We have to earn money to pay the bills but how did we end up in this career anyway?
...did we go through a detailed filtering process or check in with what is important to us?
Or did where we are now just emerge and occur?
Maybe you had a plan and it worked out.. but no longer feels right. Possibly you just ended up doing a particular job. Either way there is a process to find the next thing and make sure it is right.
In my own experience the journey of moving from my long-term career to coaching has been one of the best things that ever happened to me.
I worked in procurement since 2002. It’s a weird profession to be honest. My specialisation is in marketing procurement so that means working for companies who spend lots with Ad agencies and Media agencies and helping control the costs.
Having a specialisation in this space has been great as you gain a lot of subject matter knowledge and can work quite quickly to recommend how to approach the commercial conversations.
The thing about marketing procurement is the agencies don’t want you to mess up their profit and the marketeers don’t want you to mess up their agency work and relationships, so you get a bit stuck. Well I felt stuck anyway… for years.
I was grumpy, dis-connected and I took all this frustration into the other parts of my life. From being short tempered with family, to stress and emotional eating.
As I sit here though, writing this, being completely open with you all and getting a little personal I am genuinely in the best place ever.
Right now I am sat on a balcony in Greece while the sun rises over a calm sea. My family are asleep in the hotel room behind me. I am spending my morning fun time with you guys writing this content to try and offer something out to the world.
I am loving the rewards of coaching and making a difference by helping people on their own journeys. My wife and I are working as a great team, I am enjoying time with the three kids more than ever and I am in the best physical shape of my life. It all comes down to taking the time to figure out what you want.
What I want, my ‘purpose’ is this:
“To have 10,000 individuals feel proud of what bold and exciting changes they have achieved for themselves.”
That’s my mission statement. In itself it is bold, and exciting. It is what gets me going in the morning. I invite you to get out a piece of paper and have a play with what you want.
It doesn’t start with a mission though… there are a few steps to making changes in your life and career before you get to this output.
STEP 1 - Learn to have better quality thoughts
We all have many sub-conscious thoughts, often ridiculous negative thoughts which don’t serve us.
Unlike other animals we have control of our thinking. Our thoughts create our feelings, which lead to our actions and our results. Ask any psychologist, neuroscientist, or counsellor and they will tell you. “It all starts with your thinking!”
I have a core model to serve this space and it is called Sam. Your friend Sam is a helpful chap. Sam is my Self-Awareness Model. If you want to find out more just comment below
- I am happy to help.
STEP 2 – Define your values
We are all very different and there are many different ideals and beliefs that make us tick as individuals. If what you spend your time doing is aligned to your values you will feel centred. If your job, the company you work for, or the people you spent time with are in conflict with your values you will feel uncomfortable and you may have an unpleasant feeling in your stomach.
My values are Creativity, Respect, Fun, Accomplishment, and Health.
Procurement was aligned with none of these but coaching is aligned to them all.
I will be making a video soon on how to define your values.
If you are interested let me know and I will be happy to send you a copy as soon as I release it.
Let us say you are re-evaluating what is happening in your life or your career. You have developed more resourceful thinking and you know what values resonate with you. Now it’s time to build your confidence!
STEP 3 – Creating belief and confidence This more complex aspect of personal growth includes a number of different elements. Positive thinking and defining your values feed into providing the basis for your authentic-self. I have two models I use here which I will describe briefly. One is your Identity power structure which builds on what you want in your life and your values to uncover your individual identity and personal brand. From here you can create a
‘Vision.’ My Vision is: “To create new energy, belief and power for individuals. Offering both free coaching and affordable options for personal growth. To develop a community who support one another and feel excited to interact and share progress and stories.” My ‘detailed planning process’ model also will support you here. The real basic explanation of this is that you start with two rounds of brainstorming and then build focus and understanding for reaching your personal goals with specific actions and you hold yourself accountable for progress.
Easier to do with a coach and community to support you but equally possible to figure out on your own..
When you know who you are, and what you want, and how to get there… the only thing left is how you fit it into your busy life!
Step 4 – Capacity and Context
Knowing what to do is fine but actually having the physical and mental space in your life to take action and make it happen is another. We all live busy lives with commitments and obligations we need to work around. There are bona-fide methods for making time, and de-stressing. Once you know what you want, cutting out time wasting activities and being motivated does become easier. Getting up early before the family and working on your future starts to feel amazing. Reducing down the social media, tv time, dare I say it pub time! These are just a few initial ideas. In these times we also need to reflect on our pressurised, always on, stressed and distracted reality. We need to give ourselves a break! It is tough out there. We can however if motivated and clear on what we want take ownership and control of our time for ourselves in any situation.
I should know! My kids are 1, 3 and 6 :)
The 4 steps above are all covered in great detail in the overarching model and syllabus for my Career Breakthrough course.
The overarching model is the WHY WHAT HOW NOW MODEL The Why what how now process. PRESS
The WHY is about define your purpose to create energy
The WHAT is where you identify your clear career goal
The HOW – is where you set up a clear staged plan to get there
And importantly the NOW – is where you develop the belief and self-confidence you can make it happen.
On this course I hold your hand through the entire process start to finish.
Email me if you want to find out more. miles@transformcoaching.co