By Colleen on August 30, 2011
Remember the ‘connect the dots’ books you got as a child? You would follow the dots numbered from one to whatever drawing a line from each one to the next. Once you connected all the dots the picture you were drawing was revealed. Growing up we learn that life doesn’t follow a nice and sequential pattern: it unfolds and reveals itself gradually and sometimes seemingly randomly and unpredictably. It is made up of different experiences and events and it is often hard to see any pattern or connection between them.
Steve Jobs in his 2005 Stanford University Commencement Address used the metaphor of Connecting the Dots to tell graduates that, in life “you can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards… Believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference..” Steve Jobs 2005 Stanford University Commencement Address. Steve Jobs followed his heart in his course selection at college and took a calligraphy course. If he hadn’t done that it’s quite possible that an appreciation for fonts and how words look would not have been part of our personal computer experience for as long as it has. He certainly had no idea when he chose to take that course that he would apply the learning from that course when creating a personal computer!
Trust that your dots will connect and follow your heart!
Posted in Aha!, Career development, Ideas, Information, People, Transition |
By Colleen on April 14, 2011
Sometimes you can feel ‘stuck’ in your life and career. It could seem like you’re just going through the daily routine without an idea of what for. You ask yourself why you are doing this and when will it end? Sometimes you need to know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel when you can’t see it yourself. What is good to know is that you can create that light yourself!
A ‘career crisis’, as this could be termed, is often a lack of imagination or the ability to see a different future than the one currently in front of you. It could also be the inability to connect current activities with what’s really important to you in life. The career development process is one that assists people to gain the insights needed to get unstuck; to set goals, dream new dreams, learn more about themselves and find and create new opportunities. Spring is just the time to get started on growing new things. The days are longer and often this is accompanied with new energy to plant seeds and nuture dreams.
As a way to nurture the desire for something new, go for a walk outside and pay attention to all the spring changes you see. New shoots poking out of the ground. Buds on the trees with just a hint of green starting to poke out. Birds sitting in their nests keeping their eggs warm. Let go of your own worries and desire for changes and appreciate all the changes you see happening right in front of you. After having had this experience you may find that you have created a little mental space for yourself to start dreaming something new or rediscovering an idea that was planted long ago. You may have a different way to create this space for yourself, but whatever you do do not get hung up on exactly how you are going to make it happen. The momentum you create by opening yourself up and dreaming your dream again will help you discover the next step. You will also no longer feel like you are stuck anymore.
If you would like assistance getting ‘unstuck’, please contact me for a free information session. As a client recently said, it makes things so much clearer just to be able to talk about them.
Posted in Career development, Ideas, People, Transition |
By Colleen on November 25, 2010
When you think about your career it can be useful to use a metaphor to see how you are approaching your life’s work. I really love the traveller and tourist metaphor. In this metaphor, a tourist uses a plan, schedules everything and knows exactly what will happen and where they will be at what time. In contrast, a traveller is there to experience and connect with their journey. Not so much is preplanned and scheduled, leaving room for serendipity and adventures. Travellers are the ones sitting in the marketplace having conversations with the locals and learning about the place firsthand, instead of through a guidebook.
I aspire to be a traveller in my career and life journey. When I learned about www.travbuddy.com and that you could make your own personalized travel map for free and see how much of the world you had already experienced, I couldn’t resist. I’m still focussed on the journey and I’m not wanting to just go somewhere and get the t-shirt, but it is fun to quantify what has happened so far!
Posted in Career development, Ideas, Information, Networking, People |
By Colleen on October 20, 2010
I just recently finished reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I really enjoyed getting to know Elizabeth Gilbert through this book. Her writing style is very personal and yet self deprecating; witty and wise with some powerful metaphors. I believe that while she does exaggerate to emphasize a point it is true that she decided to go on this adventure for herself before she knew that she would be funded by her publisher to go as well as produce a book out of the experience. This is exactly the kind of attitude or gumption that I believe creates powerful possibilities in life.
I was telling a colleague that I had just finished the book and her opinion is that the book is a fun read however too many people are now just following Elizabeth’s adventure instead of being authentic to finding their own adventure. I completely agree. Where I disagree with my colleague is that she doesn’t believe that Elizabeth had decided to go on the trip and then told her publisher and then found out that she would be funded. She thinks that she was given the offer to go and so she went. I do believe that Elizabeth had the gumption or inner drive to take this trip and that that gumption is what inspired the publisher to fund her. I have said this many times to people I coach and train: people cannot pay you enough money to create that kind of energy if you don’t already have it yourself. So if you follow your heart or passion or inner voice and let it out, you create the possibility for people to be inspired by your passion and support it in one way or other. These kind of things do happen.
After talking to my colleague I proceeded to my next meeting where I was doing just that: putting my passion out there and giving it a chance. When I moved to the Netherlands 5 years ago I thought to myself, “maybe I’ll end up writing a book about the experience and then I can travel about speaking to groups on the topic”. So here I was talking to book publisher and author’s mentor Jo Parfitt about the fact that I wanted to write a book even though I had not yet chosen a specific topic. And lo and behold, the best imaginable possibility for me emerged during that meeting. Something I couldn’t have imagined myself that is a very complete realization of what I would love to do and yet much simpler. I rode the tram home vibrating with anticipation and excitement. Who knows what will come next on my very own career adventure? Stay tuned and believe in your own dream!
P.S. If you would like to receive a motivational note that connects with these themes, then I recommend joining The Adventurer’s Club. You can receive a free “note from the universe” that will help inspire you to stay true to your dream before its manifestation.
Posted in Information |
By Colleen on September 30, 2010
I will be offering the Make a Career Change workshop twice in the coming months, on November 11, 2010 and March 10, 2011. The workshop is the culmination of over 12 years work in the field of career development, and provides some key insights in a short amount of time. Last year’s participants were very enthusiastic about their workshop experience. For many it opened up a new way to look at their life and career. They were also very positive about the interactive nature of the workshop and my warm and energetic facilitation style. I am looking forward to again being able to assist people to overcome their blocks and indecisiveness about making a career change through this workshop. Click the link above or visit the Agenda section of this website for details about this and other upcoming workshops. Contact me if there is a workshop you would like to see offered!
Posted in Career development, Workshops |
By Colleen on September 9, 2010
The cycle of life and career is something that fascinates me. I love hearing people’s stories and seeing how careers weave themselves together from threads that seem sometimes too diverse at first glance. But later, looking back it is possible to see how it all wove itself together into the tapestry that is now your life. I can see that reflected in the tapestry of my own career and life. Moving to the Netherlands a few years ago it seemed like I was cutting off my tapestry and starting over again. However, that is not the case at all. By asking the question “how can I remain authentic to who I am and find my way in the Netherlands” I found support through Arnold Veenhof to weave the threads together again. In another recent transition to motherhood, I now also see how threads are picked up and used again in new ways. Ever more fascinating and interesting!
This website has also just undergone a cycle of renewal and has some new threads woven in, one of which is this blog. I am looking forward to sharing ideas, aha moments, information and other good things that come across my path through this medium. I hope that it will be an interactive dialogue and look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for being here and being a part of this blog.
Posted in Information |
