What is the Life & Career Clarity Assessment and how does it work?

The Life & Career Clarity Assessment is a structured self-evaluation designed to help you identify your current level of clarity, confidence, and direction in your career and personal life. Through a series of targeted questions, it highlights your strengths, challenges, and opportunities for growth, giving you a personalised result with actionable insights to move forward.

Who is this life and career assessment for?

This assessment is ideal for professionals who feel stuck, unfulfilled, or uncertain about their next steps. Whether you are considering a career change, seeking more purpose in your work, or looking to improve your work-life balance, this tool helps you gain clarity on what truly matters to you.

What is Ikigai and how does it relate to the Clarity Assessment?

Ikigai is a Japanese concept that translates loosely as "a reason for being". In its modern coaching form, it sits at the intersection of four questions: what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be recognised or rewarded for. The Clarity Assessment uses a simplified Ikigai map that focuses on three of those Your passion, Your strength, and what others recognise in you because in life and career coaching, that is usually where the most actionable clarity lives. Seeing those three written down beside each other often surfaces a direction that has been hiding in plain sight.

What are the five stages of change?

The five stages of change are drawn from the Transtheoretical Model developed by psychologists Prochaska and DiClemente. They describe the predictable psychological journey people move through when changing something meaningful in their life or career. The Clarity Assessment maps your answer to one of five stages: Awareness (thinking about it), Weighing (knowing it), Clarifying (getting ready), Moving (started), and Deepening (keeping going). Knowing which stage you are in matters because the right next step is different at each one — pushing for action when you are still in Awareness usually backfires.

What is the difference between a Clarity Assessment and a Personal Values Assessment?

The Clarity Assessment looks at where you are right now — your current direction, readiness, and the gap between today and where you want to be in three months. The Personal Values Assessment looks underneath that, at the principles that quietly drive your decisions. Values tend to be stable over time. Clarity changes with circumstance. Most people get the most out of doing the Clarity Assessment first to surface what is live, and then the Values Assessment to understand why certain options feel right or wrong. Both are free.

What does "the gap" mean in the assessment results?

The gap is the honest distance between where you said you are today and what you said would be true if real progress had been made in three months. In coaching, naming the gap is often more powerful than naming the goal, because it makes visible what is actually being avoided, postponed, or quietly tolerated. The gap is not a problem to solve in one move, it is the territory the work of coaching crosses.

Will my responses be recorded, stored, or seen by anyone?

No. Your responses are not visible to me, are not manually reviewed, and are not shared with any third parties. They are used only in real time to generate your personalised assessment results. Once your results are delivered, your answers are not stored in any database used for coaching, marketing, or follow-up purposes, and they cannot be accessed later.

Is coaching with Ciaran Barry available outside Ireland?

Yes. Even though I am based in Cork, Ireland, I work with clients all across Ireland, the UK and mainland Europe via secure video sessions.

What is a free 45-minute consultation and what happens in it?

The free consultation is a 45-minute conversation where we look at what you are navigating, what is underneath it, and whether coaching with me is the right next step for you. It is not a sales call. You should leave the conversation with at least one useful insight even if you decide not to work together. Many people book it after completing the Clarity Assessment because it gives us a shared starting point.

Clarity Assessment | Ciaran Barry Coaching | Cork, Ireland

Clarity Assessment by Ciaran Barry Coaching | Life and Career Clarity for Cork and Ireland

Clarity Assessment

In 3 minutes, get clear on where you are, where you're going, and what's in the way.

A reflection on what's quietly in the way and what you actually want next.

Created by Ciaran Barry Coaching

Before we start

Take a moment with me.

Let's start with a short breathing exercise. Honest answers come from a settled mind.

Press begin when you are ready

30 seconds

Now we begin.

Six short questions. Take them at your own pace.

Part One · Your passion

What do you genuinely love doing?

Choose three.

0 of 3 selected

Part Two · What you're good at

Which of these do you find easy that others find hard?

Choose three.

0 of 3 selected

Part Three · What people see in you

Which of these do people often turn to you for?

Choose three.

0 of 3 selected

Part Four · Three months from now

If three months from now you've made real progress, what would be true?

Choose up to three.

0 selected

Part Five · In one word

If you had to describe how you feel about your life right now in one word, which is closest?

Choose one.

Choose one

Part Six · Your readiness for change

Where are you with making a change?

Choose one.

Choose one

Putting your reflection together.

Your reflection is ready

Almost there.

Enter your details to see your reflection now. You'll also receive regular self development updates from Ciaran, delivered as part of our newsletter, no spam, just genuinely useful insights.

First name

No spam. Unsubscribe any time.

In your own word

Stuck.

That's where you said you are. Let's look at why.

Scroll for more

Your Ikigai map

Your purpose, in your own words.

Your passion

Your strengths

What people see

The gap

From where you are, to where you said you want to be.

Today

The gap

In three months

Where you are

Where you are on the path of change.

Knowing where you are is half the work. The other half is knowing what to do next.

Stage 1 · Awareness

Thinking about it You are here

The seeing stage. You start noticing things you can no longer unsee. The work isn't to act yet. It's to listen.

Stage 2 · Weighing

Knowing it You are here

The honest stage. You know change is needed. You feel the pull and the resistance at the same time.

Stage 3 · Clarifying

Getting ready You are here

The clarifying stage. Direction comes before energy is spent. The right next move is small, concrete, and soon.

Stage 4 · Moving

Started You are here

The moving stage. You are in motion. The work is consistency over intensity, and pointing the action at the right thing.

Stage 5 · Deepening

Keeping going You are here

The deepening stage. The change has taken. The work changes shape, from direction to depth.

A reflection for you

— Ciaran

What happens next is up to you

Most people who do this reflection say the same thing. "I knew, but I'd never said it out loud."

The reflection you have just done is a starting point. A free 45 minute consultation is where we look at it properly — what you are navigating, what is underneath it, and whether coaching with me is the right next step for you. There is no obligation to take it further.

Book your free consultation

Frequently asked questions

The idea behind the Clarity Assessment is simple. Gaining clarity on what matters, recognising where you are, and deciding how to move forward.

What is the Life & Career Clarity Assessment and how does it work?
The Life & Career Clarity Assessment is a structured self-evaluation designed to help you identify your current level of clarity, confidence, and direction in your career and personal life. Through a series of targeted questions, it highlights your strengths, challenges, and opportunities for growth, giving you a personalised result with actionable insights to move forward.
Who is this life and career assessment for?
This assessment is ideal for professionals who feel stuck, unfulfilled, or uncertain about their next steps. Whether you are considering a career change, seeking more purpose in your work, or looking to improve your work-life balance, this tool helps you gain clarity on what truly matters to you.
What is Ikigai and how does it relate to the Clarity Assessment?
Ikigai is a Japanese concept that translates loosely as "a reason for being". In its modern coaching form, it sits at the intersection of four questions: what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be recognised or rewarded for. The Clarity Assessment uses a simplified Ikigai map that focuses on three of those

Your passion,
Your strength,
and what others recognise in you

because in life and career coaching, that is usually where the most actionable clarity lives. Seeing those three written down beside each other often surfaces a direction that has been hiding in plain sight.
What are the five stages of change?
The five stages of change are drawn from the Transtheoretical Model developed by psychologists Prochaska and DiClemente. They describe the predictable psychological journey people move through when changing something meaningful in their life or career. The Clarity Assessment maps your answer to one of five stages: Awareness (thinking about it), Weighing (knowing it), Clarifying (getting ready), Moving (started), and Deepening (keeping going). Knowing which stage you are in matters because the right next step is different at each one — pushing for action when you are still in Awareness usually backfires.
What is the difference between a Clarity Assessment and a Personal Values Assessment?
The Clarity Assessment looks at where you are right now — your current direction, readiness, and the gap between today and where you want to be in three months. The Personal Values Assessment looks underneath that, at the principles that quietly drive your decisions. Values tend to be stable over time. Clarity changes with circumstance. Most people get the most out of doing the Clarity Assessment first to surface what is live, and then the Values Assessment to understand why certain options feel right or wrong. Both are free.
What does "the gap" mean in the assessment results?
The gap is the honest distance between where you said you are today and what you said would be true if real progress had been made in three months. In coaching, naming the gap is often more powerful than naming the goal, because it makes visible what is actually being avoided, postponed, or quietly tolerated. The gap is not a problem to solve in one move, it is the territory the work of coaching crosses.
Will my responses be recorded, stored, or seen by anyone?
No. Your responses are not visible to me, are not manually reviewed, and are not shared with any third parties. They are used only in real time to generate your personalised assessment results. Once your results are delivered, your answers are not stored in any database used for coaching, marketing, or follow-up purposes, and they cannot be accessed later.
Is coaching with Ciaran Barry available outside Ireland?
Yes. Even though I am based in Cork, Ireland, I work with clients all across Ireland, the UK and mainland Europe via secure video sessions.
What is a free 45-minute consultation and what happens in it?
The free consultation is a 45-minute conversation where we look at what you are navigating, what is underneath it, and whether coaching with me is the right next step for you. It is not a sales call. You should leave the conversation with at least one useful insight even if you decide not to work together. Many people book it after completing the Clarity Assessment because it gives us a shared starting point.

Make Yourself a Priority™

Ciaran Barry Coaching