Now What?® Coaching
from Laura Berman Fortgang
If only we could just Google, “What should I do with my life?” and have the answers magically appear on our screen, laying out for us step by step the path to happiness … wouldn’t that be nice?
But, since that isn’t the way it works, here are some tips to get you going to answer this BIG question that so many people share.
7 Ways to Find the Answer to “What Should I Do With My Life?”
Often it’s when we’re hurting that we feel compelled to make a change, but we sometimes can’t imagine a way out.
Rather than letting your pain dictate your next steps or allowing life to happen TO you by chance, you can proactively get involved in charting and following a vision you’d like to create.
5 Steps to Reinvent Yourself: Create the Future You Visualize
Sure, technical skills matter, but no matter what field you’re in, how you relate with people and the diversity of life experiences you bring into your circle matters.
“…building relationships is important because you just never know where the next opportunity is going to come from.”
One Engineer Explains How Relationships Can Have a Big Impact on Your Career
You fought as hard as you could. You jumped through every hoop. and kept your head in the game and your eye on the ball. AND you did not prevail!
WHAT??????!!
Four interviews over two weeks or seven callbacks over nine months; it doesn’t matter. Sometimes, you can do everything right and still not get what you want!
What do you do?
You grieve. For a bit. I suggest no more than three days. That’s my personal limit. After all, Jesus rose after three days, so it seems symbolically important too. (How’s that from a Jewish girl?)
AND THEN . . .
You pull yourself together and ask yourself: Do I want to quit, or allow this to make me work harder (and smarter)?
Depending on the answer, you act accordingly.
My daughter has chosen to follow in my musical theater footsteps, and it’s been a roller coaster of a ride. She worked professionally when she was a tween and came very, very close to several Broadway shows. She had HUGE “almosts.” Then, she became a teen — the kiss of death in professional theater. These are the “dead” years where you go back to your high school and community theaters and get more experience until you can come back as a pro after eighteen. (It’s less hassle to hire an 18-year-old who can play a younger teen, than hire a teen who comes with labor laws and schooling requirements).
We have been poised on that ledge of disappointment many, many times.
“Do you want to quit?”
“No,” she says.
“Then use this to build your determination to be the best you can be.”
The same goes for you.
Now, as a possible career transition seeker, not all circumstances roll like my daughter’s situation. Fighting ageism, changes in an industry, a gap in your resume and other issues don’t get resolved solely with determination and skill building. However, it does call for evolving determination, along with learning how to leverage your previous experience into something new and marketable.
That is where we come in. Please check out how to do this at Now What Coaching.
We hear it all the time . . . “Am I too old to go for something new? To follow my dream? To start a business?”
And, the answer is quite simply, no.
If you’re still here, you’ve got possibilities worth exploring. Need some proof? Read on . . .
An Inspirational Reminder That You’re Never “Too Old” to Change Careers
Our dreams do not always come in the packages we expect.
When obstacles change our course, sometimes simply showing up to be around the passion, doing whatever is needed (even the small and tedious tasks) will reveal new way to be with what you love.
She Believed She Could: Abby DePhillips On Finding Your Path