Let us consider how to collect information about yourself and your work environment.
Your objective is to;-
Collect, organise and interpret Data about your Values, interests, personality, ability, lifestyle preferences, and leisure interests.



Values might include;
Sense of achievement, stimulation, job security, degree of autonomy, promotion opportunities.

Interests might include;
Science, Arts, Performing Arts, Sport, Law, IT, Marketing, Finance, Entrepreneurship, Interaction with People, Teaching or coaching.

Personality might include;
Introvert, extrovert, determined, flexible, sensitive, and stubborn.

Abilities might include:-
Verbal reasoning, Writing skills, Manual dexterity, Physical strength, Technological skill.

Lifestyle preferences might include;-
Regular daytime hours, travel abroad, living near family, adventure.

Leisure interests might include;-
Gardening, reading, sport, sailing, family and friends.

There are of course formal assessment centres and many formal techniques such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

According to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. These preferences were extrapolated from the typological theories proposed by Carl Gustav Jung and first published in his 1921 book Psychological Types (English edition, 1923). Jung theorized that there are four principal psychological functions by which we experience the world: sensation, intuition, feeling, and thinking. One of these four functions is dominant most of the time.
The original developers of the personality inventory were Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers; these two, having studied extensively the work of Jung, turned their interest of human behaviour into a devotion of turning the theory of psychological types to practical use. They began creating the indicator during World War II, believing that a knowledge of personality preferences would help women who were entering the industrial workforce for the first time to identify the sort of war-time jobs that would be “most comfortable and effective”.
The initial questionnaire grew into the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which was first published in 1962. The MBTI focuses on normal populations and emphasizes the value of naturally occurring differences. Robert Kaplan and Dennis Saccuzzo believe “the underlying assumption of the MBTI is that we all have specific preferences in the way we construe our experiences, and these preferences underlie our interests, needs, values, and motivation”

There are also informal techniques you can carry out yourself, and then review them with the assistance of family members, friends and colleagues, who can help you to organise and interpret the data, and even to consider goals and develop strategy.

These could include;

• Review your personal life history. Consider significant people, working life, turning points and key decisions.
• Keep a diary, cover work days and weekends or holidays.
• Review your high and low life experiences and the decisions or circumstances that led to them, and the reasoning behind them.
• Analyse current and previous jobs in terms of satisfaction and dissatisfaction.
• Picture and describe your ideal job in detail, including work environment, conditions, colleagues, managers, tasks and responsibilities, pay and benefits, hours, place of work .
• Picture and describe your ideal life, with emphasis on how your job impinges on your life.

You then need to organise and interpret the data and use it to define and develop options, set goals and design a strategy to set you on your way to your goals.

Remember to be flexible enough to take new developments in the work place into account, whether they be new products, new technology, emerging sectors, or trading platforms. Plans should be flexible and realistic in the face of new information.