October 23, 2024 - JOLT - Are you moving at the speed of pain? - CareerGuy.com

October 23, 2024 – JOLT – Are you moving at the speed of pain?

By Darrell Gurney | Blog

Oct 23
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is a megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

– C.S. Lewis 

If Pain Pushes Until Vision Pulls, Is It Time to Vision Up?

I recently heard someone say “I move at the speed of pain.”

It’s a sad but true comment on how, as humans, we tend to only move forward when we can absolutely no longer remain where we are:

  • Our spouse or partner says, after many signs, that the gig is up and it’s over.
  • The doctor’s diagnosis is that, if we continue doing what we’re doing (or not doing what we’re not doing), our health and life ahead is questionable.
  • We go into work one morning and are shuffled unexpectedly into a room with our senior executive manager and the company’s chief people officer to be let go.

Over the years when I would participate in such massive corporate layoffs — as the helpful career guide waiting in a separate room to meet them after that layoff — I’d be amazed at how much folks had been paralyzed in pain.

Upon offering tissues to those noticeable caught off guard and upset at the news, I’d ask “So, did you ever consider that there may be a future for you outside of [X company]?”

Many would reply, while wiping away tears or blowing their nose, “Oh sure. I’ve been wanting to get out of here for years!”

Yet, here they sat, completely at the effect of their career movement rather than in charge of and causing it. A victim to the capricious and impersonal nature of corporate entities looking out for their own welfare.

Why aren’t professionals constantly looking out for their own welfare?

Because they don’t treat themselves like a business. They have an employee mindset vs a business owner mindset.

If you weren’t aware, let me break it to you gently, before you may one day learn it the hard way:

You OWN your own business. You always have. You simply lease out your employable assets.

And one thing any business owner must always do is constantly be on the lookout for the highest ROI while directing their resources in those directions.

What is a higher ROI? Of course, more compensation or benefits is often the case, but there are many other factors, depending on the person:

  • Better work culture or management vision
  • Work hours, location, and hybrid/virtual options
  • A role more aligned with one’s passions
  • Opportunities to expand in influence and/or responsibilities
  • Opportunities to move back into former responsibilities one now misses

So, your AI (Aspiration Intelligence) enhanced challenge between now and New Years Eve, should you choose to accept it, is to take all of the factors mentioned above and create a VISION around them now!

Spend 15min per day simply sitting in quiet rumination of those ideas and, when your attention is more focused on your VISION vs your accepted and seemingly bearable pain, you’ll find yourself taking actions you would have never imagined.

One might be to talk with a career coach.

Think differently, play better.

Radically,

Darrell

CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

P.S. Want to explore how pain can be pointed toward a passionate and purposeful career? Attend the upcoming CareerGuy Passion & Purpose Breakout!

Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be [do and have].

– James Allen

About the Author

DARRELL W. GURNEY, Executive/ Career Coach and 20-year recruiting veteran, supports people at all levels to make fulfilling and profitable career transitions. His first book, Headhunters Revealed! Career Secrets for Choosing and Using Professional Recruiters, was winner of the Clarion Award for Best Book by the Association for Women in Communications and was reviewed in Publishers Weekly. His newest book, Never Apply for a Job Again: Break the Rules, Cut the Line, Beat the Rest, has been endorsed by bestselling thought leaders such as Harvey Mackay, Keith Ferrazzi, and Dr. Ivan Misner. A personal and business brand strategist, Darrell’s Stealth Method of networking has helped folks expand their reach within both careers and new client circles. He speaks, leads workshops, and is a media expert on subjects such as recruiting, networking, and finding one’s passion. He was recently named Networking Expert for BeyondB-School.com and offers webinars and programs that get MBA students and working professionals out, connected, and landed.

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