by Now What?® Coaching Founder, Laura Berman Fortgang
I live with four stubborn mules. They also happen to be my husband and children.
(Whose idea was it to put a coach in the home of the UNCOACHABLESTM?)
I have to use great skill to rally support for unpopular notions even if that notion is a vacation to Alaska rather than Disney World. (OK, my husband was with me on that one) Our family can’t even agree on a movie to watch or which restaurant to grab a quick meal at. I have to find openings where there aren’t any and I have to be creative in my approach to each person and each issue.
What does all this have to do with you, the reader of a career transition blog? A lot.
If you’re in a job search or researching a new idea for your next career move or you’re testing the feasibility of a business idea or anything that requires discipline and determination, you have to do the same. Find openings where there are none and approach each situation with creativity.
You need DOGGED DETERMINATION.
How do we develop determination and tenacity?
You have to REALLY want it—How can you be determined and willing to do whatever it takes to succeed if you don’t really want what you are after in the first place? You have to want tenacity and you have to want what you are after. REALLY want it.
Yes, we sometimes have to do things just out of need or responsibility, but finding something behind your quest that inspires you is essential to sticking with it.
Humans need a strong WHY to move forward. Find your WHY, love your WHY, and commit to your WHY!
You have to narrow your focus—Throwing it out there and see what sticks isn’t the best strategy. Even if you have several areas of interest, narrow it down to two or three until you feel you have exhausted every possibility. Then, add another focus if needed. Determination can’t be spread thin. It needs a very distinct target.
Create daily accountability—Whether it’ll be a reward system you set up for yourself, work with a partner/buddy to keep pace with or you are one of the lucky ones who can keep promises to yourself really well, determination builds with the union of heart, mind and action. What will you do today towards ‘the dream’?
Be creative and ignore the norm— Most people get very stymied by the lack of response to their conventional attempts at their goals. No response from a resume or building a website and not getting very many visitors, for example. Developing determination, once at to this point, you have to ask “Got Dogg?!”
Determined people don’t stop at the norm. They bust out and become creative about how to reach their audience whether that be the hiring entity or your audience who buys from you.
This is a tricky area. How do you get creative and still stay within appropriate boundaries? Showing up on a camel dressed in exotic garb may get you attention, but not the job. However, doing such for your new Middle Eastern restaurant in town might bring you customers. Regardless, the point is to find the openings and opportunities to do things differently and get used to sticking out.
As one of my advisors, Vince Poscente, told me recently: “You have to do what your competition is not willing to do.”
You can build the determination muscle for yourself. Practice and don’t give up. In the meanwhile, I’ll be determined to keep negotiating with the UncoachablesTM and look to where I am uncoachable myself.
Got Dogg? You better!
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