What is a Career Coach

People often ask 'exactly what does a coach or more specifically a career coach actually do', they wonder, is it like career advice or counselling where you get given lots of profiling type tests and then some suggested career routes and how to go about getting them? Well the answer is 'absolutely not'! Career coaching is a process of self discovery, a time for you to discover your true values, motivators and drivers and to explore what really makes you tick, the kind of work you would love to do and often what holds you back from doing it, or even taking the first steps towards doing it. It's also about uncovering unhelpful beliefs and instilling more positive and resourceful ones that help to move you forward confidently in your chosen direction. Often people discover that their ideal work is not a traditional job or profession, but work that exactly fits their unique talents and passions and fits the lifestyle they would like to have.

I honestly believe that if I hadn't had coaching myself, then I would still be floundering around 'searching' for my ideal work and wondering if there really was such a thing - believe me there is!

To discover your ideal work, join us on this 2-day fun, creative and inspiring Career Transitions Workshop or weekend Career Transitions Retreat

Reflections of the journey

This last year has been a rollercoaster of emotions and what feels like a life-time of intense self-discovery. Having the space to reflect on what is and isn’t working for me in my life is both liberating and quite scary too. Realising that there’s so much to let go of, so many highs and lows still to come and so many breakthroughs to celebrate can in itself seem daunting, but as my self-mastery grows, so does my strength and peace of mind. I’m feeling quite emotional today and I’ve been wondering why some people have the ability to inspire and move me and others to irritate (through no fault of their own). Is it that the former touches my deepest held values and the latter puts me in touch with my ‘shadow’ self, the part of me I’m reluctant to accept? Either way, each experience brings me closer to peace of mind and total acceptance.

So, what’s the message here, I guess it’s partly the importance of taking the time and space to reflect on who we are and why we are here, and having the courage to just be with ourselves and examine whatever thoughts and feelings come up for us.

To discover your ideal work, join us on this 2-day fun, creative and inspiring Career Transitions Workshop or weekend Career Transitions Retreat

The importance of self-awareness

Some of you may know that one of my long term goals is to develop a program for 15-18 year olds in schools, to help them discover their values, passions and drivers and to help them overcome any limiting beliefs that may have been instilled in them over their developing years.

 

Having had nocareer advice at all when I was at school, I am passionate about helping young people to develop some direction, much earlier in their lives than I did. The value of this was reenforced recently when coaching a young 19 year old student and helping him to discover his core values - his excitement at understanding this was great to see and his first comment was - 'why don't they teach you this stuff at school?'. So, I am encouraged and my mission becomes clearer.

 

To discover your ideal work, join us on this 2-day fun, creative and inspiring Career Transitions Workshop or weekend Career Transitions Retreat

The Inner Game

I have recently started to re-read The Inner Game of Tennis, reading it now as a coach, I realise just how much of Gallwey's philosophy applies to everything we do in life. He talks a lot about the idea of having 2 'selfs' - self1 being the teller and self2 the doer and that if we would just trust self2 to know and do what what is right with out constant interference and instruction from self1, then we would more often be in a state of flow, rather than one of contast tension and resistance.

Thinking about a particular work situation - maybe you have a report to write and self2 knows exactly what to do, in fact it has all the resources it needs to do it perfectly well, but self1 keeps interfering with messages like 'you haven't got a clue where to start with this' or there's no point in trying as it'll be total rubbish and noone will want to read it' or maybe 'you know you're useless at writing reports, how can you put it off ...............' If you find anything similar happening to you, then close your ears to self1 and 'just do'!

To discover your ideal work, join us on this 2-day fun, creative and inspiring Career Transitions Workshop or weekend Career Transitions Retreat