First things first--my deepest apologies to everyone (and I use that term loosely) for going AWOL. I was not truly missing nor did I abandon my coaching. Quite the opposite actually—I was so lucky to have found something I love to do that I just became overwhelmingly busy actually doing it. Between clients, workshops and being hired as a full-time consultant for a non-profit, I've been left with little time to write (another thing I love to do).
Though it's not quite resolution time yet (what with Turkey Day, Chrisnukahwanza and a surplus of sappy holiday commercials left before New Year's Eve), I am putting it out there in cyberspace that I resolve to keep up with my blogging/personal writing more in the future. It's that important to me and I recognize the void I feel since I've not had time to write. Someone please hold me to this, okay? Someone? Anyone?
Now that I've taken care of explaining my absence and promise it won't happen again, I do want to discuss the importance of goal-setting and the ways to handle getting there. First off, let me share a little something personal (and this does relate): Tuesday was a big day for me. On Tuesday, little ol' me walked into a hotel in midtown Atlanta and had the pleasure of presenting a series of employment workshops as part of a larger city-wide initiative. I was actually quite flattered they asked me to present and shocked when they asked what I charge for such things. Charge? As in, they were going to pay me to get up in front of people and talk about something I already know a lot about?
Clearly, I am new at this. However, I think that's what made me so happy about the whole situation. People are paid to speak all the time, but I imagine those people to be, you know, adults. And experts (of which it takes ten years or 10,000 hours to be one—in any field). After they asked me my rate, I blurted out a ridiculous number and they actually agreed to it, I picked myself up off the floor (luckily, this was over the phone), thanked the government official and sat down to think this over: Am I an expert in what I do? Clearly, I've not been doing this for ten years but I have worked in the field for a significant period of time (and picked up a large percentage of those hours while working 80 hour weeks at Lehman Brothers). While I've probably not hit the "expert" mark yet, I was thrilled that someone recognized my passion for career coaching. What's more, I was shocked to know that I was asked to speak just a little over a year since formalizing my company. I feel very flattered and appreciative for this to have occurred.
You may be wondering, ""Emily, this is great but you said this was about goals--did you forget about that?" No, and I'm getting there. Though I likely didn't say it much last year, a goal of mine was to get speaking gigs. Originally, I wanted to network with different organizations and coerce them into letting me speak (typically unpaid since I figured I'd sign up clients and just charge them). I did have a few speaking gigs last year but nothing significant until I started working at The Sullivan Center. I didn't foresee a full-time consulting gig for ReFresh Your Step but signed on once I recognized how doing so would help me grow my company.
Do me a favor--please re-read the last sentence, as it serves to illustrate this point: Goals are a great point on your career map but, as with Mapquest/Google map routes, there's never just one way to get there. Though I didn't fully realize it at the time, signing on to work at The Sullivan Center may not have been an original part of my plan but it did help me to grow—and create additional opportunities for—my business. Rather than taking a direct path to my goal of "having more paid clients and speaking more," I decided to jump off the paved road and meander through the countryside (just a little visualization for you). I got to where I wanted to be and likely saved time avoiding the traffic jam caused by a million other career coaches aiming to get the same speaking gigs.
Shall I be concise at this point? Set your goals, but be flexible in how you get to them. While you may have one set idea of the "best" way to reach said goals, allow that to be your guiding light while you keep your eyes out for alternative paths. They may not always pop up, but knowing that you CAN be flexible may very well help you to recognize those "other" ways when they do appear. You may end up having to take a leap of faith but perhaps that leap is exactly what you need to get to where you want to be.
At this juncture, I have a whole slew of topics for upcoming posts so I hope you continue to check in regularly--they'll be up! Until then, happy goal-setting!
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What goals do you have right now? What is your "optimal" way of getting there? Alternatively, what others ways could you reach the goals? Perhaps thinking about the answers to these questions will assist you in figuring out next steps for the future!
