New Year, New You!

I’m not sure how I feel about this saying to be honest! It seems so overused and somewhat cliché. So this year I haven’t set a New Year’s Resolution as such. I’ve got various rules and habits that I live by and a recent event really influenced me to make a daily change in my own mindset which I would like to share:

A shift in mindset

There is a saying that to succeed you need a role model. On my coaching journey, I have many role models such as the famous Tony Robbins and another of my favourite inspirational leadership coaches Jean-Pierre De Villiers. JP was in London this week doing a speaking event for the first time in London in 2 years and I was very excited to go to it. I posted a video on my Instagram feed @bethinkcoaching about how excited I was. I wore a nice outfit and did my make-up nicely for it. I allowed enough time to get to the central London location which was the beautiful Bloomsbury Hotel and I was in an energised, happy mood because I’d had a really good work out and productive day earlier that day.

Now what happened was, when I got to the train station, my train was cancelled. Delaying me by half an hour which was in turn going to make me what I thought was about 15 mins late. For anyone that knows me, you’ll know that I HATE being late to anything let alone something I’m really passionate about. For me, lateness just gives the wrong message. I’m a performance coach, big on time management and value. I also see it as a sign of disrespect to turn up late to a presentation or talk or event, it’s distracting for the audience and just isn’t how I like to show up.

Knowing that I was going to be late for someone who was very influential in my coaching journey was unacceptable for me. I felt stressed and annoyed at the train company. I was also stressed because it would reflect badly for my business as well if I turned up late. So when the next train did finally arrive, I was in a terrible mood. All my positive energy had drained out of me. I had an unenjoyable journey into central London and then I ran…literally ran to the tube. I was conscious I was being rude to other people by running past them, but this was so important to me I had to show up! I had to commit!

When I finally got to the hotel, and found the meeting room for the event, a funny thing happened. They told me…don’t worry, you’re 45 minutes early. The event time was printed incorrectly on the ticket and everyone is early! Obviously, I was even more frustrated, but it taught me a valuable lesson which I will carry with me for the next 354 days…

What did I learn from this experience?

I already know this, but I learned that shit happens and that’s ok! It’s how you deal with it that matters. I also learned that NOTHING happens as a coincidence. Do I think it was a coincidence that the one day I was late (considering I’m rarely late!!) the time was wrong – NO…I think it was meant to teach the valuable lesson for me of 2019.

The lesson was NEVER let external factors dim your light! Let the negativity lie with the negativity because it isn’t something I need to let penetrate me and negativity shouldn’t dim your light either!

Wishing you all the best for this year ahead – to 2019 – a year of lessons, dreams and ACTION.

Is it too late for a career change?

‘Is it too late?’ The most common question I hear from my clients who want to change their career direction but have the ‘fear’. A lot of my clients fear that they are too old for a career change. They feel like they are too old to change what they have known for 10 -15 or more years.

Some of them have dependants and worry that it will be too difficult to change direction at this point in their lives. Other people are perhaps single parents. Maybe they are worried that they have learned a particular skill set and it will be hard to learn a new one. Maybe it has been 10 years or more since they last trained for a particular direction. Perhaps financial implications are blocking their vision.

You are never too old to do ANYTHING

The truth is, you are never too old to re-train and do something different. As human beings we are always learning, evolving and developing. The average employee spends a total of 82,068 hours working over their lifetime. That is a phenomenally large percentage of your life so it is important that you are doing something that you enjoy doing. It’s even better if you can do something that you are truly passionate about, that aligns with your own core values and beliefs.

@VeraWangGang Vera Wang did not design her first dress until age 40.

@SamuelLJackson landed his first big Hollywood part at age 43

@jk_rowling rose from a suicidal single parent at 28 to an internationally acclaimed bestselling author at 46.

There are many ways to achieve a new direction; from part-time courses, to home-study courses as well as bursaries and funding that may also be available. The resources are plentiful.

So where do you even start?

As a personal performance and career coach, this is the most important part for me. The start. It is a person identifying and acknowledging that they aren’t happy doing what they are currently doing in the way that they are doing it in order to make money and seeking help in order to make a positive change in their lives. It is TOO easy to be complacent in life. Do you want to reflect in 10 years’ time on a life where you hated 5 days a week but lived for the weekends and 20 days holiday?

I work with my clients in various ways. This may begin with a vision board of what a client is passionate about, or if they are not sure what they are passionate about it might be brainstorming ideas to help them find their passion that lies within them using a variety of different coaching tools.

We can then work together as coach and client to discover which career those values, passions and beliefs are most suited to so that a client is being fulfilled. For example if your passion is being precise and working with data and spreadsheets, you may not be happiest working in a job that is mainly people orientated or customer facing.

It is NEVER too late to make a change for the better. You are never too old to change your direction in order to improve your life. I’m not going to say that it won’t be challenging, because it will be. I’m not going to say it will be without its struggles and hard work. But there is always a solution to every single problem and block that we face. Problems and solutions are like Yin and Yang. They come as a pair like positive and negative magnetism. As humans, we just always find it easier to identify the problems. But, change your mind set, start looking at the solutions first. What can you do in order to facilitate a career that will not only pay your rent or your mortgage but will fulfil your hopes and dreams in life?

Start with Step 1. It sounds silly, but Step 1 is the start.