Dream Job Coaching

The coach of high school baseball team became so frustrated with the fielding performance of his error-prone first basemen that he decided to devote the next day of practice to demonstrate firsthand the fundamentals of how the position should be played.

At the outset of this “hands-on” training session, the first ball hit towards the coach took a bad hop and clobbered him in the chest. The coach’s next opportunity to “shine” came in form of a high pop fly hit just outside of the first base line. Lost in the bright sun, the ball glanced off the heel of his glove and hit him squarely in the forehead. Later an errant throw from the shortstop forced the coach to stretch so far to catch the ball that he tore the seat of his pants. Exasperated, the coach turned to his pupil handed him the glove and shouted, “You’ve got this position so messed up, even I can’t do anything with it.”

What does baseball have to do with finding your dream job or loving the job you already have, you ask? When clients turn to me to find best career advice,  many are much like the short-sighted coach and his negatively-influenced first basemen, they possess erroneous assumptions and beliefs about that particular field that limits them from understanding why they are so drawn to a certain type of job and, ultimately, their capacity to enjoy it.

In my own coaching experience, I had client who came to me to find best career advice. She wanted to become a Field Biologist, but the moment we started talking about how to pursue his dream, a very negative image manifested itself causing him to balk about actually following through with it. He said, “They spend over 90% of their time in the lab working long hours alone and almost every biologist I know will tell you that they simply do not enjoy their work.”

“Playing small is an easy way out,” I replied. “It is convenient, safe, and comfortable. Most of us live our lives in an average manner in order to preserve the status quo. Average has become the norm because over 90% of the people around us live this way. They just don’t think that there is anything more. They don’t even think to dream big, let alone act on it. The blinders they’ve had on for so many years so distort their vision of the future that they believe their position in life is all there is and the only thing to do is just accept it. They’re not stifling their dreams; they don’t even realize they can dream.”

The key error in my client’s limited analysis is that there are plenty of field biologists who actually love the work that they do. Here are five simple tips to help you avoid playing “small ball” and how to get to “first base” in finding the career you are truly passionate about:

1. Reflect on times when you have wholeheartedly embraced the possibility of greatness.

Think back over life to times when you’ve felt yourself unquestionably embrace greatness and follow your passions. What did that feel like? What did you think? What did you do? What happened because of your actions? How can you recreate that experience in your life now?

2. Live Each Day Without Limitations

Each and every day make sure you do something to put yourself in a mindset that is not limiting. Make yourself your “self-care” and your deepest passions a priority. Do one new thing each day. Have new experiences, open your mind to new possibilities and begin to do things “out of the box.”

3. Reinforce Greatness By Slaying The “Energy Vampires”

Having negative energies in our lives can easily bring us down and encourage further negativity in us. We have all encountered “energy vampires” in workplace, social and, worst of all, family environments that are filled with emotionally draining energy that we literally have to force ourselves to go back again. Take notice of these people and places and replace them with positive energy resources as much as possible. Talk to uplifting people, read inspiring literature and post inspiring quotes throughout your home or office. Paint a room, get new furniture, buy a new wardrobe. Do whatever it takes to surround yourself with as many positives attributes as you can and watch your life open up.

4. Maintain A Strong Sense Of Who You Are

What are your likes and dislikes? What do you really feel at this moment? What is your opinion on world politics, religion, art or philosophy? Do you simply pick up the opinion of the moment or only the popular things? Or do you truly know your innermost self and who you are? Make time to reflect and get to know yourself. Sort out your feelings from those of everyone around you. Explore your needs and wants. Having a good sense of who you are will encourage you to expand your life and yourself.

5. Take Notice Each Day Of What You Truly Enjoy

Take some time each day to tune into your inner voice. Listen to what resonates with you and what you truly enjoy. What excites you most about your potential dream job or the job you already have? Make it a morning or evening ritual to take 15 minutes to have some personal quiet time and really take stock of what turns your inner light on.

By learning and applying these techniques on a regular basis your awareness of when you’re playing “small ball” will greatly increase, empowering you to refocus on the total greatness that’s within your grasp. Remember, you will become as small as your controlling desire and only as great as your most dominant aspiration.

What did premiere athletes like Mickey Mantle, Michael Jordan and Joe Montana all have in common? Answer: they all benefited from the knowledge of a great coach.

In the western classic Fistful of Dollars, one of America’s last great action heroes Clint Eastwood made his big screen debut as a mysterious gunman who rides into a grim, dusty Mexican border town controlled by two warring rival bands of smugglers.

A master of the quick draw, Eastwood’s character soon receives offers of employment from each faction. As the plot thickens, it becomes clear that the stranger’s loyalty is not for sale as he sets into motion a plan that destroys both groups of criminals by pitting one side against the other in a series of brilliantly orchestrated setups, showdowns and deadly confrontations.

Of course as the ending credits roll, Eastwood’s infamous “Man With No Name” rides out of town a very wealthy hero leaving a path of happy townspeople and vanquished foes in his wake. But as the saying goes, “Only In Hollywood.”

In the real world, playing a similar game of “monkey in the middle” with your career usually leads to a High Noon showdown pitting your desires for personal fulfillment through your work against your material needs for a higher paycheck where ultimate victory is utterly impossible-more commonly referred to as “Hired Gun Syndrome.”

Which begs the question is it possible to have both? “I am so driven by earning more money that I have an extremely limited amount of time doing the other things that are important to my life,” related one of my more frustrated clients. “I have always felt that having money was the first step in order to attain anything else, but this just isn’t the case. Through your training I have come to a point where I realize that happiness on the job and life in general is worth much more than a pile of money in the bank.”

When clients ask, “what is the right career for me?”, I try to make them realize that their desire for more money alone is the primary limiting factor, especially in the area of time. In order to break this dangerous thinking pattern, I encourage my clients to abandon their “gun for hire” mentality and to get in touch with what they enjoy doing most.

For example, another one of my clients mistakenly believed, “I always wanted to write a book and travel to Europe, but I figured I had to make the money in order to do that. Little and big dreams have been stopped due to my limited belief system.”

Once again, the limiting belief for this client is her misconception that money must come before personal fulfillment. The fact is, money is irrelevant to her happiness. If she could pursue something that she would enjoy right now, what options would she truly want to pursue?

Once money is no longer the dominating concern, you will begin to see beyond your financial limitations into the realm of limitless possibilities. A place where on the job fulfillment and a significant source of income can both coexist.

Most people feel they don’t have the freedom to create what they truly want. They question whether it’s possible to answer the question, “What is the right career for me?” They are limited by a belief, such as I need to make money first before I can do ____. Becoming ensnared in this mindset means you will probably never accomplish anything until you make enough money.

Unfortunately, for all too many financially motivated individuals, the level of money necessary to maintain their current lifestyle keeps changing, shooting down their most important dreams in the process. It’s vital today to start to accomplish those goals that will bring you the most personal fulfillment because those accomplishments can fuel your sense of self value as you ride off into the sunset of the rest of your life-even more than flashy jewelry or a Rolls Royce in the garage of an even bigger luxury home.

Freedom can start today, you have freedom of choice, freedom of direction and freedom of opportunity when you begin to put your biggest aspirations ahead of your bank account. Remember, as circus pioneer P.T. Barnum once said, “Money is an excellent servant but a terrible master.” Happy trails.

Great things happen to people who make things happen for themselves.

Simon Whitfield
Gold Medal Winner, Triathlon – Canada.

What a powerful quote! I’ve seen other quotes like this as well. Most of these quotes come from quite “ordinary” women and men who have overcome various obstacles to make something great happen in their lives. It is very easy to have a “victim mentality” and list the various woes and problems that have happened to you. Your boss doesn’t understand you, your spouse is uncaring, your bills are overwhelming, your co-worker stole a project from you. You are simply a victim of circumstance and are waiting for those circumstances to change and good things to happen.

What if you changed your perspective? What if you decided to take charge of your own life and make your own change? What if you chose to rise above circumstance and make great things happen for yourself? There may very well be many negative circumstances or events happening in your life at the present moment and there may be nothing you can do to change them. However, you can change your attitude about it and find out exactly what a powerful force that can be.

Do you need a career coaching company to change your life perspective? The change can come from within and it can come from the help of a career coaching company. Identify exactly what situation is a problem for you. List precisely what it is that is holding you back with negativity. Be as precise as possible. If you’re upset because of a co-worker, what exactly are you upset about? What feelings are you having? What specific events are problematic to you? Are you upset because they took over a project or because they went behind your back to do so? Are you upset because they did a good job and you were fearful that you might not have? Explore all sides.

Next, look at what aspects of the situation you have control over and can change. If you questioned your performance, what can you do to improve it? Can you take a class or seminar to build your skills? If you had a problem with a co-worker being sneaky, can you express your feelings to him or her? Can you discuss the matter with a superior so that your responsibilities are clearly defined and the situation does not happen again?

Consider your perspective on the situation. Discuss it with a trusted friend, family member or colleague to see different points of view. Look at possible ways to change your perspective. Did the co-worker who took over a project perhaps think that she was doing you a favor and helping? Are you questioning your abilities needlessly? Look over past projects and accomplishments and see just how strong your skills are and how talented you are.

Now you’re ready to move forward. Focus on positive rather than negative. Focus on areas you can control. Take the needed actions and take personal responsibility for your actions. Others don’t control you, you control your own actions and feelings. Take the first step to put yourself firmly on the path to greatness. Make great things happen to you today!

In our non-stop technology-driven society we have controls for almost every circumstance or situation.

Of course, there’s the old standby like the TV remote control. But we would be remiss if we forgot to mention cruise control for all our automobiles, climate controls for homes and offices, and even fabric softener release controls for our washing machines. The list goes on and on.

Unfortunately, the most necessary control missing from most 21st Century lifestyles is what I like to refer to as Commitment Control.

Much like a gerbil spinning furiously on a wheel, many of my clients are overscheduled with far too many demands being placed upon them. They live a very distracted life where they simply do not have enough time in the day to complete everything they want or need to get done.

What they know to be most important (such as family, friends, dream building, recreation, and relaxation) gets all too easily shoved to the back burner by “working lunches,” “can’t-miss appointments,” “high priority e-mails,” “sudden death overtime,” and many any other time consuming and emotionally draining activities.

A client told me recently, “What is most important in today’s never-ending rat race and in finding the right career for me is following through on my promises to others and, especially, honoring the commitments or goals I set for myself.

In case this scenario sounds like your current routine or the 9 to 5 schedule for someone else you know, here are ten proven ways to help relocate the “unwind” and “pause” buttons on your own personal Commitment Control for your life. If finding the right career for me is what you want start the commitment now.

1. Stop and Have a Carrot. If this sounds like an off-the-wall substitute for “stop and smell the roses,” it is. The self-renewing benefits of taking the time to pause and fully experience the joy of fulfilling a promise you have made to another or reaching a personal goal of your own are simply too important to let pass by as you move to the next item on your agenda.
2. Don’t Forget To Check Your “Inner TV” Guide. Identify the highest priority within all your daily activities and then devote as much time and energy as possible to completing this assignment or activity.
3. Know When to Say When. Recognizing that your “priority plate” is already too full or realizing that it is impossible to say yes to it all is one of the best ways to simplify your life so that you can focus on what it takes to make your own life successful for you. This might sound selfish, but it’s about really honoring your needs and desires by focusing on what you “really want” to do and not what you think others think you “should” do.
4. Keep it in Writing. Putting your promises or commitments in writing and keeping them easily accessible and visible throughout the day is another great way to keep track of exactly what you want to accomplish or who you want to accomplish it for.
5. Schedule time in your calendar so that you have committed adequate time to each activity you want to complete.
6. Visualize the positive outcomes that occur when you complete your promises. Again, its okay to be selfish when it comes to achieving what is most important to you. Specifically, focus on what is made possible in your life or how completing a particular activity benefits you.
7. There’s nothing wrong with rescheduling in your calendar any scheduled task that you don’t complete. Be clear on why you didn’t complete the task and what distraction kept you from completing your desired intention.
8. Make time to do something to acknowledge the accomplishment of the promise or commitment, rather than just pressing on and doing the next activity. When you provide a reward, you create a greater desire to want to complete your future commitments.
9. Don’t beat yourself up when you fail to keep a promise or commitment. First, stop and acknowledge at what point you actually gave up on the commitment and why. Next, focus on how you can fix this situation so it works out more favorably for all parties involved in the future.

Most, importantly, enjoy the journey and never take yourself too seriously. Allow yourself permission to fail or not to achieve each and every goal you set for yourself…or every promise you make to someone else. Rather than taking the over-critical disciplinarian approach of being tremendously hard on yourself for simply being a card-carrying member of the human race, this softer, gentler approach will work much better when it comes to performing at your highest level of achievement.

No matter what your situation, the key to putting your life back on Commitment Control is being able to say no to others to allow time to say yes to yourself. Or as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, one of the great figures in Western literature, once said:

“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.”

If you’re wondering how to find the right career, I recommend simplifying your life. Why? When you clear space to make room for what is important, the right things will come along to fill that space. For you to truly create the life and the business that you want, it’s vital that you make this space in your life. You have to be able to say no to others to allow time to say yes to yourself.

This may be a difficult thing for you to do. Most people have spent their lives taking care of everyone else’s needs and are not used to taking care of their own. It’s easier to set aside your needs when friends, family or colleagues need you. You wind up being too tired to address your needs and keep promising you’ll do it tomorrow. Tomorrow never quite seems to come though. How to find the right career is possible when you can take care of the things that matter most.

You may find yourself saying yes to anything that sounds good regardless of whether or not it will benefit what is most important to you in your life. You may find that you don’t make time for what’s important because you’re so caught up in the details and day-to-day lifestyle of just living. It’s hard to make space for what’s important when you get lost in the details and taking care of people in your life and just all the responsibilities that you have.

The key is to establish your priorities and make space for them to grow. Recognize that when you see a gerbil spinning furiously on a wheel, it may look like it’s working hard but it isn’t actually getting anywhere. Keep a notebook handy to keep track of how your time is spent on an average day. This will help you pinpoint where you are spinning your wheels and how you can find areas to free up to allow room for growth through the transition process

• How many hours sleep do you get on a typical night?
• How many minutes, on average, do you spend on your morning activities?
• How much time, on average, do you spend at work?
• How much time, on average, do you spend on family activities?

What activities do you handle after work? How long do they take (on average)? List them item-by-item on a separate page and for each, how many minutes were involved. Some examples of activities include: driving children to activities, grocery shopping, exercising, watching television, attending events or socializing.

Try to account for 24 hours in this sample day. Now, go through your list and prioritize these items by level of importance. Food and sleep are essential to stay healthy; work is important to maintain your current lifestyle. By looking at each activity in relation to the others, you should be able to identify a few major activities that take a significant amount of time yet contribute little or nothing to the future you envision for yourself. Your role or responsibility in these projects is not set in stone. If you suddenly learned you would be spending the next year on a tropical island, someone else would take over in your place and carry on these activities for you.

Success is about removing energy drains (also called tolerations) from life so that you’re free to focus on what you enjoy. List three roles, activities, projects or responsibilities that could be eliminated at the moment. By removing energy drains that take away from what is most important, you allow space for the manifestation of what you truly want to come forward.

Now look at your list and try to identify and eliminate or reduce the time spent on a few of the less important tasks that aren’t big items in your life but that still consume precious time. Consider delegating or hiring people to do some tasks to free up your time and energy. For example, you could shop online instead of going to the mall. You could hire a cleaning service or landscape service.

Is your subconscious saying if you don’t do it, it won’t get done? If you live alone, it won’t matter if certain tasks aren’t done with the same devotion to duty as you have in the past. If you live with others, now is the time to invite them to learn the joys of responsibility so that you can face the important tasks ahead of you. Feel the freedom that comes from eliminating draining activities and expending your energy on what means most to you.

I recently saw the movie Miracle. It’s an inspiring true story that illustrates how talent alone is never enough and how belief can carry a team to the top.

At the 1980 Olympic Games, a ragtag squad of college kids from the United States went up against the legendary Soviet Union hockey juggernaut and won. With the world watching, the US team underdogs rose to the occasion, prompting broadcaster Al Michaels’ now-famous question: “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!”

The U.S. hockey team coach, Herb Brooks, believed in his players enough that he was able to transform their self-doubts and self-limitations. Despite the long odds, dedication, heart, soul and belief are what actually allowed the team to win. The 1980 U.S. Olympic Team goaltender Jim Craig said it best about Herb Brooks:

He slowly brought us together as a unit and made us believe we could achieve the impossible.” Thus, the players learned to truly believe in themselves. The result was one of the greatest upsets–and miracles–in modern sports history!

This article about career planning asks, what is the difference between people who try, but give up, and people who achieve what they most desire? Belief.

• Do you believe?
• Do you believe in yourself?
• Do you believe that what you most want will happen?

Category 1: Career Transitions

Do you believe that:

1. An accountant can become a successful copy-writer?
2. A senior manager of worldwide marketing at Oracle can become a successful professional organizer?
3. An executive vice-president at Bank of America would leave his job to pursue an interest and a passion that involved working at the zoo?
4. A high-tech executive earning more than $150,000 would choose to be a sheriff?

Category 2: Executive Environments: True or False

Do you believe that:

1. A vice-president at Hewlett-Packard, who was with the company for 20 years and in charge of 200 people, could help all of his employees find fulfillment in their work?
2. An executive at Citibank, who for eight years kept getting passed over for promotions even though his performance reviews were in the top 10%, would finally be promoted three grades higher and become a senior vice-president?
3. An executive at Eli Lilly who wanted to increase his income and responsibility, could receive a 65% increase in salary and become head of a division overseeing 135 people?

All of these examples are true stories of clients I have worked with. In category 1, you have examples of clients who made career transitions. In category 2, you have examples of executives who learned how to navigate the corporate landscape so they could rise to the top their organization.

This article about career planning focuses on your belief. Belief is one of the first things you have to look at when pursuing your dreams. Before anything can change, you must believe that it can. I have worked with senior management and CEO’s who come across as confident, but who don’t believe they can get to the top and stay there. The same is true of many career transition clients: they question the path they have chosen, and their own dedication and natural talents.

Every client I have ever worked with believes in themselves, but most of them don’t realize that they do. Dream Job Coaching provides the techniques and insight that reveal the sometimes buried belief that exists inside each and everyone of us. Once this belief is uncovered, a new confidence, direction, and empowerment arises, changing life forever.

Ask yourself the question that broadcaster Al Michaels posed to millions of 1980 Olympic viewers:

“Do you believe in miracles?”

This question isn’t referring to the miracle. It’s asking about your belief system. At the Olympic games, and in the movie Miracle, the story is about the belief of one person, coach Herb Brooks. The coach shares his belief with his team. The team shares that belief with each other, which awakens the individual team member’s belief in themselves.

This is the same chain of events that a leader provides when they believe in the people working for them. It’s also the same quality that is necessary to take the leap into the unknown world of choosing a career that aligns completely to your passions and talents.

Each one of us has an equal ability to believe.

May you choose to believe in yourself more today, than you did yesterday.

May you choose to believe in something that you really want in your life, professionally and personally.

“WHY CAN’T I HAVE THIS?” or “DO I REALLY DESERVE THIS? are two of the most important questions individuals searching for more fulfillment in both their professional and personal lives almost never ask.

In most scenarios without proper guidance many of us would never know these perplexing riddles ever existed, let alone how to go about finding the answers. What all too often occurs is most of the status quo falls into the mental rut of believing that ultimate fulfillment on the job “REALLY DOESN’T EXIST!” So why bother to even ask the question?

Quite simply, getting “what we can’t have” or “what we truly deserve” involves saying YES to what you most want from your current job or to create your dream job. Most importantly, is to remain open to imagining all the possibilities and tangible realities you’ve never experienced before. Which leads us to the following five guideposts on avoiding missed opportunities:

Opportunity is everywhere for those that stay locked in on a goal. And that’s where the effectiveness of career coaching comes in. A coach can help keep you focused.

A bright young man entered the employment office of a large corporation to apply for an advertised position. Upon arriving, the manager greeted him this way, “But young man, you’re much too late. We’ve already received a thousand applications.” Not to be denied, the opportunistic applicant replied, “Well how about hiring me to help process the applications?”

Never let others talk you out of exploring potential opportunities. The phrase “It can’t be done” takes on a different attitude at Society Expeditions, a Seattle-based travel agency specializing in taking tourists to locales previously thought impossible to reach–destinations like the North Pole. Upon discovering this obvious void in the highly competitive marketplace, the innovative firm began selling high-adventure vacations, grossing over $30 million a year.

Look for new opportunities in old places. An unknown businessman transformed an average Laundromat into a lucrative local hangout by adding a beer bar-”Enjoy our suds while you wash your duds,” was the marketing slogan and his novel idea rapidly became a runaway success.

Those destined for success often times see opportunity where others don’t. Two shoe salesmen dispatched to one of the world’s lesser-developed countries sent two distinctly different reports back to corporate headquarters. One message read, “I’m coming home, nobody wears shoes here. The second, “Great market, everyone’s barefoot, send me everything you’ve got.”

Opportunity is waiting for you, but its up to you to make it happen. Alexander Graham Bell obtained his patent for the telephone by beating another inventor to the patent office by less than ten minutes. The effectiveness of career coaching comes when you make a commitment to yourself and do whatever it takes to achieve your dream.

When you begin to internalize, “Yes, I really can have this,” the realization of career transforming possibilities will open up beyond your wildest imagination. By always remaining on the lookout for potential opportunities you can achieve the ultimate level of working fulfillment where having a job is so much more than just earning a paycheck because “Yes, you truly do deserve this!”

I become distracted easily with the next opportunity, I’m wandering too much without a sense of clarity, I don’t know what I want to do, I’m frustrated that I haven’t found what I desire.

The common pattern for most people is to keep choosing different jobs in different industries. Most of my clients come to me for career transition expertise after becoming tired of looking for a new career or job. They say, “I’m desperate. I need help finding the right job for me.”

My answer to all of their frustrations is to live their life from a principle-centered place. This can be done by creating guiding principles.

When you recognize and live in harmony with these guiding principles you will be doing work that aligns to your passions. People live from an external-centered place where what others think, say and do influences them more than what they want to do. This is probably why we go where the wind blows and where the opportunity presents itself. Yes, for some people it’s helpful to go where the opportunity resides, but too often what we think is an opportunity is actually something not aligned to our inner passions and gifts. The bottom line is that you are the opportunity. You are the energy. You are the power. Within your own power lies the opportunity to create a personal blueprint of your inner world. The blueprint comes from a place I call guiding principles.

Guiding principles reflect what makes you unique and powerful and also holds the truth to whatever you most want to do. You will say to yourself, “I am finding the job that is right for me”. Like the original blueprint of your home, it’s fundamentally changeless. These deep principles are truths of who you are. When these truths become actualized through guiding principles, they empower you to create and find your dream job.

The answers are already inside of you. Instead of coming from a place outside of you to find your dream job, you are coming from inside yourself. From this inside-out model, the fundamental truth will reveal the job that most aligns with you.

These guiding principles will support you in making any major changes or decisions, whether related to family, personal or work. You will come from a place of great strength and clarity once you are clear on these key principles.

As an example, one client came up with the following statement of guiding principles:

Helping vibrant people become better. Infecting people with happiness and positive energy.

Defining and assembling the elements for an individual’s balanced life.

One client shared a dilemma with me: “I know that I am ‘powerful’, but I’ve never known what power is, or if it’s just a figment of my imagination. I believe that I have something inside me to give, but I’ve never know to whom it could be offered, much less what it is that I have to offer.”

POWERFUL. A word filled with meaning, possibilities, and for some people, fear. Many people don’t even realize that they are powerful. That’s one of the big advantages of career counseling: find purpose and power.

Most people don’t believe the statement “I know that I am ‘powerful’”, and tend to brush it aside, and discount it. It’s frightening to them to think about actualizing their true gifts, and to begin to know what it would be like to realize their true potential. What can they do? If you are one of these people, what can you do?

First, you need to realize that you are a powerful person who has something to give to the world. Then, you need to take that sensation of being powerful, and transform it into reality in your life. This is the power of support being provided by career counseling. Find purpose and power when you make the commitment to your power. 

Begin by thinking about the times in your life when you have held yourself back, and not allowed yourself to have what you want. What holds you back? A common fear is the fear of failure. You fear not achieving your objective, and being less than your potential, and so you don’t even begin to attempt anything. A less common, yet more paralyzing, fear is the fear of success. Most people look incredulous at the thought of this fear because our culture encourages success. Success is something we desire, not fear. Yet, if you are truly successful, and own your power, your life will change in many ways. As well as positive changes, friends and colleagues may be jealous or uncomfortable with your success, you may have to adapt to a whole new lifestyle and way of living, The status quo may not be what you desire, but it is comfortable, safe and known. This powerful, unconscious force motivates us to hold back our true power. Take time to examine all of your fears, even those that may not be readily apparent.

Many people have blinders on that allow them to only see what is in front of them and not all the possibilities. It may help to think of it this way – Imagine you’re on a boat on a river. Your possibilities are limited to the smallness of the river. Once you are able to embrace expansiveness and dwell in possibilities, you can see just how many possibilities there are. You’re able to sail your boat onto a vast ocean and not be limited by just the river. Stay as open as the ocean and you will be able to see possibilities that you never knew existed.

Once you have opened yourself up to expressing your power, it’s time to become clear on what that power is. For me, as a coach, I’m able to inspire people towards what they most want in life. Your power may be in organizing and managing information systems or in managing people in a caring and effective manner. It may be sharing your creativity, or designing incredible marketing plans. What should you give to the world? This is a question of great importance, and I think that the key factor is to look at your life. What things come easily to you, and fulfill you? When you consider the possibilities, you’ll begin to see what you can manifest to give to the world. You can embrace how powerful you are, and use that power to create amazing results in your life, and the world around you.

Have you ever noticed how quickly time flies when you are actively involved in something you’ve taken a new interest in? Your curiosity draws you along as you make new discoveries about this new topic, and you are completely absorbed by it. For instance, you might drive down the street and notice a flock of birds circling an unusual birdhouse in someone’s yard. Your thoughts focus on the design, and an investigation at a hardware store reveals not only the materials needed but also the designs to build a birdhouse of your own. You may never have thought about building a birdhouse before, but suddenly it piques your interest.

So if you need help on career change, let curiosity be your guide. It has the potential to lead you to new discoveries about yourself. What are you curious about? What interests or excites you? It can be something simple like building a birdhouse or something more involved. Whatever it is, let yourself research and learn more about it. Take a class or join a group that enjoys this activity or strike out on your own if necessary. You may discover new facets of this activity that you want to explore further. This, in turn, may lead you toward a lifetime career you’d never imagined before.

The key to discovering your hidden gifts is to take action on that which piques your curiosity. Don’t put it off. When you allow yourself to experience new activities you open your heart to new possibilities of what you can be. Don’t allow the day-to-day obligations you face to limit you to a life filled with only what must be done. When you have time to look back and reflect on your life, you don’t want it to be filled with regrets of what might have been.

If you need help on career change, take time to act on that which draws your curiosity. Start today. Keep a small notepad and pen in a pocket or purse. When something makes you curiosity, jot down a few key words to jog your memory later when you can spend more time developing it. It may happen when you’re standing in line at a store or while going to work. Whenever that moment strikes, you want to be able to capture the essence of it. As an example, consider the last time something captured your interest. Like lightning sparking across the sky, one idea may generate another uniquely new one and you could discover that which you’ve searched for all your life. Jot down a few key words below that encompass the basics about this curiosity and expand on them later when you have time. Barbara Stanny said, “Each of us was born with wings…(and) has the ability to go farther than we ever thought possible, to do things beyond our wildest imaginings.”