If you are one of the millions contemplating a career change or reflecting on how you want to live your life, it can be hard to gain clarity and this is when life or career coaching is helpful. Your career is a huge part of your life and where we all spend a good portion of our days, so being happy with your work and finding a career or job you enjoy, is essential to your happiness. Yet, many people see their career and life as separate which they are in a simplistic lens, but I can tell you as a coach that the unhappiness I hear is when people’s work is negatively impacting their life or health. This means that the work you choose needs to align with the lifestyle you want because your career and life are intertwined. Having a coach that will look at you, your life, and career holistically is essential.
Are you happy in your current job or career?
Are you living the lifestyle you want or are you unhappy?
Let’s just imagine for a moment that you could change anything you wanted to about your current circumstances and in addition to changing what you don’t like about your career or life right now, you could also say exactly what you wanted as if you were at the buffet table of career and life choices.
Have you taken a moment to visualize this and dream about what you do want and what you would discard? What would you change? How do you want it to change if you had your choice?
Identifying what you would change and what you want is a critical first step to creating the career and life of your choosing. Yet, this is where it can become challenging for people because knowing what we want is not a google maps with direction steps to getting there.
How Life Coaching is a First Step for Career Clarity and Direction
For those of you who have never tried life coaching or wondered what a life coach could do for you, here are some of the results it helps people get:
- Discovering what you value most and leading and living your life in alignment with your values
- Gain clarity on what it is you want with your life including meaning, purpose, and fulfillment
- Highlighting where you want to focus time, energy, and resources in your life
- Achieving your life goals and having accountability to progress them forward
- Greater self-awareness to lead, have better relationships, less stress, and more ease
- Prioritizing, time management, self-care, and life management
- Developing your life vision and being the leader of your life
- Uncovering any self limiting, self sabotaging or patterned behavior that is blocking your growth
- Optimizing you to lead and live your best life
Now back to why life coaching is the best first step for you to gain career clarity and direction; understanding who you are, what you want, what your values are, and the vision you have for your life is essential to explore before you dig into career clarity. This is an approach that puts the life you want to live as the top priority for your career to then fit into its vision. Usually we are building this backward with our career first and then life fitting in around our chosen career. I know this may seem a bit utopian or idealistic, but if you have been unhappy with your job and it has been spilling over into your life plans, then leaning even a smidgeon toward this philosophy is going to bring you greater happiness.
The biggest complaint I hear is people losing their life to their career and wishing they had more time for the life they want to live. Isn’t that possible? Shouldn’t that be our right to choose it? If it is idealistic, could we make it better than it is right now? I see too many people settling and not thinking they could have a better situation when it comes to work life balance, but what if it was possible? Would you explore it? Of course some people are also unhappy with what they are doing and that is where career coaching comes in.
Life coaching shines a bright light on what you value most and helps you align your life to living the way you want. If there are any obstacles in the way, it also supports you in navigating these and setting goals to move you towards the life you want to live. Sometimes we have to breakdown and have help breaking through so we can get to where we want to be in life.
Now do you see why life coaching is a great first step in your career clarity and discovery process?
Let’s take a look at how these two types of coaching can be done holistically together and why I believe they are super powerful together. The video below shares a holistic approach on how you could do your job search or career discovery process that integrates your career with the life you want to live and for what matters most to you in life.
Are You Looking at Changing Your Job, Career, or Exploring Your Options?
Where does one begin when it comes that fateful day that you know it is time for a career or job change? You may begin searching the job directories or networking right away, but what happens if you are in greater contemplation and seeking a career that aligns more with who you are and how you want to live? That certainly cannot be found in job directories, but it can be discovered in self exploration. This is where career coaching can be very helpful because it can provide you with greater self awareness as to what career, company culture, leadership or job would be a good fit for you.
Yes, there are a lot of career assessments you can take to find career matches, but do they also consider what I call career alignment? Assessments may match you based on your skills, aptitude, and strengths which is very helpful in narrowing down your choices, but where career alignment comes in is when the profession or job you choose aligns with not just what you will be ‘doing’, but who you are as a human being. What I mean by this, is what is going to make you happy and what type of career is going to align with how you want to live and who you want to be in this world?
A career coach will work with you to determine what type of job or career will align with your whole self and your whole life. Well, I should clarify that this is my approach to career coaching as I am a certified Whole Person Life and Career coach, ICF PCC.
Some of the greatest benefits you will receive from career coaching are:
- Career Clarity
- Career Alignment
- Career Direction or a Career Path Plan
- Career Advancement Plan
- Career Leadership for Growth
- Synergy of Your Career with Your Life
- Interview Preparation and Presentation
- Career Happiness
If you are in a place where you don’t have clarity or you are stressed and overwhelmed at where to begin, career coaching could be of great service to you.
What Can You Expect Working with a Life or Career Coach?
This may vary depending on who you work with as each coach has a different coaching package, but I can share what you could expect with me. I would have a complimentary consultation with you to discover your needs and hear a bit more about what you are looking for so I could then share my recommendation of how many sessions would be best for you. Generally, I would recommend a minimum of 6 sessions and many people require 10-12 one hour coaching sessions to experience the full benefits. These sessions would ideally be done weekly or biweekly at a set time each week. There may be some homework, but not a lot of extra time would be required outside of the sessions. The most important element is to commit to the process and to be consistent with the sessions for the best results.
You can expect your coach to be your guide, not your advisor or advice giver. They will let you set the agenda or in some cases I have had clients who wanted a set itinerary of each coaching session and that can be arranged depending on your preferences. Coaching is a transformative process which means, you can expect to learn a lot about yourself, gain greater self awareness, have new insights and wisdom as to what you want, and make progress forward toward your goals.
The above sessions could be a combination of life and career coaching sessions so you can take a holistic, whole person approach to your career path or you can decide to have them be focused in one or the other. You can also expect your coach to keep every detail of your session 100% confidential and if you think your coach is only there to support you, you may be surprised when they challenge you in the best way possible.
Life and career coaching is a great experience that will elevate you as a person, energize your dreams and goals, propel you forward, and synergistically align you for: happiness, fulfillment, and your best life.
If you would like to learn more or would like support in your own journey, reach out to me at [email protected].
Happy career and life adventuring.
Lead it. Live it. Love it.
Your Leadership, Career, and Life Coach, ICF PCC
Jody
Connect with me on Social
