Love of the Week

I will try to keep this brief, and you will soon understand why, right below, in the HATE section of this newsletter. But I can promise nothing, as this week offered a bounty of things to celebrate.

First, The Becoming You Coaching Certification Program received accreditation from the International Coaching Federation as a provider of continuing education, glory hallelujah! This serves as a stamp of approval on our curriculum’s rigor from the industry’s standard bearer, great news for our 200 already-certified coaches, and for the 50 new ones starting the program this very week.

Other good stuff: A few days ago, I attended an academic conference at Wharton for researchers in my field, and discovered how many of my esteemed colleagues have, unbeknownst to me, taken The Values Bridge and have nice things to say about its pedagogy. The conference also allowed me to meet great thinkers doing great work in the areas of dignity and identity. I was honored to be in the same room with them. It was a learning-a-palooza.

Oh, and after the learning was done, I got to stay overnight with my BFF, who lives near campus. How can it be that Sue and I have known each other for 50 years, talk and text every day, and still need to stay up until midnight to catch up on things?

Because love, I guess, which apparently leaves no room for keeping things short and sweet.

Hate of the Week

Three things in life bring you to your knees. Death, divorce, and moving. I’ve had my share of each, but this week, I willingly stepped into #3 once again.

My move was less than one subway stop away. It could have been to another continent given the mishegas it has entailed. Why did it have to rain? Why didn’t my clothes arrive with everything else? Does my new bedroom really only have one outlet? Oh, I will be fine, of course I will, after I find my favorite clogs and the dogs stop barking like maniacs, and in the end, this new home is right for me. It is, in other words, all for the good.

Except this part, the in-between. Which requires patience and calm. Perhaps they are hiding with my clogs.

Hmm of the Week

Becoming You is based on the premise that your purpose lives at the intersection of your authentic values, your defining aptitudes, and your economically viable interests. I spend a lot of time talking about values and aptitudes. In fact, I just finished a three-part podcast series on aptitudes, and we are currently making our way through a new podcast series exploring each value individually. But the third pillar of the Becoming You methodology—EVIs, as we call them for short—is just as important as the other two.

To that end, I had several fascinating conversations with economists this week about what will constitute the work of the future. One of them told me she is working on an instrument which will analyze your competencies and skills and identify which are the most “AI-proof.” Well, that caught my attention. It made me wonder about, well, me. What can I actually do that an LLM can’t? I like to tell myself Claude can’t write this newsletter, or give a student the encouragement she needs exactly when and how she needs it, or sit with data scientists for hours and hours on end, debating how a Values Bridge question should be phrased to best eliminate social desirability bias. But maybe I’m deluding myself and all that will be left for me in a few years is petting my dogs, playing with my grandkids, and watching reruns of "The House of the Dragon" so I can keep Aegon and Aemond straight.

Ok, nix that last one. An LLM has got me there.

But seriously, I’m pondering this existential question, and I bet I’m not alone. Write me at hello@suzywelch.com and let me know your AI-proof skills and competencies, and if you can think of any of mine, throw them in for good measure.

After all, we’re moving all the time in this life, aren’t we, sometimes on purpose and sometimes not. We need all the self-awareness we can get. I’m working on it over here, and hopefully, someday, I will demonstrate more success with it than I’ve had with brevity.

Until next week,

What's coming?

→ Last chance to sign up! Becoming You Certification Program here

The Three Things No One Tells You About Being the Boss of Your Own Life

In this deep dive episode, I'm taking you 3,000 years back to the earliest recorded signs of Agency—the number two value in The Values Bridge data set. I got to sit down with NYU Stern self-determination scholar Steve Blader to unpack why some people need to run their own show and others don't, and I talk to Pastor Jimmy Scroggins about what it actually means to hand your Agency over to a higher power. Plus: entrepreneur Drew Henry joins to talk about how Agency shaped his career pivot from corporate marketing to working for himself. If you've ever felt like you had to be the one calling the shots, or wondered why you can't seem to let go of control, this episode is for you.

Tune in Here!

No longer want to receive these emails?

{% unsubscribe %}.
Becoming You Media