Are You Censoring Your Potential?
“I could never do that.” “That would take too much time.” “It’s too late for me to try that.” “I’m not creative enough.” “I would LOVE to do that...but no, I couldn’t.” Are these the voices in your head when you think about your possible next step? Do you censor your potential? When I coach, my goal is to expose you to all that you could be. To open your eyes to all the possibilities. To help you uncover what path you should take next. But so much of that process is allowing yourself to dream a little bit. Dreaming comes first.
I like to use a combination of science and imagination. The science part of my process is the assessment. Analysis of ability, personality and interests come together to provide a profile unique to each individual. Picking it apart and digging deeper to discover what makes you tick is my superpower. Uncovering why you make the choices that you do can provide insight into where you should go next. Do you thrive in settings where you can be social, or do you prefer to work solo? Do you gravitate towards fast-paced environments where you are juggling multiple tasks at once? Are you a solid, hard-worker who doesn’t seek the limelight of a leadership position? We will look at paths together that
The assessment process gives you a great start to look at possibilities for your next career path. But I will challenge you to not stop there! It’s so easy to scan the list of suggested careers and start eliminating some of them simply by what you think you know about them. I challenge you to not count them out until you do some research. If a particular career piques your interest, read more about it. Analyze the tasks, skills, and education requirements. Look into careers that are related. When we work together we will take the suggested careers as a starting point. We will use the list to launch into discussions of areas that get you excited. Maybe you won’t actually need to “start over.” Maybe you will realize that you are already doing what makes sense for you, but you need to tweak some things to be more satisfied. You might never discover this unless you trust the process.
Another approach to finding solutions and potential paths is a brain dump. A big part of a brain dump is not censoring your imagination. It's so easy to slip into the “I can’t do that” mentality when listing possibilities and not even write it on the list! But the exercise of a brain dump is an essential part of the process. This creative process allows your ideas to flow. I also utilize this tactic after the assessment when we need to find different ways to reach your vision. Resist the temptation to overthink it. Even if the ideas seem crazy. Especially if the ideas seem crazy! I personally struggle with this. My business coach once tasked me with listing all the ways I could think of to make money. My craziest idea was to write a YA fiction novel (because I read so many of them and love the genre). This idea resonated with me. It obviously isn’t going to instantly make me money, but it keeps creeping into my goals and ideas of creative things to do. It was absolutely my craziest idea, and I really fought with myself to even write it down and share it with my coach. “But I can’t write fiction! I’m too much of a perfectionist to be creative.” These were the thoughts creeping into my head and trying to force me to scribble it off of my list. But I ignored the impulse and wrote down the idea. I have started to dabble in fiction writing, just a little bit, and reaching out of my comfort zone.
So I will leave you with the challenge to not censor your imagination so quickly. Don’t discount ideas before you give them an opportunity to take hold. Obviously, not all ideas will be good ideas. Not all ideas will be possible. There will be some analysis of ideas in order to determine feasibility. And you will put a big “X” on some ideas, but only after giving them a chance.
