Becoming Your Greatest Self

A Guide for Reimagining Your Career

This time of year has a way of instigating new action for many of my coaching clients. With the bulk of 2024 still on the horizon, there is no better time than now to begin stepping more fully into your own greatness. You may want to get “unstuck” or get in better shape. You may want to right an injustice. You may want to learn a new skill or head down a new path.

Or maybe you find yourself with a sincere desire to live in greater integrity with your true essence, offering your greatest gifts and value to the world.

If that last one sounds like you, then I want to share a helpful approach to help you get there. But you should know, starting down that path can be daunting. Going through the process can be confusing. And things are likely to get emotional. Spending any amount of time in a liminal space (that transitionary period between valid existences) is uncomfortable and unnerving, because in order to create something new, you must detach from old ways of thinking and unlearn what you already know to be true.

None of this is easy, which is why I recommend that you don’t go it alone. Getting some support and leaning on your community will make things go smoother and produce far better results.

While this article is written to help you upgrade your work life, specifically your career, you can use it to improve your relationships, your health or any other area of your life you are feeling a burning desire to change.

So, if you are ready to get started, begin by conducting an assessment of how things are going right now for you at work. Jot down your responses to the prompts in the following three areas (this should take somewhere around 15-20 minutes):

1. What is going well? What is making you happy? What are you doing that you love?
2. What isn’t going well? Where are you struggling? What is frustrating you?
3. What is missing? What could you be doing that would make things better for you?

Based on your responses, the first strategy to employ will be to:

1. KEEP DOING WHAT'S WORKINGDon’t make the mistake of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Maintain momentum and enthusiasm in your career by continuing to do the things that are already going well.
2. STOP DOING WHAT ISN'T WORKINGThe best way to free up time and energy is to eliminate the things in your playbook that are producing negative results. This not only makes you instantly more productive, but happier as well.
3. START DOING NEW THINGSNow that you have freed up some of your capacity, fill in that newfound space by introducing new skills, activities, practices, rituals, and conversations to your game plan to accelerate a positive sense of self and accomplishment.

Now let’s focus on the personal work you need to do to advance your career. Answer the following contemplative questions that may take a bit longer to work through:

• Where am I getting in my own way?
• Where am I holding myself back?
• What limiting beliefs or negative storylines do I have about my own potential?
• What is my current identity?
• How do others experience me?
• What do others say about me?
• How much do people trust me?

The next activity is more involved, so take as much time as you need and feel free to complete the exercise over several days or longer to let your thoughts properly marinade. Whenever you are ready to tackle it, get comfortable, remove distractions, get into a creative mood, pour yourself some tea or coffee (or even a glass of wine) and write down responses to the following prompts that are intended to get you thinking of your authentic, higher self:

• What made me weird as a kid? What did I love to do? What did I obsess about?
• When have I been the happiest in my life? What was I doing? What was I thinking about? What was different at that time than now?
• What value do I offer that is a true, natural expression of myself? What is my superpower?
• What are my values? What is my operating ethos? What do I stand for?
• What would I really like my identity to be? How do I wish that others experience me? What do I wish others were saying about me?
• What would I love to learn to do?
• What would I do even if I weren’t being paid?
• What would I love to be paid to do even if it’s not considered “work”?

From here, things will ebb and flow like any creative brainstorming session. You will start to formulate new ideas and possibilities for your future. Allow yourself to discover them without judgement about whether they are “good” or “bad” ideas. Simply let the creativity flow and feel free to come up with possibilities that currently seem impossible. The HOW isn’t important. Dream without restriction because you never know where those ideas will lead.

Involve your community of support in your process. Talk to other people about what you are learning, imagining and discovering. Stick with it, follow your instincts, and create a truly powerful future for yourself. The world can’t wait to see what you come up with.