What if you already knew what you were meant to do?
People seek out coaching for any number of reasons – from “my boss is a tyrant” to “I want to work for myself but I’m scared to make the move”.
But the single biggest reason that I find people come to me for coaching is that they (ostensibly) don’t know what they want to do for a living.
These are not school leavers. More often than not, these are people who have been in the work force for over 20 years. But they no longer find their current job or profession fulfilling, or have a lingering feeling that they were put on this earth for greater things.
Not being able to articulate what would help them feel more fulfilled is usually what they see as the number one barrier.
But here’s the interesting part. Nine times out of 10, they do know. They just don’t know they know...
It just requires some work to help them get there.
So, after working through what’s important to the client, and what an ideal future might look like to them, eventually I’ll ask this:
“What would you love to do if you thought you could earn a living doing it?”
And I’m constantly surprised how quickly they respond:
"Oh, that’s easy! I’d do [insert dream job here]!”
So you see, once they allow themselves to imagine what they would do if they believed they could make a success of it, they find that they have the answer.
Then it just becomes a process of identifying the barriers and digging deeper to illuminate the mindsets or fears that might be standing in the way of their actually making it happen.
The process is a little more complex than I’ve outlined here, of course, but the point is – the answer to what we ought to be doing is, essentially, within each of us. Sometimes we just need a little help to uncover it.
The opportunity
If you have lingering doubts that your current work situation will ultimately lead to your ideal future – you might want to seek out the services of a coach. With some help, you may just tap into what it is that you really would love to be doing so that, 20 years from now, you are not left thinking: “I wish I had [enter your dream job here]”.
Lucy Sanderson-Gammon, MBA, is a consultant, trainer and coach, specialising in organisational behaviour and communications. She is owner and director of Luminous Consulting. Find out more about Lucy's coaching services here.