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There are a lot of buzz words associated with "life coaches" that frankly confuse and frighten many rational people. Terms such as "realize your potential," "live your dreams" or "make a difference in the world" may be vague and meaningless to you, so let me share some common results my clients have experienced to give you a clear idea of what to expect. Results You will have clarity about the work, environments and relationships that energize you and will use this information to develop career and life plans. By examining a whole host of information from childhood interests to work and volunteer experiences, you can build a clear picture of the factors that will make you happy at work. From this picture, you develop specific plans for getting work that matches your best interests. Whether you are a recent college graduate or seasoned in your career, the results of this work will give you clarity and focus that you never thought possible. You will learn ways to become a free agent or start a new business which fit your individual plan of success. Many of us have great ideas for starting a new business, but we get stuck in knowing where or how to start. Before accessing the volume of great information available for handling the technical aspects of working for yourself, you will make sure that you have a clear idea of why you are uniquely qualified to start the business, what greater purpose it will serve and how to create a step-by-step plan to ensure that your business plan takes into account the factors that make you the happiest at work. You will take the mystery out of making good career and life decisions by developing your own robust decision criteria. Too often, we make career decisions based solely on compensation, even though that is one of the worst predictors of happiness on the job. By creating your own decision criteria which takes into account many different factors, you will feel better about the decisions you make and reduce the risk of making poor ones. You will learn ways to run your business that ensure that you stay focused on the activities that energize and reward you. If you have been a successful entrepreneur or free agent, you have probably experienced unanticipated consequences: mounds of legal and financial paperwork that is of little interest to you, client work that pays well but that isn't energizing, or tasks that you wish someone else could take care of. You will explore your core strengths that will create the most leverage, energy and money in your business, and strategies for using internal and external resources to do work that you don't want to do. Guiding Values In doing this work myself and with many clients over the years, I have discovered some guiding values that influence my approach to working with you: We are all self-employed. Whether you work for a company or have your own business, you are self-employed. Lifetime employment and employer loyalty are a thing of the past. And this isn't such a bad thing! Many of us followed career paths directed by our bosses and companies that weren't necessarily energizing or effective for us. In order to thrive in this "new world order of work," we must take responsibility for our careers and make short and long-term plans, learn new skills, connect with others, research emerging trends and market ourselves. It isn't about the perfect job; it is about your life's work. Jobs are temporary things, often enticing on paper until you realize that as soon as you get comfortable in your position, it will change, your boss will change, your team will change or your organization will change. Your life's work on the other hand, are activities that you have natural talent for, which energize you and stimulate you and do not change no matter what "job" you happen to be in. Each one of us has specific gifts, talents and experience that make us uniquely qualified to do our life's work. Each choice you make about a job should be in the context of supporting and furthering your life's work. Each of us views success in a different way. For some, success means advanced academic degrees or continual upward progression on the career and money ladder. For others, it is spending quality time with family or helping others in the community. Many of us get tripped up by following others' definition of success and wonder why we still aren't happy when we attain our goals. The key to fulfillment is to define what success means to you and make a plan to get there. Creating a good life is hard work. There is no way around it! In order to find and sustain fulfilling work and have a rewarding and energizing home life, you have to be willing to do lots of work. Some of this will require looking at things about yourself that make you uncomfortable such as long-held fears. It also involves consistently re-evaluating your work situation to ensure that it lines up with your longer term goals. Life is a full-contact sport. Our minds, bodies and spirits are constantly transmitting and receiving all kinds of information about our state of well-being. Your body will often display what your rational mind wants to deny … aches, pains and tension can indicate areas in your work or home life that you need to pay attention to. When you look at your life in an integrated way, you are much more likely to get truthful insight into both what is holding you back and where you need to go in your life. My Approach to the Work With all new clients, I go through the following process: 1) Get to know your current situation and understand what brought you to this point in your life
When it comes to planning your career and finding your life's work, you want to make sure you have the right people on your bus. In Jim Collins' book Good to Great, he describes that each of us has a "bus" filled with people that either help or hinder us on our journey. The "right people" for your bus are totally subjective -- it is up to you to decide who gets on, and in which seats. Here are the unique things I would bring to your bus: I don't try to put you in a box. I view each client as a unique individual with different needs, motivations, experience and desires. It is not my job to fit you into a mold - it is my job to break you out of one and help you see new possibilities for yourself. I am extremely experienced in and familiar with corporate environments. I have spent years analyzing, influencing and getting work done within the corporate environment. My knowledge of and experience with these dynamics will be very helpful to you if you: 1) want to get OUT of the corporate environment 2) want to get INTO the corporate environment 3) want to stay within and be HAPPY in a corporate environment. I have been a successful small business owner for nearly a decade. Since starting my business in 1996, I have learned a huge amount about what it takes to start, grow and sustain a successful business. I have grown the majority of my business through referrals, based on a strong dedication to providing excellent service and making client relationships a priority. What I want for you as a small business owner, I practice myself; I have been able to lead a healthy, balanced and interesting life for all the years I have been in business. I am very comfortable with and interested in different cultural perspectives. Work, travel, friends, family and hobbies have allowed me to get to know people from many different backgrounds, cultures and perspectives. I delight in learning new ways of looking at things. I feel most comfortable when I am working with many different kinds of people. Where Do You Go Next? Yikes - now that you know that you are solely responsible for your success, it will be hard work, and you may experience bruises from the full-contact sport of life planning, is it worth it? Yes it is absolutely worth it! The result of doing this work is that almost immediately you will feel an energy, inner motivation and drive *your ganas* that make doing the work fun and empowering. Being in control of your career and becoming aware of the many possibilities for creative and financial satisfaction is an exhilarating and addictive experience. Ready to start? Click here for information on services and programs. Have more questions? To contact us, click here. |