Career coach: Joy

Career coach: Joy. Is it possible to find work that gives you joy as well as an income? Absolutely! Did anyone tell you at school that this was possible? Or were you expected to fulfill someone else’s pre-defined category?
With most people, I meet the answer is often sadly, ‘Absolutely’ all over again…

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

Frederick Buechner,

elieve in god or not, wouldn’t it be a sweet-spot if what you love doing meets what others need? That is a really satisfying place to be.
And it is possible? How? By listening to yourself.

I guess when careers guidance was given at your school; tailored to 30 kids in a class, to 90 or 120 in a year group, provided year on year, wasn’t that bespoke to the individual. It wasn’t that bespoke to You. The time might be coming where the generic answers and the generic options are no longer a good fit for you. The way to find what it is that gives YOU joy, is to listen, reflect and hear yourself. Then you need to commit to acting on the information you are given. However mad, off-piste or odd the things you uncover seem to be to you, the only way to capitalise on them is to honour them. To risk them and try them and see what kind of od difference it makes.

Career Coach: Joy

Have you had enough of doing the same old thing over again? You do need to do a different thing If you really want a different outcome  Yes, it’s scary, I hear you. And, sometimes it’s the smallest, rightful tweaks that make the biggest impact. It might not be a whole career change that you really need. What might be required is attention to detail.  The very same work might be sustainable in a different environment, or when seen from a different light, or when applied to a client base who are more suited or open.

It was assumed that I would be a teacher when I was young. My dad taught. My mother was a head teacher. I am and have always been astute with people and how they learn. The bit of the equation that ‘they’ (teachers, parents, career counsellors), seems to be missing was the fact that I’m not that keen on kids… No disrespect. I love mine: but the notion of being surrounded by 30 of them, day in and day out is enough to make me want to jump on a plane straight out of here.

I had a taste of what I really wanted to do when I was a team leader for the Prince’s Trust in my early 20s, personal development with 15-25 year old was a delightful whole new ball game. I guess it took another decade before I gave myself permission to come back round to it again in the form of coaching and supervision. Just imagine how much time is have saved has someone helped me to hear and identify that joy in me two decades before I could hear it for myself…

And some people never do find what they really enjoy… and that feels like a waste when we spend a third of our lives at work. So my advice would s to learn to listen, hear and honour yourself … however weird you think it sounds! Try It: I Dare You!

You Can find Rebecca here at the Daemon Career Coach