities
(even if you find them enjoyable), such as watching movies, reading books, enjoying nature, listening
to friends, attending a concert, taking better care of yourself.

This exercise is an opportunity to examine particularly enjoyable and consistently satisfying

experiences. From this information we will discover those skills you will want to use as you go
forward.

I would advise you to give yourself some time to complete this exercise. Many people review different
life phases in order to capture the full scope of these experiences. Most carry around a piece of paper
to jot down ideas as they think of them.

SECTION I:

Briefly outline below all the work/personal/life experiences, which meet the above definition. Come
up with at least twenty. We ask for twenty stories so you wont be too selective. Just write down
anything that occurs to you, no matter how trivial it may seem. Try to think of concrete examples,
situations and tasks, not generalized skills or abilities. It may be helpful to say to yourself, There was
the time when I

1. Spending time with my nephew and niece

2. Vacation with my grandparents

3. The parties I organize in College

4. Teach tap dance or anything

5. Travel, backpacking all over the world

6. Swin

7. Travel to Brasil for Christmas

8. Having Barbucue with my friends at home

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 9. Cook new dishes with my mom

10. Watch Sports events with my dad

11. Volunteering for Elderly and for a Orphanage

12. During the Event at the Trade Show see that I helped build a good Show

13. Be a Godmother of 2 kids

14.

SECTION II
Analyzing Your Stories
Choose the seven-ten experiences from above, which you enjoyed the most and felt a consistent sense
of satisfaction from or the most sense of accomplishment about. (Be sure to include non-job-related
experiences also.) Then rank them. For each accomplishment, describe what you did. Be specific,
listing each step in detail (e.g., quantify whenever possible, such as % increase, $$ saved, #
supervised). Notice the role you played and your relationship with others, the subject matter, the
skills you used, etc. Use a separate sheet of paper.

Simply go through each story trying to look for threads that run through them so you will know the
things you do well that also give you satisfaction. If your accomplishments happen to be mostly work-
related, this exercise will give you some idea of how you may want to slant your resume and how you
will want your career to go in the long run.

Sample

Story #1: Planned product launch that resulted in 450 letters of intent from 1500 participants.

a. Worked with president and product managers to discuss product potential and details.

b. Developed promotional plans.

c. Conducted five-week direct-mail campaign prior to conference to create aura of excitement about
the product.

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d. Trained all product demonstrators to make sure they each presented our product in the same
way.

e. Had a great booth built; rented the best suite to entertain prospects; conducted campaign at the
conference by having teasers put under everyones door every day of conference. Most people
wanted to come to our booth.

Story #1.

What was the main accomplishment for you?

_____________________________________________________________________

What about it did you enjoy most?

_____________________________________________________________________

What did you do best?

_____________________________________________________________________

What was your key motivator?

_____________________________________________________________________

What led up to your getting involved? (e.g., assigned, thought by yourself)

_____________________________________________________________________

What was your relationship with others? (e.g., leader, team member, alone)
_____________________________________________________________________

Describe the environment in which you performed

_____________________________________________________________________

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What was the subject matter? (e.g., music, trees, budgets)
_____________________________________________________________________

Story #2.

Main accomplishment?
_____________________________________________________________________

Enjoyed most?
_____________________________________________________________________

Did best?
_____________________________________________________________________

Key motivator?
_____________________________________________________________________

What led up to it?

_____________________________________________________________________

Your role?
_____________________________________________________________________

The environment?
_____________________________________________________________________

The subject matter?

_____________________________________________________________________

Story #3.

Main accomplishment?
_____________________________________________________________________

Enjoyed most?
_____________________________________________________________________

Did best?
_____________________________________________________________________

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Key motivator?
_____________________________________________________________________

What led up to it?

_____________________________________________________________________

Your role?
_____________________________________________________________________

The environment?
_____________________________________________________________________

The subject matter?

_____________________________________________________________________

Story #4.

Main accomplishment?
_____________________________________________________________________

Enjoyed most?
_____________________________________________________________________

Did best?
_____________________________________________________________________

Key motivator?
_____________________________________________________________________

What led up to it?

_____________________________________________________________________

Your role?
_____________________________________________________________________

The environment?
_____________________________________________________________________

The subject matter?

_____________________________________________________________________

Story #5.

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Main accomplishment?
_____________________________________________________________________

Enjoyed most?
_____________________________________________________________________

Did best?
_____________________________________________________________________

Key motivator?
_____________________________________________________________________

What led up to it?

_____________________________________________________________________

Your role?
_____________________________________________________________________

The environment?
_____________________________________________________________________

The subject matter?

_____________________________________________________________________

Story #6.

Main accomplishment?
_____________________________________________________________________

Enjoyed most?
_____________________________________________________________________

Did best?
_____________________________________________________________________

Key motivator?
_____________________________________________________________________

What led up to it?

_____________________________________________________________________

Your role?
_____________________________________________________________________

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The environment?
_____________________________________________________________________

The subject matter?

_____________________________________________________________________
Story #7
Main accomplishment?
__________________________________________________________________
Enjoyed most?
_____________________________________________________________________

Did best?
_____________________________________________________________________
Key motivator?
_____________________________________________________________________
What led up to it?
_____________________________________________________________________
Your role?
_____________________________________________________________________

The environment?
_____________________________________________________________________

The subject matter?

_____________________________________________________________________
Story #8
Main accomplishment?
__________________________________________________________________
Enjoyed most?
_____________________________________________________________________

Did best?
_____________________________________________________________________
Key motivator?
_____________________________________________________________________

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What led up to it?
_____________________________________________________________________
Story #9
Main accomplishment?
__________________________________________________________________
Enjoyed most?
_____________________________________________________________________

Did best?
_____________________________________________________________________
Key motivator?
_____________________________________________________________________
What led up to it?
_____________________________________________________________________

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 Section III

SKILLS FROM YOUR TOP SEVEN STORIES

The numbers across the top represent each of your seven stories. Start with story #1 and check off all
of your specialized skills that appear in that story. After you check off the skills for all seven stories,
total them.

Top Six or Seven Specialized Skills, according to which had the most check marks:

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________________________________
________________________________ ___
______________________________________
___________________________________

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YOUR WORK-RELATED VALUES

What is important to you? As you grow and change your values may shift and need to be
reassessed continually. At some stages of your life, you may value money, leisure time, or
independence. This exercise is an assessment for your current set of values. For example, a
job may provide you with freedom, a value you hold dear, but not a great deal of money.
Whether we realize it or not, values are the driving force behind our actions.
Look at the list of values below. Think of each in terms of your overall career objectives.
Rate the degree of importance that you would assign to each for yourself, using this scale:

1 Not at all important in my choice of job

2 Not very but somewhat important
3 Reasonably important
4 Very important

Add other values that do not appear on the list or substitute wording you are more
comfortable with.

Of those you marked 4, circle the 5 most important to you today:

If forced to compromise on any of these, which one would you give up?
Which one would you be most reluctant to give up?
Describe in ten or twenty words what you want most in your life and/or career.