This may resonate with some of you…
When people find themselves in a career black hole then there are usually a couple of reasons driving this…
The first is they are not doing what they are passionate about, what gives them purpose and meaning, what lights them up or brings joy to their career. They are living in misalignment with their personal values, feeling like there is a hole inside them, yet not really knowing why they feel this way.
And the second is because they don’t know themselves well enough to know what they value, what’s important to them, what drives them from within what they’re passionate about. They are on auto pilot, striving for a definition of success they acquired from someone else, maybe a parent, teacher, partner or someone at work… living by rules, standards and expectations they learnt from their family, schools, society…
When you know yourself deeply, and are clear about your values, what you are passionate about, what is important to you… this knowledge becomes a filter through which you can make all sorts of decisions, including career decisions. You can begin bringing your career back into alignment with you rather than being a chameleon and adapting to which ever organisation you happen to be working for at the time.
When we are passionate about our work, we feel energised by it, time passes quickly doing the work, feeling motivated and excited by what the day will bring.
The key is knowing yourself deeply first, before you can build or re-build self-trust enough to make some big career decisions and take some gutsy actions outside your comfort zone to bring your career and life into alignment with who you are.
I love the poem SHINE by Marianne Williamson.
"We ask ourselves – who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine as children do."
So many people are afraid of actually being successful, not failing.
That’s the tall poppy syndrome here in Australia. It takes courage and grit to find your passion, follow it, fulfill it and stand out… And then, what if you are actually good at it… what if you are successful?
Success takes responsibility, commitment, and more grit and growth…. Scary huh!
Keeping safe and staying the same , staying inside your comfort zone, doing the same old same old, doesn’t require any of that.
Have you heard the saying you are either Green and Growing or Ripe and Rotting…?
It’s all about the S-curve of your job or career… literally I mean the letter ‘S’.
Start - When you are at the start of a job, or learning something new, you are down at the bottom of the s-curve and Green and Growing. You are asking lots of questions, learning a bunch, engaged, excited to see what is next, or maybe nervous worried and doubting yourself that you can’t do what is being asked of you.
Middle - Over time, you progress up the S-curve as you get better at your job, used to things, become familiar and performing all the areas of the work. You start to put your own spin on things, and you start to add value to how things get done. You could still feel like you’re green and growing so long as you are still learning, adding new skills, expanding your skills or adding depth to your skills.
Top - At the top of the ‘S’, if you haven’t got the next stage of growth in your career in your sights, then things could get ugly as you head into the Ripe and Rotting danger zone of your career… a career plateau! Work can start to feel like it’s just more of the same old stuff, learning has stalled, motivation drops, and for some this means performance slides. Your mind may wander to what you’d rather be doing, and it gets harder to drag yourself out of bed each day to do a job you are no longer enjoying. If you haven’t got your game plan sorted for what’s next by the time you reach the top of the ‘S’, well, you could find yourself heading down the other side of a very slippery S-curve… and that’s not pretty place to be. When this happens, people begin to look around them and focus on what isn’t going so well… and knowing how the human brain works… you notice more and more of what’s not going well which leads to experience even more of that. You might hear comments like “this a rubbish place to work”, or “my boss isn’t any good”, or “I don’t get any support”.
Before you end up in this black hole… you have a choice…
You can sail down the other side of this S-curve into boredom, stagnation, low motivation and even lower self-confidence… if you’re not already there. You could even decide just change jobs or company without actually dealing with the real problem… Until the same problems start showing up again… the black hole reappears… and you get more of the same again.
OR
You could make a decision today to create a future different to your past. You could decide to take a journey of self-discover, to find what you are actually passionate about, where your strengths are, what keeps you engaged, what motivates you, what aligns to your personal values, what lights you up… gives you purpose and meaning and rewards you for the value you contribute.
You can choose to actually begin to enjoy your career
AND
Be successful in it!
Easy to say right!
Let me to introduce you to someone you know really well… It’s your little voice inside you… I like to call mine… ‘mini-me’.
It’s the voice that says, “you’re not good enough”, “you can’t do it”, “don’t try”… and when we ignore this voice, it gets louder, more persistent and self-sabotaging.
So rather than ignoring our mini-me who is trying to keep us safe and do nothing than risk shining brightly, Simply acknowledge it for trying to keep you safe… and then step out of the shadows, show up with your courage, give something new a try and start to re-energise your career and yourself.
So, I know you might be wondering by now, how do you go about finding your passion, your purpose… and then how do you bring it into or turn it into your career?
It’s a good thing to wonder too…
There are a few things you can do here and it’s what I teach in my programs and help my clients with to define, design and create a career you love.
Check out my masterclass where I share more about how you can find your purpose, tap into your passions, and create a vibrant, life-enriching career you love.
Click here 👇
https://lightupbydesign.lpages.co/masterclass-5-must-have-secrets-to-your-career-success
Enjoy the journey!
Janine
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