Now What?® Coaching
from Laura Berman Fortgang
If finding a new job is on your list of to-do’s this December, you may think you should skip this month and get back to it in the New Year. Not so, say these experts; January is actually the most competitive job searching month of the year.
Here are some great ways to capitalize on the season to give yourself the gift of landing that job sooner rather than later.
If it’s time for a career change, here are some simple tips to help you slow down and take that next step intentionally. Rather than rushing or running away, take the time to get to know yourself, know what matters, and be mindful in your steps.
As this author expresses, this is ultimately about you, and when you tend to your true needs and desires, everyone benefits – family, friends, and coworkers.
I promised you the third installment and here it is: Video THREE is about the third block to clarity: BELIEFS
“But I can’t make a change right now.”
We’ve heard it all.
You can’t make a change because of the money, the mortgage, the college, the debt, the _______________. We don’t doubt there’s truth to that, but we also know there’s a way to get past all those obstacles.
Our third and final video walks you through the third block to clarity- beliefs.
Watch to understand how to get to the other side of the blocks and then JOIN Laura for a chance to do the WHOLE Now What?® Program with her guidance at a fraction of the cost of one-on-one coaching.
One lucky participant will also win a private coaching engagement with Laura. Your registration is your entry ticket to answers and to the GRAND PRIZE.
Thank you for taking part in the 10th Anniversary celebration of Now What? 90 Days to a New Life Direction!
Please comment below.
by Now What?® Coaching Founder, Laura Berman Fortgang
Surrendering to a process is hard for a lot of people.“What’s the outcome? What can I count on? Am I going to get what I want?”
These are the worries that derail process. They disrupt the flow and bring things to an abrupt stop like hitting the brakes on your car while in full 50 mile an hour motion. ABRUPT and JARRING to say the least. Dangerous too.
Whether the process is an experiment in a science lab, a rehearsal for a play, a career coaching engagement (three months minimum), or sitting in the chair for a haircut, the hoped-for result is hard to attain when you don’t allow the process to unfold.
Are you conducting a job search and getting frustrated? Are you trying to find answers to what you should do with your life? Are you trying to lose weight to less-than-stellar results? Are you trying to write a book?
Multitudes of activities that don’t get finished instantly require surrendering to the process. What becomes difficult is staying consistent, open and present when the changes are not evident yet.
How to surrender to the process?
I recently worked with two women who were trying to find their next career move. They started working with me around the same time. One has quit in frustration and the other is having doors open and possibilities prevail. She has set a date for when she’ll leave her current job and she’s full of positive expectation.
The difference between them?
One surrendered to the process and the other put the brakes on every day to make sure she was not being cheated or tricked or sent barking up the wrong tree. She lived in distrust and fear—distrust of me and the process and distrust in herself and her abilities. But mostly, distrust in the notion that good things could be awaiting her.
The first woman, who was getting results, took the plunge, did her homework, took the scary steps, kept her head down focusing on consistency, and not measuring results at every turn.
She is now very clear on what she needs to be happy in a career and is networking her way to her next opportunity. When she started, less than three months ago, she felt trapped without any clues as to where to go next or what to pursue. There were no possibilities at all. That’s not the case now.
I think of surrendering to a process the way one would climb a mountain. I’ve never climbed one like Everest or Denali so let’s stick to a steep hike up a New England ski mountain in the summer.
You know you have a long way to go. If you keep looking up it’s discouraging, but if you keep putting one foot in front of the other, taking in the view of how far you’ve come every now and then as you rest, you will make your destination.
If instead, you curse every step and keep looking up to the top (the finish line) it’s easy to lose your balance and maybe even trip and fall. It’s not that you can’t ever look to the top or to where you are headed, but it has to be kept in a positive perspective as encouragement, not punishment.
Process can be hard and it can be painful but more painful is our own judgment of it.
When we rail against it and curse it and judge ourselves for not being stellar, it just makes matters worse.
It takes a certain detachment to surrender to a process. The delicate balance of giving something your all but being able to hold off any judgment of how it’s going is an art in itself. Oddly enough, it’s absolutely necessary to get the best results.
Let’s not forget the underlying enemy to it all—loss. To change anything means to give up something. As much as we want a change, many cling to the pain they know because the familiar is less scary than the unknown. That results in never leaving the gate. Never putting your foot on the mountain. Never getting to the top in exchange for the safety of the bottom.
Keep walking. Keep stepping. You don’t have to run. It’s not a race. It’s just change.
Let me know how we can help.
The last few years have felt like they’ve been speeding by and this one is on steroids compared to them. I feel catapulted i
nto outer space by the speed at which time flies. Oddly, the feeling bookends the individual days that seem to have plenty of time in them.
The push and pull, pulse-racing and deep breathing seems to be the ying and yang of recent times and I think it reflects what happens for the clients I work with on their careers. The rhythm of life and business don’t have a steady pace. It ebbs and flows and so does your career search or your ability to move ahead.
Can you harness that or control it? The key is to be ready for it and expect it. Circumstances don’t stay good or bad. Things are always in flux.
The way to deal with it is to create conditions you can control. You can control (or at least plan) a structure within which to work on the changes you want to create. Be consistent in those actions. For example, if you are looking into what you might do next or you are sending out resumes, keep doing the research and wallpapering the internet with your resume no matter what. Repetition is key.
I’ve recently started to step up my exercise regime after a long streak of doing minor amounts of physical activity due mostly to back issues. I hate working out so much it was easy to let the smallest amount of pain keep me from trying. However, the middle-age spare tire has been growing and the lazy streak had to stop. I’ve had to get back up to speed slowly—first taking restorative yoga classes and aerial yoga which is very easy on the body. Finally, it was time to take an intermediate level class. After the first one, I couldn’t walk for five days. Once I could walk, I came back every other day. My level of fitness is increasing. Weight loss will come but consistency is going to be the most important factor. I’m not back to doing a headstand or handstand. I am not back to full flexibility but I know it will come if I keep up consistent action. I know that they gym with weights and cardio will interest me again as I keep feeling better and wanting to build strength further and further.
Here is what I want you to take away from this. Consistent action. We can’t wait to see success. We have to just keep building and stop measuring the results.
Obviously, you are not going to persist if something is not working at all but with steady, consistent work peppered with the occasional burst of high-intensity creativity and action will get results. Just don’t give up. I’m saying that to myself too.
I worked with Scott in the last year on figuring out what he wanted to do with his life. We succeeded at gaining clarity on what his next career move needed to include to gain the satisfaction he was missing. When we parted ways, his job was to keep networking to make his way into a new field. What transpired over consistent action and time (less then four months) was that he was approached by a vendor he worked with through his job to lead their $800 million company. Scott’s story will appear in the updated and revised anniversary edition of Now What? coming out March 2015 so stay tuned for details.
Be consistent. Keep on your career quest. I’ll keep going to the (yoga) mat. Time won’t stand still for us but we will be less at the effect of it if we stay the course.