Create Work That Works For You
Do you believe work is broken?
We do too!
Work as you know it was designed for the needs of corporations, not for the people working for them. Too many of us have spent most of our careers squeezing ourselves into someone else's system.
It doesn't have to be that way.
We envision a world where people work enough to earn enough to feel enough.
We’re on a mission to help mid-career professionals create work in alignment with their values, needs and abilities using the life skills that matter.
Do you want your work to be part of your life, but not your entire life?
Do you want to get paid for just being yourself?
Do you believe money isn't the only measure of success?
Do you want to stop playing by someone else's rules and write your own?
It's possible when you create work that works for you.
Are we the best fit for you?
Life Skills That Matter has been tailored to address the needs of mid-career professionals, especially creatives, who feel stuck, burned out or out of alignment with their work.
We don’t offer conventional career advice because we don’t think it’s that effective anymore, given how quickly work is changing.
We help you become the starting point for designing your work, rather than advising you to contort yourself to fit into a job that might pay well, but sucks your soul.
If you've done everything you were "supposed to" in your career thus far, but still feel unfulfilled, you're in the right place.
Making your work, work for you looks different for everyone. You might want to:
Redesign the job you already have in alignment with your needs.
Change careers by repackaging your skills in unconventional ways.
Go independent as a freelancer, consultant or solopreneur.
Make the most of the final decade of your career by finally working on your terms.
Create more time for your family or a passion project.
Radically design work in a way you thought was not possible.
Whatever direction you choose, you'll design it around who you are with our support.
How we work with you
Our coaching methodology is built on one belief: clarity comes from doing.
You can get answers about how to manage your career from other people and even AI chatbots, but you’re never going to live the change you want until you take action to know for yourself.
We believe creating work that works for you begins with knowing yourself, for yourself, and that starts with a regular self-reflection practice.
This practice will provide clarity by establishing a starting point for your transformation and helping you notice the habits that move you forward and the ones holding you back.
Your life is the sum of your habits. Transforming your work begins by transforming your habits, and that begins with self-knowledge.
Clarity in Action is our methodology. It moves you through five work transformation stages, with one core practice at each:
Stuck — start a self-reflection practice.
Searching — test your options with work sprints.
Committed — join peers who hold you accountable.
Designing — take action and create your Clarity Action Plan.
Integrated — turn it all into core work habits, and keep reflecting as your work and life change.
Our methodology brings you through a systematic framework to test your assumptions, to explore all of your options and to focus on the most impactful actions at each stage of your journey.
Our experience has also demonstrated that those who participate in weekly peer accountability groups move toward their goals much more quickly than those attempting to go it alone.
Here’s an overview of the services to get you started on your journey toward making your work, work for you:
Career Clarity Assessment — a free 20-minute assessment, reviewed by a human on our team, not AI, that shows which stage you’re in and your next best step.
Weekly Reflection Reminder — a free weekly email to keep you accountable for making time to figure out what you want.
Self-Reflection Practice Course — a free 6-week course to help you start your weekly self-reflection practice.
Self-Inventory — a four-week deep-dive assessment that builds the knowledge you need to know about yourself to work on your terms.
Practice Clarity Workshop — a workshop to help you change one part of your work you might believe isn’t possible.
Work Reimagined Collective — our 8-week live group coaching community, where you commit to a new path and design your work alongside peers.
Work Integrated Collective — an ongoing community for graduates of the Work Reimagined Collective to stay motivated and accountable.
Hey there, I'm Stephen Warley
I started Life Skills That Matter in 2016 to show you how work is changing and how you can change work to your advantage.
I was laid off on Election Day in 2000. It took me another five years to discover why conventional work made me miserable: I was trying to fit into someone else's system.
I gained my freedom when I designed my own system of work, starting with learning how to assess myself.
For me, making my work, work for me meant working for myself. I choose what I work on and who I work with, and I decide when, where and how I work.
For you, it might look completely different. What matters is that you design it, instead of someone else.
I make enough money to live the life I want without losing my mind from overworking.
I have a theory that most people would happily make around $100,000 a year doing something they enjoy and/or feel confident doing, working no more than 35 hours a week, instead of hustling to chase after more and more money to achieve some arbitrary status.
From my experience, many of the people I have worked with over the past 25 years want to work enough to earn enough to feel enough.
Your version of “enough” might be different and that’s for you to decide!
YOU are the starting point for designing work that makes you feel energized, productive, secure and satisfied.
The Life Skills That Matter
I have interviewed 500+ people who found ways to work on their terms, in fields as different as art, writing, finance, health, marketing and entrepreneurship. You can listen to archived episodes of our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast app.
I became most fascinated by people who transformed their lives in alignment with their purpose, needs, motivations, abilities and values. They are paid for being exactly who they are.
Then I began to wonder, how did they do it?
I looked for common patterns, and a core set of life skills kept showing up over and over again. I call them the Life Skills That Matter:
Self-awareness — knowing what energizes and drains you, and what "enough" means for you.
Curiosity — imagining options you haven't considered and testing them in the real world.
Connection — surrounding yourself with people who support how you want to work and want to see you succeed.
The biggest mistake people make when they want to work on their terms is skipping the most important step: understanding themselves.
You are the first resource in any work you do, and often the biggest obstacle. The more you learn about yourself, the better decisions you'll make about your work and your life.
We believe you already have everything you need to make your work, work for you. You just need to slow down and reflect to start gaining clarity.
Work is changing, Are you ready?
AI is reshaping work faster than any of us expected, especially creative work. Many of us feel anxious, less secure and less valued than ever before.
But here's what I believe: as more work becomes automated, the work that remains will make us more autonomous. We're going to get paid for our creativity, judgment and our ability to connect with other humans, not for how well we follow directions.
We've all been taught how to conform to the system. We were never taught how we perform best as individuals. Knowing yourself and thinking for yourself have never been more crucial, especially in the age of AI.
Practicing the Life Skills That Matter defends your personal freedom, builds your resilience and reveals possibilities you didn’t know existed.
What's holding you back?
You might feel anxious, overwhelmed or stressed out about your work. I know that feeling. I was chronically anxious about work for years, until I finally learned to work in a way that stopped feeding it.
It's not that we want to get out of working. We feel a loss of control over how we work. And even when we achieve success, many of us still feel unfulfilled.
I've come to realize there are two paths in life:
The one you really want to follow, the one your inner voice is begging you to take.
The one you think you're supposed to follow, the one your family, peers or society expect.
Most of us take the path we think we're "supposed to." We've been taught that following the expected path is the only socially acceptable option, and the fear of losing others' acceptance is powerful.
That's why you don't do this alone. When you surround yourself with people who want the same change, you start believing it's possible for you too. It might be tougher than staying on the expected path in the short term, but trust me, you'll be much happier over the long term.
Once your work aligns with your needs, motivations, abilities and values, you'll finally work in harmony with yourself.
You have a choice to make
No pressure. 😉 But in my humble opinion, the choice is pretty clear:
Keep doing the work you think you're "supposed to do," the work that's making you miserable.
Do the work of learning about yourself, one step at a time, and discover work that works for you.
Most of us think we have a third choice: "I'll figure it out someday."
But why put it off?
Stop ignoring those feelings and start exploring them today. It's possible, and it's worth it!
Discover your next best step now.