Guess what the most powerful coaching is about careers?
Strengths and weaknesses?
Your resume?
Reaching out to everyone you know?
Nope, it’s this: Plan TIME to work on your career.
Doesn’t that seem so simple? In the Handel Method®, we teach people to see that thoughts lead to feelings and feelings lead to actions, which then breed new thoughts. A person can intervene to shift thoughts, feelings or actions, and we show you how to do all three, but the most potent and exciting entry point is always going to be ACTION!
Even I was resistant to this notion. When I first met with a coach (Lauren Zander, the co-founder of Handel) at age 29 to figure out what I “really wanted to do with my life,” she assigned me homework: to research, in depth, all the possibilities I had on my list of possible careers. I heartily agreed, proposing to spend two hours of my week researching. I reasoned I had to keep going at the job I already had and that two hours was a good amount of time. She smiled and said, “how about six hours per week?” My jaw dropped and I wanted to protest, but she made her point so well: “This is where you are going to spend YOUR LIFE!” Most people spend 50-70 hours per week, or 90,000 hours, in a lifetime working. Does it not deserve a real course of study to figure out what’s next?
Note: If you figured this out already in college (and it stuck), lucky you. Most of us didn’t or haven’t yet.
As I actually sat down to do my “homework,” I realized the deep wisdom of my project. I scoured the internet and got to know all the players in the fields that interested me. Before long, I was really having fun. I mean, I do love what I am interested in, and networking and asking questions and studying in the human development and personal growth worlds is pretty fun. The benefits mounted:
– I made great connections.
– I learned what I liked and didn’t like about each possible career.
– Best of all, I had an experience of being in integrity with my highest ideals because I was doing the right thing by studying and devoting time to my search.
Why did I need a coach to give me such simple instructions? Because I am hard-wired to stay the same and find a way to tolerate not being totally fulfilled. The brat and the chicken who live inside my mind almost always win, if I am not consciously shifting my focus to my dreams and what I want to believe! When fears about living into a future unknown come up, it seems even more important to surround yourself with someone who will keep the path lit, point out the potholes, tell you to do what you don’t “feel like” doing, hold you to account and cheer for you as you put one foot in front of the other. I liked my coach so much, I ended up wanting HER job after I learned enough about it by experiencing it. The process I went through to discover that may seem, from an outside view, like wasted time. Actually, it was a sacred gestation period for me, during which I built my own integrity and knowledge base, so I could be even better and clearer on the other side.
Are you in a career you absolutely adore?
Have you charted the path for yourself to the next level where you are, or planned your exit strategy? Are you totally clear about what you “really” want to do with your life? It’s going to require your time and attention.
If you are having these kinds of concerns, and studies show most people do about seven times in their lives, we have a great offer for you. We condensed our wisdom on Career Design into four telephone sessions called Design Your Career. Join us for this 4-week deep inquiry into what you are meant to be doing with your life and how to get there.
May you feel unbelievably uplifted by what you do each day and love the impact that you make.
All the best,
Laurie