Stay ConnectedYou’re not totally happy with your career (obviously!) You also know that there “has to be something out there that’s better.” That hope that you can find meaningful and fulfilling work, that also pays you well, has led you here!
This is the show that provides the inspiration, tools, and roadmaps to move from where you are to work that matters to you and uniquely fits your strengths and talents.
Copyright: © 2018 Happen to Your Career LLC
Part 2: Where are they now series.
Have you've said 'yes' to a job offer, even though it didn't match up with your values?
Matt Toy, also took a job offer, but realized, like many of the people we work with, that what he could be doing was staring him in the face the whole time.
He was also faced with decisions that would compromise his values, but he was unwilling to make the sacrifice.
To binge-listen to more career happiness success stories, find all the podcasts at https://happentoyourcareer.com/podcast
Or tell us more about your personal career situation and schedule a conversation with our team go to https://happentoyourcareer.com/schedule-htyc to learn how we can best help!
Have you noticed any recurring themes in your life?
These patterns can range from the habits you form, the hobbies you enjoy, the work you choose, the tasks you hate, the type of people you surround yourself with, and so on.
Digging deeper into your own patterns in your career and life is the first piece of research you need to do before you start down the career change road, but we also know that sometimes it is hard to accept those patterns for what they truly are.
Matthew Toy struggled with accepting what everyone else around him knew about how big of an impact his own passion for practicing yoga had on his life.
Read his full story at https://happentoyourcareer.com/184
To binge-listen to more career happiness success stories, find all the podcasts at https://happentoyourcareer.com/podcast
Or to tell us more about your situation and schedule a conversation with our team go to https://happentoyourcareer.com/schedule-htyc
As kids, we all have dreams and aspirations for what we want to do when we grow up. However, as we get older, we tend to put down our dreams to pursue "reality" - or what we perceive is reality. Those dreams we had no longer fit into what we consider realistic.
Years ago when I first started Happen To Your Career, my good friend Mark and I created an 8-Day mini-course to help people begin to figure out what they really wanted to be doing for their career and their life. We've now had over 25,000 people go through that mini-course. One of the exercises in that course involves declaring 3 wildly unrealistic things you want to do, be or become these could be occupations, jobs, roles, whatever you wanted, Sky's the limit. The only rule is that it has to be wildly unrealistic.
We started getting thousands of responses emailed to us and there was something interesting that we noticed right away. They're all big goals sure, but what else? None of them are actually impossible or unachievable.
What does this tell us? It means that the things we believe to be wildly unrealistic are only unrealistic because we believe them to be. It's about the story that we tell ourselves.
How do people actually accomplish wildly unrealistic goals especially when you have reality standing in your way, like a full time job or obligations like kids that like to eat, or saving for their college. Or the simple fact that you have only so much energy in a single day before you pass out?
Reality.
We all have our current reality. This might come from obligations, parents, kids, work, serving on that board that you agreed to back before you realized how much time it was going to take, yes it's for a good cause but maybe you didn't actually think it would be an additional 20 hours a month.
Whatever your reality is. All of us have it. The question becomes: How do you accomplish career and life goals that you might consider to be wildly unrealistic when "reality" is always pressing on us?
When you set out to achieve wildly unrealistic goals you can always assume the path you follow will be the one less taken. This is, of course, also true with wildly unrealistic career changes!
Allison and I continue to delve deeper into the things that led to her career change (and changed her entire life, too!).
As she completed the Clifton's Strengthsfinder assessment during her CCB course, Allison discovered the formula for her own career happiness. She says:
confidence + strengths + motion = dream career
She began to imagine a career she could be passionate about. When asked the question, "What are some of the things you can't stop doing?" Allison found herself responding, "I can't stop asking people if they like their job."
This answer helped her see that she was obsessed with career fulfillment. For five or six years, she had been showing interest in others' career success. Even when she was shifting gears with her job title, she kept asking people whether or not they loved their work.
"Looking back at the big picture, even though my jobs were so different, every single job, whether it was part of the role or not—if it was just interactions with employees or how I felt about myself in that position—everything pointed to my dream job."
Allison realized she was good at simplifying processes for people and creating new programs. She had fun communicating to people in a language they understood. When she thought about her signature strengths, she realized she could use all of these skills in helping others find fulfillment.
Today, Allison is a professional career coach. She's an entrepreneur living out her multipotentiality, and she can honestly say she's discovered her dream career.
Very few people will find career happiness in this life, whether it's because they don't believe it's available to them or because they can't identify what would even bring fulfillment, but Allison is living proof that you can do work you love and be paid well for it.
Are you ready for a career change? Want to find the time to make a career change?
We would love to talk with you about your situation and help you figure out the best path for you to follow.
Are you ready for a career change?
We would love to talk with you about your situation and help you figure out the best path for you to follow.
Allison Kolberg (Curbow) was good at everything. The problem was…she couldn't find something she enjoyed doing.
As a self-proclaimed Upholder (defined in Gretchen Rubin's Four Tendencies), Allison had a knack, or rather a compulsion, for meeting expectations.
This habit led to a "see and conquer" mentality in the career world. She'd see a job posting, and whether or not she genuinely wanted to do the work, she'd take on the challenge. In other words, she'd shift into whatever shape necessary to accomplish the goals of that role.
While pursuing her degree, Allison worked as an office manager in a typical 8-hour office environment. Not too long into her role, she realized the clock-in-clock-out-pushing-papers desk job wasn't for her. Recognizing a need for hands-on work, Allison routed her college studies for a career in oil and gas.
Upon graduation, she was hired as a High-pressure Pump Operator in Anchorage, Alaska. Looking back, Allison says she was drawn to the job's hands-on nature and the opportunity to work in big picture operations. She felt a special love for the procedures and problem-solving ability required for her two week on/two week off schedule. She was good at her job, but the love didn't last.
Allison comes on the podcast today with Scott to tell her story of how she made her transition.
After she made the changes in her life to create her career change, she realized that it was more than a career change - it was a life change.
On today's episode, she explains one of the struggles she had:
"I had so many different skills and interests, and I jumped around so much that one job sometimes didn't look anything like the next job. I was grasping at straws to try to fit all these aspects of my life into one [career] that I didn't even know was possible. So, I just jumped from job to job.
I felt like a flip-flopper. It didn't feel very good. When I would want to move on to the next thing, I felt like I had to subdue or discredit the parts of myself that were in the other position."
By the time she got through her career transition, she was able to look back with better clarity:
"Looking back at the big picture, even though my jobs were so different, every single job, whether it was part of the role or not—if it was just interactions with employees or how I felt about myself in that position—everything pointed to my dream job."
Daniel Pink is a New York Times best selling author, well-known keynote speaker and speech writer for Al Gore. Looking at his career, you'd have no idea that he graduated law school, but decided law wasn't for him, then he got into politics and decided that wasn't for him either. How did Daniel go from shifting career focus multiple times to ultimately finding career happiness as a best-selling author?
What you'll learn
Have career change questions or want to make an introduction? Email scott@happentoyourcareer.com
Free Resources
What career fits you? Join our free 8 Day Mini Course to figure it out!
Career Change Guide - Learn how high-performers discover their ideal career and find meaningful, well-paid work without starting over.
Related Episodes
Is staying at a job you hate holding you back from happiness? What if you've changed careers…and the new work wasn't quite the fit you thought it would be?
That's what happened to Audrey Romagnoulo. She was a talented Operations Manager working in the Events and Hospitality industry in New York City. She'd given much of herself to the job and had been rewarded with increasing responsibility, perpetual "thank yous" …and an increasing distaste for her work because what she valued most didn't align with what the company valued.
When she came to us for help, it became apparent that the genuine, highly caring, no-holds-barred person that she was (and wanted to be more often) was being hampered because of the job she was working in.
This inability to be herself for 70 hours a week became so frustrating for her that it sparked an 11-month long journey to figure out what she really wanted and fight off the mental barriers that were keeping her stuck!
So how did she go from teary days staying at a job she hated to getting paid $20,000 more with a career that allowed her to be who she is?
Take a listen to Audrey's story and find out!
In this episode, Gia tells us how she was always a girl who had a diary growing up. Nowadays, Gia got back into journaling and starts every morning writing down what she is grateful for. The other questions she writes about are what she is looking forward to and her top priorities. The most significant benefit Gia has seen with her journaling is self-awareness; having a better connection with yourself will provide clarity on what really matters in life. The last time Gia found clarity was after a year of working on a tech startup. Gia was struggling with whether she should invest more time and effort or close it and move on to something else. After journaling for a few months, she got clarity on precisely what she needed to do.
Free flow journaling is another method Gia uses to get clarity on her thoughts and mindset. Writing without restraint is best for those situations when you cannot quite articulate what seems off about a particular topic. For instance, Gia is trying to move her child into the public school system; she has been free flow journaling to articulate the struggle she is having inside her head. Putting it down on paper really gets the juices flowing and allows you to make better decisions.
When Gia would ask her female clients what they accomplished in their careers over the past year, they could not articulate a response. If you cannot answer how you add value to a company, most likely you will not be getting that job. Gia says women need to be able to confidently and clearly articulate how they bring value to the table. One way to start thinking about your answer is by writing down what you do every single day. After a few months, you will have more details and could clearly explain how your presence adds value. Gia tells her clients to keep tabs on the following six areas:
Once people started journaling these six things, often they would realize they were lacking in certain areas, and it would result in intentional action taking. For example, when someone realizes it has been weeks and they have done nothing to build their brand, that person would start taking actionable steps to increase their brand awareness. Some barriers that come up for Gia's clients when journaling about their workday are procrastination and time. People always claim they do not have enough time to reflect and journal. Gia suggests opening up Google Drive and take thirty seconds to write down what you have done before you leave work for the day.
Enjoy the show!
Resources:
The Daily Career Journal: https://careerikigai.com Code for 50% off: HTYC
Gia's Website: http://giaganesh.com
Gia's Twitter: https://twitter.com/KicStarturLife
Gia's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/giaganesh/
Emilie Aires joins Scott to discuss what the martyrdom mindset is, how it relates to burnout, and how to overcome it.
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
