Who or What is Leading Your Career?

Most recently, there has been a shift. A shift in the way we think about and want to pursue our careers.

Some, like myself, might say that an awakening is taking place. This awakening is shining a light on our disconnect to what we do.

There has been a brokenness that many people are awakening to, illuminating the need for a deeper connection. It is causing people to seek answers and solutions that the logical world does not seem to have. It is the reason our consultations are filled with the broken tears of many, even those in the most senior positions in prestigious organizations - the disconnect is everywhere and a shift is taking place.

This brokenness, we know, is the deep desire to find purpose and fulfilment in what we do and how we show up to the world.

Many clients are surprised when we dig into the driving energies in their careers to show how the brokenness began. These energies have been misguiding their careers and have led them to a broken place. Let's take a look at what some of those driving energies are.

Parental Influences

Our parents' influence over our careers runs deep that many are not even aware of the influence it has. Many others have a difficult time parting ways with the control their parents have in their career decisions.

We chose careers based on what they wanted for us. What they defined as success. We made choices based on what their careers looked like when it did not align to our real interests.

The satisfaction in our careers came from our ability to satisfy their needs and desires for us. The satisfaction came from becoming them because we admired them so much.

None of these reasons were reasons for us.

Fear

The career path we took out of fear for not being able to provide. For the fear of being a failure or being seen a failure. For the fear of being judged for doing something we loved that looked different than the "norm". For the fear of uncertainly.

Students stay students because they fear the working world or they fear not being good enough.

Fear can be paralyzing and we loose our ability to see the bigger picture.

Logic

Many people are surprised to see logic as something that steers us off course.

We were educated in XYZ so our careers were in XYZ. Perhaps we spent a lifetime in one field of work, so our logic tells us the next career move will be in the same field. This makes sense. But what if our interests evolved, as they naturally do? We ignore that because it does not fit into how a perfect career should look.

Logic, however, does not allow space for our real interests to come to the surface before we make decisions about our careers.

Trauma

From layoffs to painful performance reviews, it can feel like our dreams and the value we had in ourselves has been thrown out the window when we are faced with traumatic experiences. We begin to make career decisions based the narrative we tell ourselves about this trauma.

I am reminded of a client who was told in multiple roles that she was poor leader and it led her to painfully believe this false truth. She was determined never to lead people and had written off leadership in her career. The real truth was that she loved to teach and lead others, but she was planted in the wrong environment.

Another client was told, out of jealously, she was too ugly to ever meet face-to-face with clients so she pursued roles for years that would kept her hidden. Since working with us, she is now in successfully in sales leadership because of her ability to build face-to-face relationships with others, shining her light and beauty in a powerful way.

Other People's Opinions

If we are unable to see our value for ourselves, we rely on others to tell us. We ask former colleagues, look at our performance reviews, depending on the opinions of others to define our value.

We put the definition of our values, our gifts, our talents in the hands of others. We wait for others to tell us instead of seeking to see it for ourselves.

So Then, Who or What Should Be Leading Our Careers?

Our Gifts and Talents

Knowing what makes us special is what we bring to the world. It is how we are meant to make an impact. For many of our clients, knowing their unique gifts and talents went well beyond what others told them. In fact, in many circumstances it was those very things they were led to believe was their weakness.

It is so important to begin opening yourself to your unique value. It is so important to see the golden thread that weaves through your life and your career that added value that perhaps no one saw.

For me personally, my unique ability to connect deeply with others and hold the emotions of those around me was the very thing the people closest to me put me down for. It was the very thing I spent my life trying to change and hide, when it was the very thing that would make the greatest impact in the world.

Our Inner-Knowing

When our lives are led with misaligned influences, we begin to lose our natural ability to tune into our inner-knowing. Our inner-knowing is our GPS system. It tells us the path to take, regardless of logic and any other external factors. No matter how many people stand before us and tells us how much we are going to fail, it is that inner-knowing that allows to continue to step forward onto that path with confidence.

The importance of tapping into our inner-knowing has become so crucial, we teach it as part of our career program, allowing our clients to tap into their own "knowing" before making decisions in their careers.

It is the inner-voice that keeps us going no matter the circumstance that comes before us.

It is the inner-voice that leads us to the success and fulfillment we have been seeking.

Our Higher Power

We do everything we can in the natural and the rest is up to our Higher Power. Our Higher Power has the ability to open divine doors, send divine connections and give us the faith we need to reach our destiny.

It means that we can trust that all the ups and downs are part of a divine path and purpose and that every lesson, every experience, every pain and every joy is used towards bringing us to what is meant for us. It means we can let go of the past and let go of the distractions it brings and focus our energy forward to what is in store for us.

When our careers are in the hands of the God, it means that we can move with confidence in the face of any fear.

Leading our clients to their purpose has become the leading force in what we do.

Uncovering blocks preventing you from connecting to who you are meant to be is part of the process that is needed to get there.

We hope this knowledge will help shift your career into the space you have been seeking.

We love you and wish you much fulfillment.

Christina Persaud

Founder, Visionary Ways

www.visionaryways.com