Don’t make the same mistakes I did. Ten years ago I was driving home after Labour Day weekend at the cottage and the closer I got, the worse I felt. The end of summer meant back to “reality” and back to a job in which my ambivalence was suffocating me. I couldn’t seem to find the motivation that used to come to me easily and if I was being honest, I knew I was on borrowed time because I was phoning it in.
I wanted to escape, but looking at other jobs out there wasn’t inspiring me either. I procrastinated. I went through the motions of saving jobs on LinkedIn that I thought I should apply for but knew I would put it off until past the application deadlines (anyone else do that?). I was still paying off my MBA and felt stuck on a corporate path of my own making.
I fantasized about winning the lottery and getting a fresh start because none of the more realistic options seemed possible. Or they seemed exhausting. Or expensive. *Spoiler alert, I did not win the lottery.
I wish I could say that I suddenly saw what was hiding in my blind spots and realized that I was going to stay stuck forever unless I changed the way I was looking at things and my approach. But the truth is that I stayed stuck for a few more years until I was laid off, and then I muddled about a little longer until, after a whole lot of trial and error, I got on the right path.
I could have gotten here a hell of a lot sooner.
If someone had pushed and encouraged me the right way and shown me how to get out of my own head and my assumptions, if I had understood how exactly my own thoughts and feelings were contributing to the problem, had I been able to apply critical thinking skills to my actual life, I would have saved years.
I wish I had known that I didn’t need an escape, I needed to change what I had been doing and how I had been approaching everything I wasn’t happy about.
But at least I’m a better coach now because of it, because of my stubborn side, the part of me that doesn’t naturally ask for help, I had to learn the hard way. And I have a whole lot of great stories about how to do it wrong. I know firsthand how much easier and faster it can be. When you feel stuck it feels real and it feels permanent, but know that there is a way out, back to a life that thrills you.
Life isn’t perfect now, but I know that I’m never going to let myself slip into complacency, and I know that when I need to take a turn, I can do it much faster.
I want to show you the fast way.
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