Our guest today is a bestselling author and speaker on all things career, helping people discover their next chapter after they go through an unexpected change in their life. Please welcome the founder of Career Design Studio, angela Wilson. From Menzies Creek, Victoria, Australia.

A neighbor of mine, pretty much, considering all guests that we've had on this show, being a lot of overseas-based. Angela, a pleasure to have you here. How are you? I'm very good.

Thanks for having me here, Jake. It's a real pleasure to be in this space with you and to talk about what makes me happy. Yeah, I'm super excited to have you on, too.

And Angela, what does make you happy? Yeah, and I love this question, and this one put me into a bit of deep reflection because you have all different layers of things that make you happy. And when I go to that deeper level, for me, based on my unexpected change and what I went through in 2016, the top one has to be life itself, that it is so precious. And when you go through an unexpected change where things are flipped on its head, you really have a different perspective on life.

And that quote, Life is short, and things like that actually is shown to you in a totally different way. It's not just a quote, it is real life. And for me, everything was really flipped up in the air from the wind.

And as it was settling yeah, I had to have a really good look into who I am, what makes me happy, and what I discovered through everything that I went through and coming out the other side, that my values I really had to look into, well, what's important to me now? It was so different to five years ago, ten years ago, even a minute ago, after a windstorm and a tree crushed my home. So for me, it's about what's important to me in this moment, and that is the blueprint for happiness. Your values, personally and also professionally, and how aligned you are to those.

Are you living through your values? Are they a part of you? And are you really respecting yourself and what you really want to do in the world and how you want to show up? Which I think for a lot of people, they might be going, oh, yes, values. I understand what that means. Have you ever taken stock of yourself, your life, especially your values? That, for me, is a part of that journey to happiness that we're all really sort of sourcing and looking for.

Wonderfully said. What would your advice be for someone getting started on assessing their values. Would it be to just go and talk to professional, start asking themselves some questions, start journaling or writing down on some paper, where did you start and what should you do? Yes.

And this is going to be a very individual choice and any person that's in front of me, we always go to what feels right for you. In the early days, for me, especially, going through a big trauma, like a natural disaster, it was definitely walking in nature and just breathing and sort of letting things out. If I needed to cry, to cry.

If I needed to talk to someone while I was walking, give someone a call. If it was also professionally, it might be, well, yeah. Who's someone that I can trust?

Journaling I kept this notebook and I wrote a book about my journey and how to uncover your meaning and purpose. And I wrote about the steps that I took and there are 16 different steps and values. They're just one of those which can be about what is right for you and it is about just that first little step and that's usually the hardest one to take.

How do I start? That's the question that I always hear from people can just be about what's the first thing that comes to mind and let's go from there. And that first step forward leads to the next one, that leads to the next one. And it can be those small steps that can make such a difference.

Yeah, wonderfully. But find what's right for you and you're never going to have that pathway that just is laid out for you. Everyone has those bumps in the road.

I just think write down a list of ten things that you can try that you've heard and then just go through that list, cross them out, maybe come back and highlight the one that works for you. And then just keep practicing that because remember, it is all consistency that leads to you feeling better about yourself if that's the easiest way to put it. Angela, we really appreciate you sharing all things that make you happy and what others can do to find a little bit more happiness in their lives, especially coming through an unexpected change as well.

We really appreciate your time and we thank you for your appearance here. Thanks for listening to the podcast. We hope it gives you something to think about on your quest to discover what makes you happy.