Time to make difficult choices
At one time or another, many of us are faced with difficult choices when it comes to our professional careers. Whether it’s the choice to sacrifice more time for family and friends for a rare professional opportunity, or the choice to take the risk of a posting abroad for a job you’ve been dreaming of, whether it’s the choice of a professional reorientation or a change of direction in response to great professional dissatisfaction, all of these can be heartbreaking, and these difficult choices can pollute your mind for some time…
So what can you do?
First of all, accept that you’re at an impasse and accept that the situation is troubling you, because that’s normal: your mind is torn and constantly looking for a solution it can’t find.
Then, take some time to think about it without being disturbed: for example, by going for a walk in nature or sharing a coffee/tea with a kind and silent friend, who you know won’t frighten you by sharing all their fears at the mention of what’s bothering you…
Alternatively… another solution is to be accompanied by a professional coach… who acts like a lighthouse to guide you through the stormy waters of uncertainty. By offering a safe, non-judgmental space, the coach helps to clarify your needs, while taking care of your personal values.
We are balancing acts…
Balancing personal and professional life is a major challenge for most people. Few of us periodically sort through our many demands and obligations in order to achieve a balance that’s good for us. More are those who obey the ‘must haves’ and run around all week, weekends included.
When the balance is no longer found, many people courageously continue to impose the same difficulties on themselves, with various consequences such as irritation, impatience, withdrawal… For some, this imbalance will continue until exhaustion sets in.
It is possible to find the right balance for you. As everyone is different, the identification and choice of pathways will be very different from one coachee to the next. In conclusion, I wish you the “right” balance.
In 2021, “extend your roots to continue to spread your wings… »
2020 has been, in many ways, a challenging year for all of us. And since we do not know for sure when we will be delivered from Covid-19 and its multiple dramatic consequences, I advise you to “prolong your roots, to continue to spread your wings”.
To prolong your roots is, like the tree, to draw from you new resources to consolidate those you already use, naturally, in order to keep you afloat “mentally”, in the current limiting circumstances.
Spreading your wings is referring to the pleasant sensation that invades you when you have the opportunity to “blossom” a little more.
For some, the resources will come from the implementation of healthy and new routines such as taking a real break several times a day. For the others, it will be a question of reconnecting with nature by going for a walk at the hours when it is still daylight. To each his needs, to each his solutions. The small regular rituals that you will set up will allow you to take care of yourself. By taking care of yourself, you will give yourself some oxygen and time to think about what you would dream of accomplishing and that would nourish your intrinsic motivation. There is no need for large, complicated programs. Small resolutions well chosen and sprinkled each day are enough to allow the deployment of your wings, like those of the butterfly when it comes out of its chrysalis.
Moving away from the pressure
In my coaching practice, I often welcome people who tell me about the pressure they are under. These are pressures that can come from the professional setting, the private setting, or a combination of both. When they consult me, these people are suffering from this overflow and do not know what to do to get away from it.
It is not always necessary to flee the situation by changing jobs to get out of the vicious circle. It is often possible to stay in the same position, the same company by starting a professional support to gradually implement sustainable solutions.
Getting away from these weights, avoiding burnout, making new choices, regaining control of your life, regaining energy, serenity, satisfaction in your personal and professional life are healthy goals with which you can approach a professional coach, when nothing is going well and you no longer know what to do.
Here are some ways to slowly start to get away from stress, while waiting to start your coaching journey: go for a walk in the middle of nature, away from the noises of the city, pick up beautiful leaves, bread apples, a twig found on the way or shells. Breathe. Enjoy this moment that you give yourself. A moment you have chosen, for yourself, to start getting away from the pressure.
Is it possible to change direction?
“Mrs. Joubert, it’s been more than 15 years (20 years, 30 years…) that I am in this profession, this role or this sector and I realize that I no longer thrive there at all. That has to change, but I have no idea what else I could do. A change of orientation at my age, is it possible?”
Midlife crisis, midlife crisis or simple observation? It is true that this question of change of orientation is asked more often by people aged 40 to 50. They realize that they do not have enough motivation to pursue for another 15 years or more what they have done since leaving their studies.
This theme is recurrent. In 6 to 9 sessions,my coachees obtain very good results that can go as far as radical changes of the 180 degree type (repositioning in a different profession, role and sector).
Each personality and each need being unique, I do not use the same approaches, the same tools, the same techniques. I adapt to germinate the best repositioning for everyone: the one that makes “sense”.
Help, I don’t like my job anymore!
This little sentence is often slipped to me during our first interview. No longer having the motivation to go to work when you get up in the morning, thinking anxiously about your Monday day from Sunday afternoon, losing the “sense” of your usefulness at work, having recurring conflicts with your supervisor, colleagues or team or being often dissatisfied with your own achievements… these are observations that are important and courageous to make.
These honest observations about yourself and the situation you are going through, the observation of “on the spot” or “helplessness” to find an emergency exit are often very good times to approach a professional coach. From one or two interviews, the coachee will define his own coaching objectives. In accompanying you, I would not dictate solutions to you, nor would I guide them. I would facilitate the emergence of the best solutions that you would not have had access to alone.
A coaching journey leads to a new reality, which translates into recognizable signs: ruminations disappear, the energy level rises, smiles are more frequent, the coachee re-whistles in the morning before starting his day.
The jobs of my coachees
I coach all professionals (from 17 to 67 years old) who are experiencing difficulties in the context of their employment.
Their professions, their roles and the sectors in which they work are very varied:
Managers, department directors, managing directors, project managers, team leaders, business owners, doctors, lawyers, European civil servants, museum directors, human resources directors, professional sportspeople, pharmacists, retirement home directors, teachers, policy officers, cyber security officers, (digital) marketing managers, digital campaign managers, biologists, social workers, sales managers, office workers, students etc….