Astrid Baumgardner | How to Discover Your Core Values - Tap Into Joy and Experience Success

Inspiring Change | Empowering Success

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Pianist and DMA, Juilliard School

I initially began coaching because my boyfriend, a big fan of Astrid's, saw that I was confused about a lot of things regarding the direction my life was taking career-wise. He purchased five coachings for me for my birthday with the caveat that nothing was binding and that I could opt out any time if I felt uncomfortable. From my very first session, it was clear that Astrid is one of the most insightful and generous people I have met. I walked into this session last fall, thinking that I had come to a dead-end in my music career and that perhaps I would benefit from heading in a new direction. After only a couple sessions, I renewed my sense of love for music and began to see possibilities for myself that I never dreamed of. Astrid is extremely dedicated and focused in each session. One major breakthrough I have had is the idea that being authentic is a major value for me and that I have spent so much of my life trying to please others or do activities I feel like I "should" do. I feel like I have blossomed in so many ways this year, taking on creative projects that I might have been cautious of before, meeting incredible colleagues, and being excited about the future instead of fearful of it. Astrid has a great gift of seeing the beauty in each person and allowing their strengths to come through.

— JC, New York, NY

Composer

Astrid has turned around the way I look at my career in the most extraordinary way. I used to think that the professional part of what I do was very separate from the creative and deeply personal aspects of being a composer. Going after professional opportunities to get my music out there felt to me like a very daunting task--one that I found a little distasteful because it felt like "selling myself." Astrid really helped me realize that building a career has to come from the most genuine part of myself--in the same way as building a piece. With this understanding, the professional world looks much less scary to me now, and I'm able to reach out to my professional network with the courage of my conviction, and with the kind of personal investment and care that makes professional experiences deeply meaningful. Career building is about believing in what you do, and its validity; it is about communication and courage. It only works if it feels true to who you are.

With her supportive and positive attitude combined with her incredible sensitivity and intelligence, Astrid has created for me a wonderful safe space to discover how I want to develop my goals from the inside out. I have found in her a true kindred spirit as well as a powerful ally and coach.

—Hannah L,. New York, NY

Attorney and ??????

There seem to be an infinite number of resources available to people looking to make career changes these days, and I think I looked into most of them before I met Astrid. Numerous books advised me to do what I loved. That sounded good, except that I didn’t know what I loved. A career test provided some insight and long lists of possibly compatible jobs, but ultimately directed me to do what I loved - back to square one. Another career coach, dispensing with frivolities like love, laid out a practical approach to a career path that objectively made some sense, but I knew in my heart that I would hate it. I felt deficient for not knowing what I loved, unreasonable for rejecting a sensible path that didn’t appeal, and in general, completely hopeless about my situation.

When I began coaching with Astrid, I was struggling with a strong feeling that there was some ‘perfect’ thing out there for me to do, if only I could think of what it was. I had a vague idea that finding the answer would involve going through the racks of possible jobs and holding each one up in front of the mirror to see if it might fit, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that we would take a more bespoke approach. There would be no squeezing me into a readymade career in this process - instead, we would be focusing on my strengths, values, work style, etc., to think about what might be right for me. Astrid’s willingness to cheerfully abandon any exercise that wasn't working for me kept me comfortable with everything we did, and helped me to get the most out of the process.

The work we did helped me to form a foundation for understanding why certain things, career-related or otherwise, are a better choice for me than others. With Astrid’s warm encouragement, I have also started to reconnect with the creative, less self-limiting side of myself that I feared was permanently lost. I feel more like myself than I have in a long time, and I have a career direction that I am looking forward to exploring. This may or may not turn out to be the ‘perfect thing‘ that I was looking for, but I no longer feel the pressure of that search; rather, I am hopeful that by taking actions that are consistent with my character, staying open to the possibilities that arise with each action, and correcting my course as necessary, I will enjoy the process just as much as whatever result I reach. I am grateful to Astrid for helping me to readjust my direction and my outlook, and I highly recommend her services to anyone who feels lost, stuck or anything less than wholeheartedly enthusiastic about what they are doing.

— Andrea K., New York, NY

Cellist and music entrepreneur

A good friend recommended I see Astrid because I was stuck. Stuck. Stuck. Stuck, and suffering. She has helped me parse through all the detail in what seemed panoramic hopelessness. She has worked in a distinctly different way than my psychotherapist, more pragmatically, and the combination of the two ... has been, for me, very effective. I have made tectonic shifts in the way I see myself, my place in the world and how I move through it. There have been some very painful changes and realizations, but most important, I have found a source for joy, hope and energy, undiluted by difficulties, so that I actually feel better, and stronger. This is my testimony to Astrid.

— TM, Rhode Island

Educator

Astrid Baumgardner is a true facilitator, and in that capacity she has guided me to discover the values and deeply held beliefs essential to my happiness and fulfillment in the workplace, wherever it may be....Through our coaching sessions, I was able to draw out and fortify my self-confidence, without which my ambitious relocation would not previously have been conceivable. When you are determined to strive diligently for change in your life, Astrid will be there to help you to create a roadmap to navigate and overcome every obstacle you encounter throughout your life-altering transition.

— MH, New York, NY and Tokyo, Japan

How to Discover Your Core Values - Tap Into Joy and Experience Success

True success comes from knowing your cores and making decisions that honor those values. You can figure out your values by examining something that makes you very angry as I did when I examined my strong reaction to Don Draper of Mad Men. Now let's complement that with an experience from the opposite end of the spectrum: joy.

Joy: A Peak Experience

Think of how great you feel when you are doing something that brings you joy. Chances are that when you experience true joy, you are doing something that is very important to you. And that's what values are: the important things in your life. In fact, in doing this exercise, many people will go to a turning point or a defining moment in their lives because once you have experienced true joy and you decode the clues of why that was so important to you, you will want to have more of those moments in your life.

Allow me to share my defining joyful experience with you. I was in a career that did not bring me a lot of fulfillment. Fortunately, I had a lot of other wonderful things in my life, including a passion for music and the ability to play the piano. One of my favorite things was a periodic get-together with a group of friends who were amateur musicians where we, along with our children, would all perform for each other. On one such occasion, I decided to do something a little different. I was studying a piece of music by one of my favorite composers, the early 20th Century French Impressionist composer Claude Debussy and was so taken with the piece that I created a lecture demonstration for my friends. I practiced hard, I did a lot of research and I thought a lot about the work. At the performance, I played my heart out and was thrilled to share my research and my insights. I felt creatively supercharged and really excited that my friends were so engaged in my material. I thought about that experience and realized why I felt so great:

o I felt incredibly creative, not only because I was playing the piano but also because I was presenting material in a new and unusual way;

o I was learning something new and teaching something that excited me;

o I was interacting with people who meant a lot to me and inspiring them to feel excited as well;

o I felt alive and vital and truly authentic.

In other words, I was honoring principles that turn out to be among my top values: creativity, relationships and connection, authenticity, life-long learning,

This episode became the turning point in my life because I realized that my legal career was not satisfying these important principles. Instead, I wanted to be able to get up every day and pursue a career that honored my values. And so, I began my journey that led me to leave the law and embark on a fascinating career, first in the arts and the non-profit world and ultimately to what I do now as a coach. Knowing my values was a powerful motivator and that experience of joy was the defining moment for me in putting me on the road to my authentic success.

What is your defining moment of joy?

Think about your moment of joy. When did it come up? At work? In a relationship? In a creative moment? In contact with nature?

What values does your JOY experience represent?

Action Steps:

1. Write down the values that came out of your JOY experience.

2. Compare these with your values from your peak ANGER experience.

3. Make a list of all the values that are important to you.

4. Rate these values on a scale of 1-10 where 1 represents "not at all important" and 10 means "indispensable".

5. Prioritize your values and pick your top 5. You now have your list of Core Values!

6. Remember your values by posting them, emailing them to yourself or finding another way that you can easily call them up.

7. Continue to test your values the next time you have an important decision to make by seeing what values are at stake, what values you are honoring and what values you are ignoring when you make that decision.

Now you are ready to experience authentic success. Enjoy how great it is to be in alignment with core!

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Astrid Baumgardner, JD, PCC is a professional life coach and lawyer, Coordinator of Career Strategies and Lecturer at the Yale School of Music and the founder and President of Astrid Baumgardner Coaching + Training, which is dedicated to helping musicians, lawyers and creative professionals take charge of their lives and experience authentic success. In addition to her work at YSM and her individual coaching practice, Astrid presents workshops at leading conservatories and law firms on topics including Career Planning, Goal-Setting, Time Management, Dynamic Communication, Conflict Management and Personal Branding and Networking. She is the author of numerous articles on the various aspects of how to achieve and live authentic success.