June 01, 2010
Helping Career Changers Around The World
June 2010
Hello!
Welcome to the June 2010 edition of The 5 Minute Career Coach!
What's in this Issue
- Quote of the Day
- Article of the Month - The Big Questions
- Your 5 Minute Coaching Session
- What Is Your Biggest Career Change Question?
- Recommended Resources – It's Only Too Late If You Don't Start Now
- Comments and Feedback
- Useful Links
If you don't like facing up to challenges, stop reading right here!
This edition of the 5 Minute Career Coach asks you some pretty big questions. They are not easy, but if you rise to the challenge, they could change your life.
Want to share thoughts about these questions with other career changers? Why not join my How To Change Careers Facebook Group? I hope it will become a place where you can get support from one another as well as from me. Look forward to meeting you there!
With best wishes
Cherry
Cherry Douglas
Your Career Change Guide
How To Change Careers
Click here to access Nick Williams' FREE ecourse on Discovering the Work You Were Born To Do
Know Your Personality, Know Your Career
- Would you like to get greater clarity over what kind of work could be right for you?
- Are you intrigued by the idea that your personality can guide you towards the right career choice?
- Would a list of career ideas that match your personality be useful?
Then take a look at Know Your Personality, Know Your Career and find out more.
The CV & Resume Workbook
Do you want to know the secret that will help you win your dream job? Do you want to avoid being one of those whose resume is discarded every time? Then just use the 12 Step Process in my CV & Resume Workbook.
Just click here to read more about The CV & Resume Workbook
Please don't keep me a secret!
Feel free to share this newsletter and my website with your friends. I wouldn't mind betting that there will be a few of them who are unhappy with their own careers.
Remember that they can get their free copy of 11¾ Ways To Kick Start Your Career Change when they visit the How To Change Careers website.
Quote of the Day
OK, stuff happens – but what are you doing with it? Learning and moving on or letting yourself be defeated and hiding away?
The Big Questions
I am reading another of Barbara Sher's books at the moment, called It's Only Too Late If You Don't Start Now. Right up front, she confronts the reader with some Big Questions which I thought were worth sharing with you.
- Where am I going?
- Did I do the right thing with my time so far?
- What’s ahead?
- What are my greatest fears?
- What do I really want in my future?
- What do I definitely not want more of?
- What regrets would I hate to have when I look back on my life in later years?
- Why am I on this planet?
See what I mean – they are pretty Big Questions!
How do you react to them? Do they excite you? Do you see them as a challenge to rise to? Or would you rather turn the other way and just get on with mowing the lawn or putting another load
of washing into the machine?
You might be wondering what they have to do with career change, but the fact is that many people only really begin to think about career change at the point in their lives when they begin to ask themselves some of these fundamental questions about their life and work.
These questions can be just as good a wake up call if you give them a career focus.
- Where am I going with my career?
- Did I do the right thing with my career so far?
- What’s ahead for me in my working life?
- What are my greatest fears about my career?
- What do I really want in my future career?
- What do I definitely not want more of in my working life?
- What regrets would I hate to have when I look back on my career in later years?
- Why am I on this planet? What is the work I am here to do?
Are you ready to face these questions and give them thoughtful and considered answers? Will you step up and face the challenge or just tell yourself you can deal with all that tomorrow...?
Your 5 Minute Coaching Session
Challenging questions are one of the key tools coaches use in helping clients to create change.
Each month I offer you a mini coaching session by asking you a challenging question to think about. The questions I ask are designed to get you thinking in new ways and hopefully gain insights that may open your mind to new possibilities for you career and for your life.
I have asked you some pretty big questions already in the article above, so let's try one that's easy and fun!
Time to be playful again. Just build up as detailed a picture as you can of how your perfect working day would unfold. No limitations – you can have anything you want.
Where would you be? Who would you be interacting with? What would you be doing?
What does this picture tell you about what really matters to you?
What Is Your Biggest Career Change Question?
This section in the 5 Minute Career Coach, gives you the opportunity to ask a specific question you may have about changing career. I will do my best to answer the questions that come up either here in the 5 Minute Career Coach or on the How To Change Careers website.
So what is your biggest question or concern about changing careers?
If you'd like to ask a question about changing careers, just click this link and fill in the form to submit your question via the How To Change Careers website.
Recommended Resources
Well having mentioned Barbara Sher's book in my article, I have to give it a further plug here.
It's Only Too Late If You Don't Start Now
Barbara Sher
I'll put my hand up and say I have not even finished reading it yet, but I've read enough to know that I'd like to share it with anyone at a career transition point.
The subtitle is How To Create Your Second Life After 40, but this doesn't mean you have to be over 40 to get some great insights from it.
It will certainly help you take a long look at how your life (and career) are going at the moment and give you the inspiration to move forward positively, rather than just accepting (with a sigh or with frustration) that you have to settle for what you have. It really never is too late....but
it is down to you to get on with it!
I'm not sure if it is in print at the moment, but don't let that stop you. If you can't get it through Amazon, try AbeBooks for a second hand copy. That’s where I found mine.
It is definitely worth seeking out.
More recommendations
If you would like to see more recommendations for books and similar resources, follow the link to the Career Change Books page of the How To Change Careers website. Do keep popping back to it as I am adding to it all the time.
And if there are books and resources that have inspired you and that you would like to recommend, there is a place for you to do so on that page.
Comments and Feedback
I want to be sure that both this newsletter and the How To Change Careers website are focused on YOU.
The best way I can do this is by asking for your comments and feedback:
- What do you enjoy and find most helpful about the 5 Minute Career Coach?
- What suggestions do you have for improvements to the 5 Minute Career Coach?
Useful Links
Read more articles about career change on the How To Change Careers website
Contact me with any queries or questions
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