How to Navigate Your River
Since becoming a coach 8 years ago, I've had the privilege of getting backstage access to the careers of a wide variety of people ranging from new coaches to successful creatives through seasoned senior-level executives. And I've noticed a pattern for how careers unfold:
Phase One: You get your first "real" job! It's probably a practical one your parents would approve of. If you won the lottery, you'd quit this job for sure.
Phase Two: You find your way into a better version of the Phase One job. Perhaps you stay with the same company or industry, and you shift to work that's closer to what interests you. In this job, you use more of your natural strengths and gifts, you'll like it more, and you'll make more money. You'd still quit this job if you won the lottery. If you stay in this phase too long, it will become soul-sucking.
Phase Three: You've taken a bold move to work that really lights you up. You may have launched a small business or taken a big career pivot while staying in the corporate world. You got some additional training or education and feel like you're starting over. Most of your friends and family think you're nuts. But this work allows you to step even more fully into your gifts and strengths, plus your personal passions and interests. While there are aspects of this work you don't like, you're making some money, mostly doing the work you love.
Phase 4: Your work has shifted and deepened. You've leaned into the work that makes you feel most alive, and you've stepped away from some other things that no longer resonate. You feel like you're making a difference in others' lives. This feels like the work you're truly meant to do.
I can look at my own career through this lens and see how I moved from one phase to the next, sometimes at a much slower pace than I wanted. As this was happening I was taking action, I left one company for another, went back to school to get my MBA, and ultimately left the corporate world altogether to become a coach. I thought I was in full control!
But as I reflect on it, I was also being guided along, like a kayaker in a river. At times paddling my heart out and trying desperately to avoid the rapids! But at other times, I was experiencing positive things beyond my control; synchronicities, people, and opportunities I could never have imagined. And they were showing up at just the right time. It sounds a bit woo-woo, but it's what I experienced. And I see this in the stories my clients share.
When working with new clients, I often hear the frustration of being in a phase that they no longer want to be in. Perhaps they're feeling the pain of the golden handcuffs of Phase Two, or they're struggling to grow a business at Phase Three, or navigating the uncharted waters of Phase 4.
And the only advice I can share is to honor the phase that you're in, the gifts that each phase brings, and to trust in the flow of the river.
Here's a simple five-part process to support you in moving to the next phase in your career.
Identify the phase that you're currently in from the list above.
Write a list of all the things you're grateful for from being in this phase.
Feel into the question - is it time to begin to move toward the next phase? If the answer is no, stop here for a while and re-read the gratitude list you developed in #2 above - often! But if the answer is yes, move to #4 below.
Ask yourself - what's one small step I can take to move towards the next phase of my career?
Take that step.
If you'd like the support of a coach as you navigate where you're going in your career, schedule a free Coaching Fit Call to see if coaching is right for you. And either way, keep paddling!