Happen to Your Career

Wondering if you have to choose between another degree and staying in the comfortably-miserable job you’re in right now? There’s a third option: A more unconventional way to get unstuck without starting over from the bottom. It uses the experience you have in your career while allowing you to find a role that you love. What is this unconventional approach?  Listen to the first episode in our 3 part series: How to Get Unstuck (Without Starting Over) to find out.

Have you considered quitting your job? Are you frustrated because your job doesn’t fit you? We get emails about this all the time. Every situation is different, but there are some key actions that apply across the board. Today, Josh joins Scott to tackle 3 questions from listeners: I need help getting unstuck... My job doesn’t fit and I want to quit... I need help understanding my strengths...

Everyone I talk to wants freedom, until they realize how it really actually works. One thing that comes up frequently while coaching people through career changes is the idea of obtaining freedom in their life and work. Natalie Sisson, The Suitcase Entrepreneur, traveled the world for many years, but now has a completely different definition than most about what freedom actually means for her and some of what she has learned from talking with thousands of people about what freedom means.

Have you’ve said ‘yes’ to a job offer, even though it didn’t match up with your values? Matt Toy, also took a job offer, but realized, like many of the people we work with, that what he could be doing was staring him in the face the whole time. He was also faced with decisions that would compromise his values, but he was unwilling to make the sacrifice.

Have you noticed any recurring themes in your life? Digging deeper into your own patterns in your career and life is the first piece of research you need to do before you start down the career change road, but we also know that sometimes it is hard to accept those patterns for what they truly are. Matthew Toy struggled with accepting what everyone else around him knew about how big of an impact his own passion for practicing yoga had on his life.

How do people actually accomplish wildly unrealistic goals especially when you have reality standing in your way, like a full time job or obligations like kids that like to eat, or saving for their college. Or the simple fact that you have only so much energy in a single day before you pass out? Reality. Whatever your reality is. All of us have it. The question becomes: How do you accomplish career and life goals that you might consider to be wildly unrealistic when “reality” is always pressing on

Allison and I continue to delve deeper into the things that led to her career change (and changed her entire life, too!). As she completed the Clifton’s Strengthsfinder assessment during her CCB course, Allison discovered the formula for her own career happiness.

Bonus: How to Find the Time to Career Change (Even when you're insanely busy)

Allison Kirby was good at everything. The problem was…she couldn’t find something she enjoyed doing. As a self-proclaimed Upholder (defined in Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies), Allison had a knack, or rather a compulsion, for meeting expectations. When she’d see a job posting, and whether or not she genuinely wanted to do the work, she’d take on the challenge. In other words, she’d shift into whatever shape necessary to accomplish the goals of that role. This was a recipe for disaster.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” - Steve Jobs It turns out that this was true for Dan Pink, too.

Is staying at a job you hate holding you back from happiness? What if you’ve changed careers…and the new work wasn’t quite the fit you thought it would be? That’s what happened to Audrey Romagnoulo. So how did she go from teary days staying at a job she hated to getting paid $20,000 more with a career that allowed her to be who she is? Take a listen to Audrey’s story and find out!

Gia recommends journaling in six areas to help your professional growth: What is the actual work that you did today? What did you do to build your brand? What are your community contributions? Did you invest time in your professional skills? Did you invest time in your soft skills? How did you go above and beyond? Once people started journaling these six things, often they would realize they were lacking in certain areas, and it would result in intentional action taking.

Emilie Aires joins Scott to discuss what the martyrdom mindset is, how it relates to burnout, and how to overcome it.

Do you identify as a multipotentialite? When Melanie Buford was making a college decision, she felt torn between two very different directions. These two areas of interest had little to no overlap, so not only was Melanie choosing between majors but also universities. Fast forward to now, She enjoys helping multi-talented students discover a future that fits their unique wiring, and she loves digging into data on multipotentialites, personality tests, and strengths assessments.

Is staying at a job you hate holding you back from happiness? What if you’ve changed careers…and the new work wasn’t quite the fit you thought it would be? We’ve realized that EVERYONE has barriers to making their change. Especially the busy, high achieving peeps that we’ve worked with. You are no exception! In today’s episode, I talk about how career happiness really works. In fact, this episode is one of the lessons I teach inside Career Change Bootcamp.