Back when I started out working 1:1 with people, because of my background (a portfolio of careers, having left medicine) it seemed logical to me to help people with career change.
I mean, I’d only been speaking about it at conferences for the last decade or so!
🤷🏻♂️
But the practicalities of doing that I found to be quite difficult, initially. I got myself all tied up in outcomes, convincing myself that because the changes we see in the world of form can take a while, I would need to be working with clients over a long period of time.
But who wants to sign up for a 2 year coaching package?!
Of course, I’d overlooked how career change actually works.
It starts with a thought
Since I left a promising surgical career at the top of my game, and this isn’t all that common, whenever I’m interviewed on podcasts, it’s a frequent line of questioning: How? Why?
And while it’s easy to draw a seemingly linear, time-based move from this career, to that one, and then to the other, the way that these life changes really work is far more stop-start: periods of seeming inactivity, followed by big leaps.
Because like all change, it’s insight-based. We see something differently, some old, invisible belief falls away and the path is suddenly clear for a huge change to occur.
We change… and the world of form follows suit. It’s that way round.
Some examples
The biggest career change of my life (age 46), deciding to leave behind a lucrative IT consultancy, with virtually no safety net… that was one thought that came to me, half way through a phone call:
“Oh, this is it. I’m done with this stuff now. Forever. Today’s the day I start looking for something new.”
I didn’t know what that ‘something new’ was (which was terrifying!) but the insight came out of the blue, and from that fresh vantage point, the world of form started to get into line behind it.
✦
Actually leaving medicine was one thought that happened in a conversation, after I’d been offered a university position that I didn’t think I was going to be able to take (because it would have meant a halving of my salary; obviously a big deal).
It was suggested that I do some locuming (A&E doctor shifts) on the side, to supplement my meagre salary and there it was, all of a sudden. Again, out of the blue, unbidden, the realisation:
“No, I’m not going to do that. This whole move is about scaling back the hours I work and having better work/life balance – that would be just more of the same.”
And with it, the tandem realisation that I’d probably just left the NHS forever… and I was ok with that.
✦
Beginning a decade-long career as a keynote speaker was one thought:
“Yes, friendly stranger, I think I would like to create something suitable to present at your conference you’ve just invited me to speak at, even though I have no idea what that might be.”
✦
Starting off down the path to become a cycling-coach was one thought that happened during a conversation with a friend I was helping out with her fitness (something I’d been practicing on myself for years):
“OMG! I’m really good at this and it comes naturally… I’m going to qualify to do it properly.”
✦
Writing the Daily Reminders (which has changed the shape of my coaching practice completely) was one thought that was coaxed out of me, by my own coach:
“Oh crikey! Writing daily might actually be easier than writing just once a month.” 🤯
There's a process
I’ve just noticed, as I type these words, that in all these cases, the same process was in play: a conversation with someone and an unexpected shift in my thinking. Something fresh; something new – a thought I'd not had before (i.e. insight)
That was the catalyst for change, each and every time.
And then the world of form lined up behind that shift in perspective.
I think that’s how it works, guys!
🥳
Giles
Know that it's time for significant life change? Had enough of reading and now ready to sort the problem out once and for all, with 1:1 support?
I provide the kinds of conversations that help you to have the one thought that changes everything, in a way that's just right for you.