How I lost my joy …
I spent about 20 years in the computer software development world, the last 15 years at the same company. We made really cool graphics products that our clients used for television and video production. I loved the opportunities my job gave me – the chance to learn new things, the chance to work on exciting projects, the chance to travel, and the chance to develop my analysis and management skills. I didn’t mind starting at 6 in the morning and working until 8 or 9 at night. I worked with a great group of 15 people and I loved it.
As the company grew to more than 100 people, I took on more demanding roles and found my self managing several groups of people. I made it a point to get to know everyone, and I usually got assigned the problems that needed cooperation from multiple departments to solve. But as we grew, we had to become more “corporate” with standard policies and procedures that worked for the majority of situations. Unfortunately they more often became a barrier for the kind of problems I was trying to solve.
It got harder and harder to solve problems and make a difference in the lives of the customers and my co-workers. By the time I got to 15 years I was tired and burned out. My job was ruling my life and somehow I lost the things in my work that made me happy.
In 2005, my company got sold twice in the same year. The second buyer was a large international company and I knew we were going to go really “corporate”. So I handed in my resignation. It was hard to leave friends I had worked with for over 18 years, but it was time for a change.
My doubts were huge. What was I going do? How was I going to make a living? I knew two things – I had a bit of a financial cushion and I knew that I needed to decompress – but what the future was going to look like, I had no idea.
… and then found it again!
Football coach Lou Holtz said:
"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it."
I knew I had been blessed with lots of abilities, but my motivation was just about zero and I don’t even want to discuss my attitude.
For the first few months, I just wandered around. I took some classes and learned some new training and web development skills, I spend a lot of time volunteering with a charity that is near and dear to my heart, and I gradually began to focus in on how I really wanted to spend my life.
I fell into an opportunity when someone told me about a woman who wanted some help writing a grant proposal. This woman had several horses, a donkey, lots of dogs and rabbits, and a desire to use those animals in a way that helped people. She wasn’t really sure about whether she wanted to work with children or teens or seniors. She knew that many people find working with animals a healing experience, but she didn’t know how to create a business that would earn enough to sustain her farm.
We talked about various client groups she might serve, what services she could offer, and what kind of setting might work best. As we discussed the options, she was able to make a clear plan for what she wanted and identify the steps she needed to take to make her dreams a reality. I didn’t know about the Life First – Work Second formula then, and we might have come to the same conclusion much faster if I had known it, but it reinforced for me the value of helping people clarify their ideas and creating a plan to put those ideas into action.
In the end, I found a company who already operated the kind of service she really wanted to offer for teens. This company even trained new therapists. She connected with the company and is now completing her plans to go into business with a trained therapist who was looking for a facility.
I had no plans to become an Outside the Job Box Coach when I came across the certification program from Valerie Young at ChangingCourse.com, but I was helping people create action plans for making their ideas a reality, and in many cases this includes making a career change. I thought the certification might help me in my other work; I never thought it would replace it as a focus and an income stream.
When I first heard Valerie’s explanation of the Life First – Work Second approach I realized that this is truly what I believe:
“Figure out what you want you life to look like first, then come up with ways to generate income – hopefully that you enjoy – that will allow you to have as much of that life as possible.”
I wish I had known about this philosophy a long time ago, and that I had started making my plans about 6 years before I actually left the corporate world. I won’t say my job was terrible – I worked with great people and got to work on interesting projects – but I am not a big-company girl. As the company changed, and the difference between my ideal life and the realities of job grew bigger, I would have understood that I needed to find a way to make my life and my work fit together instead of trying so hard to make my life fit the job.
I applied the formula first to my own life, designing ways to pursue several of my interests and generate income. Right now I have three streams of income: providing marketing services to writers and coaches who want to use online media to attract clients and generate income, designing and selling information products, and coaching clients who want to change their course and find ways to earn income from their interests.
Like many people at the beginning of their business, I still am working to attract clients, but it is exciting and new and I have even learned to enjoy networking events because I can talk about ideas and options that I believe in. I’ve been told that the excitement I have comes through in my voice when I get into a discussion at these events
Multiple streams of income, and why they are important to me
Multiple streams of income was a new idea to me too. I don’t know very many people who set out to build multiple streams of income, but when I think about the idea, I realize it’s been around for a lot of years. One of my favorite people is my Uncle Jack, who is now almost 90. He didn’t set out to create multiple streams of income, but that is how he supported his family for many years.
He was lucky enough to live in rural Nova Scotia. He had a woodlot and cut and sold firewood. He rebuilt a 1910 shingle mill and made special order wood shingles for repairing houses and barns. At Christmas time he baled trees for shipment to the U.S. and then sold Christmas trees and homemade wreaths from his back yard. He ferried school busses from the factory in Ontario to their eventual destination and he drove cars from one dealer to another. At harvest he drove tractors for his friends with farms. None of those income streams were high tech and none of them brought him a huge amount of money, but they let him do the things he loved to do and support his family for many years.
One important thing to me about my new life is having time for my charity work. I’ve basically identified it as a “stream of income”, even though the payment is in joy rather than money. I allocate time to pursuing that stream, just like the other ones.
Working with me
I’ve built my coaching practice around a quote from Mark Twain:
"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear".
I believe that people need ideas, information and encouragement, and with those things, they can overcome their fears and find ways to make their work fit their life too. If they don’t feel they received those three items during their session, I offer a money back guarantee, no questions asked.
A job consultation with me includes some initial reading and pre-work, a 90-minute consultation call, and a 30-minute follow up call about 2 weeks after we talk. The follow-up conversation is driven by the client so that we can brainstorm some more about the ideas that really hit home for them. If clients want to have ongoing coaching as they take the first steps into designing their new life, I offer coaching services on an hourly basis.
During our meetings, I explain the basic concepts of the Life First – Work Second strategy. We discuss the themes and questions that came from your assignment and then we spend the bulk of the session focusing on your interests and brainstorming on ways you might be able to create income from those interests. During the session I mention specific resources I know that might be of use to you, including books, websites, and people you might want to interview.
After the session, I send you an email that includes a summary of the ideas we talked about, and lists all the references I mentioned and even some I might not have thought to mention. I also post an audio copy of our conversation on a web site for you to download, if you wish to do so.
Ready to talk?
Are you ready to start your move to a new kind of living where your life comes first and work comes second? Call 886-281-2368 today to set up an appointment or send me an email.
I’m looking forward to helping you start down the road.