Many people valiantly try to adapt themselves to the life they find themselves in. This may work for a while and may even come with a measure of success. But true happiness with this approach is often elusive. In fact, stress is often the result of being out of sorts with one’s self – who one really is inside. Bringing that out into the world is often a challenge. With today’s frenetic pace of life, it often isn’t even considered.

Stress can happen when we lose touch with those parts of ourselves that rarely get expressed but are nevertheless important to us. We may develop a short term focus because there’s too much to do and too little time to do it in. We can focus on conventional ( id, title, author, preface, blurb, extract, date ) VALUES like money, power or status. We start thinking only in terms of responsibilities – to our family, our company, to our various commitments. We start to sense we don’t have much control over our life. Little by little we become outer directed and every decision we make seems to be in reaction to demands being placed on us.

This stressful cycle appears to start very early. As kids we try to please our parents, win the admiration of teachers, compete with our siblings and peers. All for rewards that we’ve been told are what everyone wants. Initially this might even be satisfying. But eventually our inner needs, hidden goals, talents or impulses get lost.

Repeatedly, social science research shows that the happiest and most successful among us are those who take the time to reflect on what’s truly important to themselves. Steven Covey called this living out of quadrant II where our most important but less urgent ( id, title, author, preface, blurb, extract, date ) VALUES lie. Being inner directed also conveys a sense of personal responsibility. We are not just victims of luck or fate in life, we are continually making choices. The most successful people seem to get this and live it in their lives. An inner locus of control of our lives makes all the difference in the world for true life satisfaction.

This is one of the unique advantages of the assessment we use in our work. The Highlands Ability Battery starts from the inside out. In an objective process called worksample testing, we can identify an individual’s innate, natural talents and abilities. It’s like having a check up for yourself and your career. From the results an individual can determine if they’re really working from the inside out, from their unique set of strengths and abilities, or whether they’re not. Sometimes, we find that for the most part our client’s life is on track but is missing certain important elements. Sometimes, those elements have been left out because of a clash of ( id, title, author, preface, blurb, extract, date ) VALUES or influences from family or significant others, or because of lack of opportunity or courage.

Being out of sync with who we really are and what we can optimally develop in ourselves, we find, sometimes causes stress on the job and in life. Then, it’s a fortunate opportunity indeed, when we find the resources like abilities assessments and career coaching. Perhaps, these offer an opportunity to once again be in the driver’s seat, take charge of life and direct it where we can express who we really are and with what’s truly most important.