Jackie Harder
QUESTION: I’m convincing myself that now is the time to reinvent, so that when the economy improves, I’ll be poised to do something new and exciting. How do I do that? How do I go completely out of the box?
ANSWER: Great questions and oh-so-appropriate on this Labor Day 2009! And here are some more, ones I use with all new my coaching clients, to help them figure out where they want to be.
Write down your answers to these questions. Be spontaneous; often the first thing you write down is your most compelling answer. But be thoughtful as well. Make sure your list is as complete as possible.
- Where do you get your energy, your “juice” for life?
Is it helping other people? Speaking in public? Do you get your juice by expressing yourself artistically, in words, music, movement or through building things with your hands?
- What is your gift that you’d feel great about orienting your life around? What is your magic? What is it about you that draws the most compliments from people?
- What motivates you?
Interestingly enough, lots of people have trouble with this question. Money, fame, love, security, respect, admiration and service to others are a few examples. As with all these questions, there are no wrong answers.
- What are your strongest resources?
This could be many things – your faith, money in the bank, a supportive partner, and the ability to take risks and learn.
- What is one of your lifelong dreams that’s worth living, starting now? What are you deferring until “things get better”?
- What’s holding you back?
It could be external things – other people’s needs or opinions or lack of money, for example – as well as internal, such as fear and lack of faith in yourself.
Take a broad overview to your answers to all these questions. See what naturally fits together, how they build on each other.
What direction do you see in the picture you’ve just created?
Now it’s time to start researching.
Can you make the amount of money you want by following your passion, using your gift? Are there companies who pay people to do what you want to do? If not, would starting your own business be a profitable course of action?
Talk to people who are doing what you’d like to do. Get their input. Ask them what they’d do differently and what they didn’t expect as they followed their dream.
What resources do you need to move forward? It could be more education, a bank loan, relocation or something completely different.
Once you’ve determined where you want to go — literally and figuratively — you need to figure out how to get there.
Your map will be your plan of action.
Determine when you want to achieve your large goal and reverse engineer your path to it.
Break your “bigs” into “littles” – give yourself three to five specific smaller goals to reach at established intervals within that larger time frame.
Success with smaller goals leading toward your larger ones will give you the incentive to move forward.
Make sure your goals have some “stretch” to push you to the next level.
Continually review your plan. Conditions and people change, and your plan has to reflect that.
If you get stuck, ask yourself why. What’s preventing you from moving forward and how do you overcome that?
For assistance in creating a map or following it, consult a coach.
