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in an area where you could go skiing or surfing on the weekend.
    Use the answers you do have as a foundation for further exploration of where you’d love to be—to live, to work, to play. Your answers will change over time, as you visit places you’ve never been before, as you go to technical school or college, or as you experience your first job. All of these experiences will help you learn what, who, and where is most important in your life.
    Each person’s ideal working conditions are different. Let’s start by exploring something you may never have thought about before: your ideal work environment and what makes it just right for you.

Your Work Environment
    When you begin working, roughly one-quarter of your time each week will be at your job. Many a person has gotten what they thought would be their ideal job, only to find that even though they are doing what they most want to do, the workplace is so uncomfortable they must quit. Your work environment needs to be one not only in which you feel comfortable but in which you can thrive. We use the term “environment” here because your ideal “where” includes more than just the location (office, laboratory, farm) where you do your work. The environment also includes, among many other things, your work space (desk, cubicle, lab space, five-hundred-acre ranch, machine shop), physical conditions (windows or no windows, natural or fluorescent lighting, noisy or quiet), atmosphere (formal, casual, amount of contact with people, working style), company size (small, large, local, national, international), and clothing (uniform, suit, jeans).
    If you’ve already had some work experience or if you’ve visited various workplaces (for example, where your parents work, your doctor’s office, your school), think about what you liked or didn’t like. Another way to approach this is to think about where you like to study—in a quiet library or in your bedroom with the CD player on, alone or with a group, and so on. Where do you feelcomfortable or uncomfortable? Where would you like to spend more time? The same job (or very similar jobs) can happen in many different environments—some you would love, some you would hate! So let’s start exploring what’s just right for you.

YOUR IDEAL WORK ENVIRONMENT
Answer the following questions as best you can. Because there are a lot of questions, don’t try to answer them all at once. Set a timer for ten to fifteen minutes. Answer as many questions as you can during that time. If you’re enjoying the exercise when the timer goes off, set it for another ten to fifteen minutes. Another option is to answer some of the questions now, then come back again in a week or two and answer some more. By then, you may have noticed things that you aren’t aware of right now. Also, if you think of something not included here, be sure to put that on your list too.
Location
Where would you most like to work…
• Indoors or outdoors?
• In an office building? In a machine shop? On a ranch? At your home? Somewhere else?
• In an urban, suburban, or rural area?
• In many locations or one spot (travel or no travel)?
Work Space
What kind of space would you most enjoy…
• A cubicle in a large room with lots of other people in their own cubicles?
• Your own desk in a private office?
• Lots of variety—at a desk, in your car, at clients’ locations, on airplanes, in hotels?
• A classroom, laboratory, hospital?
• Garage or workshop?
• Outdoors—golf course? ranch? barn? forest? under the sea?
• A place with everything you need—all the latest tools or technology and necessary supplies—or a place where you need to be creative with limited resources, supplies, and equipment?
Physical Conditions
Do you prefer…
• Fancy and upscale, moderately nice, or does it not matter?
• Windows that open and close or a climate-controlled building?
• Natural or artificial light?
• A light or dark environment?
• Comfortable temperature