(As featured on Kathy’s Huffington Post blog)
As one who works with thousands of professional women each year to transform their careers , I’ve been asked almost every question you can think of about professional life. I’ve also observed over these past nine years what holds women back most from having “knock-your-socks-off” success and fulfillment in their professional lives, and these blocks are not what you’d expect.
Most professionals I work with have achieved a good deal of outward success – responsibility, promotions, authority, recognition, supervision of large staff and budgets, etc. – but for the majority, something vital is missing, and they know it in their hearts and souls. They can’t seem to put their fingers on what they want most, or how to get it. It’s like a secret treasure that they keep hunting for everywhere – under every rock, in every new job, relationship, boss, organization, country, entrepreneurial venture — but they still can’t find it.
I’ve seen that almost everyone has at least one “power gap”– an area in which they just don’t have the confidence, self-worth, self-esteem or will power to take them to the next level that they so desperately long for. The great news is that all of this can change, if you commit to, and invest in, doing the inner and outer work required.
What are these secret career success steps that are missing for so many professionals today, and can everyone access what they need to, to build an amazing career?
The first truth is that while having an amazing career is a potential that everyone can grasp, only a relatively few will step up and commit to it. I remember speaking with a coach in the Tony Robbins organization who told me, “I don’t care what my clients want – everybody ‘wants’ a thousand things. I care about what they’ll commit to.” I subscribe to that same philosophy about career transformation. Why? Because doing what’s required to absolutely LOVE your career – to be proud of who and what you are in the world and how you’re of service, and know you’re reaching your highest and best potential, takes a great deal of courage, work, commitment, energy, trust, and perseverance – and it takes walking to the farthest edge of your limitations, and jumping — into the scary new territory that is necessary to take you higher.
Are you one of those who WILL commit to doing what it takes to have an amazing career, or just dream about it? Check out below the top five steps you have to take, and see if you feel ready for what’s required:
The five core steps to create an amazing career –
Step 1: Step back to understand the lessons your life and career are trying to teach you.
Your life is teaching you lessons, but most people just aren’t getting them. Every day, you receive powerful guidance from your life about what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong (in terms of getting closer to what you want most out of life). Most just don’t recognize these messages as clear beacons to show you the way to go. The first step to an amazing career is to make a deep, critical and fearless evaluation of where you are today — what’s working, what isn’t, and what you want most. This includes gaining an intimate understanding of what makes you tick – your personality, values, needs, dreams, legacy, and your power “gaps” – those areas of weakness or insecurity that keep you stalled and stuck. Until you get off the hamster wheel and do this intensive work of exploration and discovery, you’ll continue to spin your wheels wondering why you’re not happier. (Take my free Career Path Self-Assessment to get you going on this.)
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON HUFFINGTON POST
If you’re ready to commit to an amazing career, I hope you’ll join me in my new career transformation project — the Amazing Career Project. See you there!
