The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.
George Bernard Shaw
Todd hired me because he wanted guidance as he searched for a new job. The financial situation at his company is such that he doesn’t see room for either advancement or a raise and he doesn’t want to be stuck on a Titanic.
He works in the entertainment industry as a technical manager at an editing production house. He’s been at it long enough that his knowledge and expertise put him in a valued position.
For several months he’s been going through a series of interviews at a major Studio. After each one, he’s been encouraged that “the job” is going to be offered to him.
However, in an odd twist, his fifth interview was with an executive who admitted he didn’t know what job he was interviewing Todd for!
At the end, the guy assured Todd that he seemed like a perfect fit – even though he couldn’t say for certain what the job was.
He told Todd that someone from HR would contact him shortly.
Todd realized that with each successive interview, he was becoming more confused as to the job he was a “shoe-in” for.
Ten days went by without a word. So, he called his contact and explained that he’s going on vacation and would like to know what’s up before heading out of town.
His contact asked him to call when he got back because for sure he’ll have good news then.
Todd told me that he’s not going to call; he’s fed up and if they want him, they’ll call.
But there’s more.
Todd admitted he doesn’t want them to offer him a job – whatever the job might be!
Intellectually, he wants “the” job, but emotionally he doesn’t.
He likes his job, he likes the power and influence he has and he’s afraid to lose it, but because the company’s in a financial mess he feels he should move on.
If the Studio says, “No,” then he’ll be happy because he can reassure himself that he tried.
If the Studio says, “Yes,” then he’ll go to his boss and hope he’ll counter-offer, though he doubts he can.
Todd admits he doesn’t want to take power in the situation because then he’ll have to live with the consequences of his decisions.
He’s hoping that what “should” happen, will happen.
Crazy? Sure.
But most of us do some version of what Todd is doing.
Change is scary.
Taking responsibility for our decisions is scary.
Leaving it up to the “gods” to decide our fate seems less risky.
Playing mind games is more fun than mapping out a strategy.
But, if we don’t create our own life, then who will?
Do you want to break through the fear that is preventing you from being influential and heard?
To explore how one-on-one communication skills coaching can help you present you with enhanced confidence,
Where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. –
there you will find your vocation.
Frederick Buechner
Since January I’ve had four new clients approach me with the refrain, “I need help figuring out what I want to do when I grow-up!”
Each of these folks has graduated college (one is a post graduate) and each works at an established company. And each is deeply uncomfortable where they are in life.
So how do you figure out what to do when you “grow-up”?
The first thing is to acknowledge that you already ARE grown-up!
You are an adult – even if you may not always feel like one or act like one.
In addition, although you have a job or had a job, it’s critical to keep in mind that you are not your job – no matter what you do.
You are the sum of your relationships and your obligations to those relationships, along with your feelings and beliefs, your spirituality and psychology, your values and habits.
All of that guides and influences what you do and how you do it and why you do it.
The legendary theologian John Henry Newman believed that “To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”
When someone says they want to figure out what to do when they “grow up” they are muddling the issue because the issue is not “when I grow-up.”
The issue is – given that I am today this grown-up, how will I reinvent myself?
In the early years of my adult life I lived in a religious community and prepared for ordained ministry as a priest. When I resigned from ministry after twenty years of community life I had only a hazy notion of who I was. And, yes, that it is a startling thing to admit!
My therapist told me that I had to find new ways of being “priest.” That required I do things that would force me to become realistically acquainted with the skills and talents I’d acquired and had taken for granted. I had to experiment, try on, risk and reevaluate.
Reinvention doesn’t necessarily require new skills. It does, though, require you to be familiar with the skills you currently have and become comfortable using them in new and possibly unfamiliar ways.
So how do you reinvent yourself – now that you are grown-up?
Cristina Nehring in her book, A Vindication Of Love, writes that when she was in high school:
My English teacher told our class that the most important thing about life was to live it as if it were a good novel – as if, she said, it were a good film script. ‘Would audiences walk out during the movie of your life?’ She believes that by living ‘deliberately, gracefully, inventively, and fearlessly’ any one of us can be “a piece of art.”
Here are 20 questions for you to rummage around in and grapple with
as you create the piece of art that is YOU
1.In your present job, what skills do you enjoy putting to use? What comes easy to you?
2.For what skills do you get your most compliments?
3.When you last were looking for work, what had you really wanted to do?
4.What or who pushed you into taking this job?
5.How you think you’ll emotionally be if you remain in your current job for another five years? Ten years?
6.What are the practical reasons for you remaining in your current job? How important are those needs? Are those needs really “needed”?
7.Who else is involved in your decision to reinvent yourself?
8.What needs do they have? What fears are attached to those needs?
9.Is there a specific field you’re interested in? Does it require new training? Do you know anyone who is doing what you want to do? Do you know anyone who knows someone doing what you want to do?
10.Are you most excited by the idea of a new job or by having the opportunity to use skills you currently under-use?
11.Is there any place within your current company that would let you tap more into the skills you want to be immersed in?
12.A dream job is just a dream without a strategy. Do you have a dream or a strategy? What does your strategy look like?
13.How will your life be different in your new job? Is this new job crucial to making your life different in the way you imagine?
14.What will you miss from your current job and do you think you’ll find it in your new one?
15.How will the new job make you more “grown-up” than your current one? What “grown-up” responsibilities will you have in your new job that you don’t have in your current?
16.How are you sabotaging yourself now and would those techniques carry over in whatever new job you take?
17.Do you have a tolerance for ambiguity, along with a dose of patience and grit?
18.Do you think you have what it takes to reinvent yourself?
19.What is one skill you have that will come in handy as you reinvent yourself? One is one skill you need to develop?
20.What do you want to be remembered for in this life? Will your future job help you be remembered for all the right reasons?
Answer these questions and you will have more insight into your next possible job and clarity into who you want to be, doing what you’ll be doing.
If you strategize with these questions, you will not just find a new job. You will experience transformation.
Leadership guru John Maxwell calls transformation the “journey to significance.” Significance, according to Maxwell, is all about adding value to people.
Angela Duckworth, author and expert on “grit” believes that, “Rather than ask, ‘What do I want to be when I grow up?’ ask, ‘In what way do I wish the world were different? What problem can I help solve?’ This puts the focus where it should be — on how you can serve other people.”
Deep. Yes, I know!
Going deep, though, is what adults do!
Do you want to help discovering who you want to be when you grow up?
To explore how life- skills coaching can help you live your life
Success is waking up in the morning, whoever you are, wherever you are, however old or young, and bounding out of bed because there’s something out there that you love to do, that you believe in, that you’re good at – something that’s bigger than you are, and you can hardly wait to get at it again today.
John Maxwell
I believe that honoring is the foundation of successful living – honoring:
Self
Work
Others
In HONORING SELF
we fight against beliefs, ideas, emotions, and fears that work to prevent us from living authentic lives.
In HONORING WORK
we set goals, take responsibility, make choices, exert self-discipline, and tackle change.
In HONORING OTHERS
we recognize that all life is meeting and so we engage the other in our social and work dealings
with care, curiosity, and a readiness to learn.
Through it all, we honor self, work, and the other only when we honor the present, living with self-awareness in the moment.
Consider:
How openly and comfortably do you honor your life?
Which of the three arenas – self, work, others – is it easiest for you to honor?
Which is the hardest for you to honor?
In which of the three arenas do you have a fire-in-the-belly desire to become more successful?
If you were more successful within that arena, how would you act? How would you communicate – with your own self and with others?
Why are you afraid to act and communicate in the way you believe would allow you to be successful?
Acknowledge the fear and THEN practice acting and speaking the way you want to.
Only THEN will you become WHO you want to be!
Do you want to learn how to skillfully and generously honor
your own self, work and others?
To explore how business skills coaching can help you present you with enhanced confidence – and skill
