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Do you love musicals? I do. There's a song in Chorus Line sung by one of the young hopefuls who is auditioning for the chorus line. The opening lyrics are: "Who am I anyway? Am I my resume? This is a picture of a person I don't know. What does he want from me? What should I try to be? So many faces all around and here we go. I need this job. Oh God, I need this show." This song reminds me of how we can almost "become" our careers to the point that we can't remember who we really, truly are any longer. We become who we think others want us to be because, well... we need this job, we need this show. This is why the DREAM path (as talked about last week) starts with D for Discovery. This step is all about re-discovering who you are at your core, without all the trappings of work or assumptions about your career, your success, your aspirations. Who are you anyway? If someone asked you this at a party, how would you answer? Perhaps you would say something like, "Oh, I'm Ali. I'm married to Dickie. We have lots of pets and live in a cottage in the South Downs. I'm a career coach. Who are you?". Hm, that's quite boring, isn't it? That's like the CV of my life! BUT thinking about my own Discovery revelations, here's an alternative response: "Oh, I'm Ali. I love writing and chatting with people. I'm a really good listener so I can't wait to hear your story! I also love trying new things and learning as much as I can about all sorts of topics. I'm driven by a desire to be independent and my pet hate is unfairness in any shape or form. I'm on a mission to help people improve their career fulfilment at the same time as finding my own harmony between my personal life and my career." Some may say that's oversharing (come on, live a little) but I think it's much more interesting than my trite resume response and, hopefully, more engaging too! The benefits of Discovery Clients that have been through the Discovery step of the DREAM path find a myriad of benefits. The process is all about finding your energising strengths (those things you're good at and also give you energy), uncovering and connecting with your values and, finally, crafting your career purpose. Client feedback has uncovered benefits such as the clarity of knowing exactly what you want, not just from your career plan, but also your life goals. The courage to know what elements of your career are ones that you will not compromise on. The buzz that you get when you're working at your best. The joy of changing up your daily activities to make sure you're doing things that bring you energy. The confidence that comes from knowing that you have a unique blend of strengths that you can use and combine every day to ensure peak performance and satisfaction. Some clients have completely changed their careers off the back of doing this Discovery step. Some clients have tweaked what they do but stayed in a similar role. And some clients have completely re-engaged with their career just because they've now articulated their WHY and can see how their job fits into their broader life's purpose. How do I get started? If you haven't worked with me before on your own Discovery, then I'm going to suggest that you start with identifying your energising Strengths. All my clients start here and then we delve deeper into Values and Purpose. There are 3 ways for you to do this:
I really hope that you can start your own personal Discovery by uncovering your energising strengths. If you'd like to talk about the full Discovery process, then book a call with me to talk it through.
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