The Startup of Me. Heavy vs Lean Pivoting.

In 2014 I was five stone overweight and chronically ill.

It was a pivotal point in my life which led me on to many more.

No specific eureka moment drove me to change my life radically. Instead, there were lots of sharp pain points. I had much shrapnel to pull out and let the wounds heal. It was only then that I moved forward. I was a creature of habit, but us humans are complicated things.

So I had to challenge myself to succeed in a new environment and under new conditions.

How?

By re-calibrating. You can read more about how I lost the weight on Thrive Global if interested. I had to make the exercise and nutrition go from being an activity to a ritual.

A ritual to save my life and enable me to go from one pivot to the next.

You have to make your body your no one priority in a pivot. You need every cell to be high functioning. You will be in overdrive answering difficult questions. Willpower is a limited resource.

The extra stressors can lead to over sensitivity. Health fluctuations that may not have affected you in the past can do so now.

With a change, you have to safeguard your emotional and physical health to succeed. Numbing out stress with food and alcohol is not advisable. Test yourself and see what your triggers are.

What elevates your mood, creativity and physical and emotional resilience?

What kills it?

A glass of wine or two is fine but reaching for a third when you have to wake up the next day and wrestle with complex pivot questions is not good. You be the judge find what works for you and practice it consistently.

Get the basics of good sleep, exercise and nutrition in place. Strip your life down to the most productive and healthy ones, so you have a clean system to operate from daily

Kick the crutch and ace the goal.

What rituals have helped you in a transition or pivot?

Would you be willing to share them in the comments below?

You never know who you could have an impact on today.

For more details on consulting packages see here . To book a ten minute complimentary call email me at pauline@paulineharley.com

What Core Needs Must My Career Meet?

Have you ever created the space to ask yourself these questions?

Maybe you could find some time in this new month to do so.

Here are some prompts and further thought-provoking to help you with this valuable exercise. 

Personal and Professional Values:

What is most important to you in the next one to three years?

What are your values around this?

What do you really need in your life and how do you envision your career attributing to it?

Things like financial security, benefits and stability matter.

Time is a factor also. It is one of your most valuable resources. 

How much freedom and flexibility would you like?

Self-fulfilment:

Intrinsic 
How much personal growth, learning and impact do you want to have?

We all need to feel like we are progressing and part of something to build our self-esteem and natural confidence.

Extrinsic
What about your job title? Does it matter to you?

Are prestige and authority important to you?

Relationships:

What type of people do you like to work with?

What type of company culture is important for you to thrive?

What teamwork do you enjoy?

Are workplace friendships important to you?

What management opportunities exist for you?

Mobility:

What movement would you prefer in your role?

Is there freedom from repetition?

It is one of the biggest reasons I see people come to me in my practice!

Boredom from repetition can result in demotivation, decreased confidence and low impact.

You might think all of these are important at present and they very well may be.

But it is crucial to prioritise the most important ones in the present moment.

Then you can begin to create an actionable career vision for the next few years.

If you are having difficulty doing this at present  this final question may elicit the most important answers for you in time:

What is missing from your current role?

Feel free to contact me to discuss in more detail. Happy to help as always.

For more details on consulting packages see here. You can also book a one-off consultation at a discounted cost here

How To Get Your Career Off The Ground

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How can we get our careers off the ground and going in the direction we want?

My son Ian left Dublin on Saturday morning for Orlando on his first ever business trip! He has two weeks of learning and adventure ahead. I am super excited for him.

With a few tears in my eyes steaming up my sunglasses, I said goodbye and gave him a big hug.

His trip prompted me to write about something many of us face in our lives. How to get our careers off the ground and going in the direction we want?

At present, you might be feeling a bit "meh" in your role. You might be feeling somewhat undervalued. You know you are capable of so much more but are stuck with what to do next or what direction to take.

That is okay! You are not alone in this regard.

A quick question for you staying in line with the theme of travel before I dive in.

When you are planning your holidays, what is the first thing you think about?

Destination, right?

Where do you want to go and why?

Who will you be when you get there?

What will it look and feel like?

Many people including myself in the past do not allow themselves to take off in their careers. The reason I see show up most is because they do not know who they want to be.

People ask you over and over since you were a kid, what do you want to be when you grow up? We should make a point of not asking kids this anymore. It is one of the worst questions you could ever ask a young person today.

Because the future of work is changing daily. Our attitudes towards our careers need to keep evolving.

What we should be asking is whom do you want to be when you grow up?

Or as most of us are grown-ups here now we should be asking ourselves on a regular basis:

Who am I?

The answer to this question will take its shape on the foundation of our values and beliefs.

Then the direction in which we choose to go will also lie in acknowledging that careers are non-linear. Non-linear career paths are now the norm.

You know that dream job, that one job for life, is actually kind of done, it’s over. Your career can go in any direction you choose if you are prepared to do the work and research needed to get it to take off.

Today it is quite possible you are not going to have one career, one dream job and one profession. We need to consider our thought process around who we are and how our work needs to evolve to compliment this.

Instead of looking at career paths or job titles it makes more sense to look "underneath" these derailers.

Consider what binds us and our careers together? 9 times out of 10 it will be our values and who we are.

Soon many jobs will face disruption or transition in some way. A former role could unlock many others career paths. Ones to world of opportunity and new direction.

Research has shown that when a person trains or works in one job they gain skills for 13 other jobs.

Many young and older generations are stuck training for and working in jobs that may not exist in the future. It is not a reason to be fearful or disheartened. We should look at it as an opportunity to learn more about who you are and what you can bring to the future of work.

The good news is we have moved on from this mindset and ladder of succession:

"Go to school, go to college, get a good job, work hard and if you’re ‘living the dream’, retire when you’re 65.”

You don't have to climb that ladder anymore. The world is our gym and playground to discover more. We are more inspired and open to change than ever, and more interested in what’s happening around us.

We all have the head and hearts to negotiate the direction our careers can go in and overcome any challenges that may show up in the process. Once we stay grounded in our values and who we when we start to take off.

How can you transfer your skill set and reach another career destination?

What direction do you want to go in?

What is the fist step that will allow you to get off the ground?

The sky’s the limit.

To finish consider this for reflection.

Perhaps the real question to ask ourselves when we wake up in the morning and as this new month begins is:

"What is the world that I want to create by being who I am?”

For more details on consulting packages see here . To book a ten minute complimentary call email me at pauline@paulineharley.com