Now What?® Coaching

from Laura Berman Fortgang

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Have You Found The Entry Point?

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by Ginny Kravitz, Deputy Editor

Clarity Takes You There

“If this isn’t it, I trust it will lead there.” I smile when I hear someone I’m coaching say those words. Brenda is at the point of trusting the clarity she has received enough to move forward. This is especially significant as she’s been at the same crossroads six times before over the course of her life. Each time Brenda chose what felt like the more predictable path instead of what captured her interest the most. This time she is choosing differently.

At some point in your life and probably more than once — when you’re younger, older, or somewhere between — you’re bound to go through the process of trying to figure it out: the answer to what will make you happy and fulfilled in your work as well as take care of you financially. What typically follows soon after the discovery of what you would like to do is a stream of doubts and worries about how realistic it is and what the chances are of success. You’ll wonder: Is this really it?

Just how much of the trail must be in view in order for you to know it’s the right direction? What Brenda realizes is that all she needs to solve for right now is the entry point: the trailhead to take that will open up her future.

What’s Enough To Go On?

The reason it made me so happy to hear Brenda’s words is that learning to trust the entry point is a critical life skill that is more important than seeking any one right answer.

Trusting the entry point often involves a leap of some kind. This is different from making impulsive choices that lack staying power. There is a due diligence to perform, a process where you can align your decisions with:

  • What’s important to you (needs & values);
  • Your disposition and talents (personality, skills & experiences);
  • Who you are (interests, passion & purpose);
  • Other criteria (situational requirements & your preferences).

While not every idea is meant to be turned into a career or life path, if the idea passes through your due-diligence process and feels right to you, it may be time for you to recognize it as your entry point and step onto the path.

What’s next is what you need to know. What’s “next after next” you don’t need to nail down. The details will work themselves out. When you go for a mountain hike, you look at a map and there are various trailheads from which to choose. You pick the one that you think will give you the best hike. Once you’re out on the trail, you can alter the route if needed.

Trusting Your Entry Point                                                        

As you consider what’s next for you, ask yourself: Do I have clarity and have I found my entry point?  If not, seek input from others as you conduct your due-diligence process.  Am I acting on my clarity and moving forward? If not, identify people who will encourage you and support you to take that bold step.

Trusting the entry point is acting on the clarity you have right now and letting the rest unfold.

“We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal
and then leap in the dark to our success.”
— Henry David Thoreau

Video Viernes-Committed to Paying Attention

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Today we bring you an interview by Jane Pauley who is now hosting Your Life Calling, a new series produced by AARP.  Here she interviews, Richard Rittmaster, a former Lutheran minister now chaplain in the U.S. Army National Guard.  Rittmaster shares several rich insights including how he listened to his burn-out and depression rather than fighting it.  “I was committed to paying attention.”   We appreciate that comment and in Now What?® we’ve seen that paying attention is the way to intuition and clarity.  While listening for guidance, Rittmaster did a stint as a bar tender during which the opportunity to become a chaplain for the army presented itself.

Reflecting on his experience, Rittmaster  concludes that  becoming “who we’re designed to be” means exercising the gifts that most engage us.  What are the gifts or talents that you’d like to exercise?

Finding Faith on the Front Lines – Your Life Calling: 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMGZ9h_E8Xc]

Thank YOU

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Thanks to our Deputy Editor, Virginia Kravitz and our Editorial Assistant, Joanna Frabrizio, I have not been on the blog as often
as I should. I recently discovered that so many of you have written and commented.  
 
We learn from every comment and will pay more attention to what you want to hear more about.  
 
So, keep them coming and if you need me, specifically, for anything, you can always write to lbf@intercoach.com
 
Thanks for your readership and participation.
 
My Best
 
Laura Berman Fortgang, MCC

SUSPENDED REALITY

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by Now What?® Coaching Founder, Laura Berman Fortgang

THERE COMES A TIME, in almost every career transition, when clarity comes and a sense of determination kicks in despite every logical  reason for it not to.  There comes a suspended reality where you almost can’t believe you are moving forward in this new chosen direction yet there is no turning back.  A cocoon of reason disintegrates and transforms into a new being that can take flight.  It is in this suspended reality that courage comes and doors begin to open without logical explanation as to why. 

In the movie, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, the hero must step out into an infinite abyss to get help to his ailing father.  With each step out into the nothingness, a rock floor would appear to catch him and allow forward motion towards his goal.  That same suspended reality is what it feels like to follow a new direction for your life and career that you know is right but have no evidence or indication of getting the result you want.

How do you do it?

Up The Faith

When you operate in space without a net, where most people in your life think you’ve lost your marbles, you have to believe in your self and the goodness of life in general to make it work.  It’s not the time to be a realist.  It’s a time to be naïve and assume that everyone and everything will work in your favor.  It often will when you become a self-contained, pressurized bottle full of faith.

Follow The Breadcrumbs

When you are researching a new field, trying to find a job or pursuing a specific goal in your new direction, every lead is a hot one.  Being in the gap between now and future busyness in your new career, you have the luxury of time.  You cannot afford to ignore any possibility that can take you in your new direction.  Talking to one person can lead to the next person and so on.  You will be amazed at the path that gets laid out in front of you as you diligently walk through every open door. 

Keep a Solid Home Base

All this is not to say you should abandon all reason.  What allows you to move forward with blind faith and curious tenacity is having a solid home base to operate from.  You’ll need at least one person who believes in you when the rest of your posse thinks you’re nuts.  If possible, keeping your day job will help too even though you’ll have less time for fact-finding.  And if you are in between things, it’s OK, you can still have a solid base. Decide what you can invest in yourself financially and give yourself the time to make the transition.  If that is not in the cards, a solid base is harder, but not impossible.  It’ll then be built on the faith we talked about above and involving others so you can move along more quickly.  Ask, ask, ask—for help, support—whatever you need. Create a base of emotional support no matter which level of financial cushion you can operate from.

A recent client made a decision to act on a long-time hunch that it was time to move on from his current job. Despite the uncertainty of the economy and the ‘sure thing’ that his position was after 20 years with the company, he knew he had to do it.  He got on the phone and explored every hint, tip or lead that was given to him.  Despite his family’s fears that he was blowing a good thing, he persevered, went on interviews, visited other folks that had moved on from his company years before and went to industry events to meet new people to talk to.  He did find a new job that he was happy with and six months later, learned that his former company was making layoffs in the department he had been a part of!

Acting on a hunch will usually lead you to enter a suspended reality.  That’s what we at Now What?® Coaching are here for.  Meet our facilitators.