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The Time Between Dreams: How to Navigate Uncertainty in Your Life And Work.

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The Time Between Dreams: How to Navigate Uncertainty in Your Life And Work. by Carol Vechio

Navigate Uncertainty

I read this book after hearing Carol Vechio present an all-day workshop for Maine Career Development Association on how to navigate uncertainty using her model of transitions.

The metaphor of looking at our ability to navigate uncertainty using the four seasons is interesting. We really do have stages in our career development that feel like “winter”… a bit lost and uncertain about the future, all the way through “summer” when things really seem to be going well.

I enjoyed the view of the four seasons as they translated to the career development process but mostly found value in the exercises at the end of the book. This is a “thinker” book and helps people reframe their situation and why they feel it is so hard to navigate uncertainty in their career transitions. But most importantly that what they are going through is normal.

If you are having to navigate uncertainty in your career transitions, this is a good book for you.

Respecting all Career Pathways

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There are many career pathways to success.

career pathways

Our job as career coaches and practitioners is to help our students and clients discover a career by exploring career pathways that match their strengths and interests. Then to explore all the career pathways on how to get there, whether it is an apprenticeship, bachelors degree, trade school, or certificate.

All too often, I hear people say they will go to college and figure it out there. That is a very expensive and time-consuming way to do career exploration. I do get the sense that the “college for all” mentality is slowing down, but we still have a long way to go. The message that everyone should go to college to be successful has hurt our economy a couple different ways.

  1. Many people attended college who should not have been there and incurred lots of debt that will need to be paid back.
  2. Those same people could have been working during that time and making money.
  3. Many of those people would have been happier in trades and technical positions which are in need of people.

One problem, in my opinion, is that we have too many colleges in our country fighting over the same 18-year-olds. The college’s motivation is to fill seats at their college, not to help these people discover their best career pathways. We have begun to see higher education institutions closing down and I think we will see more.

[Read more…] about Respecting all Career Pathways

INTERVIEW: Do you work with people who get 
“stuck” in career transitions?

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Do you struggle with how to help people who get “stuck” in career transitions?

Do you work with clients who seemed to be blocked in their career development?

career transition
Dr. Nancy Schlossberg and I at NCDA Conference 2017

Listen to this interview with Dr. Nancy Schlossberg who developed the career transitions theory and has written a number of books on this topic. Two of her most recent ones that I have read are: Retire Smart: Retire Happy and her newest one titled Too Young to be Old. (Read my review here)

In this interview, I asked Nancy what motivated her to develop this theory as well as a few other questions. It was a delightful interview of about 20 minutes with an even more delightful 40 minutes before and after that I enjoyed.

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“stuck” in career transitions?

Leonardo Da Vinci. By Walter Isaacson

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leonardo-da-vinci

I knew Leonardo Da Vinci was a great painter and a brilliant inventor, but I really had no idea of how curious and brilliant he was until I read this book. Walter Isaacson does a great job of taking you through Leonardo’s life and gives an insight into this amazing man who was curious beyond belief and possibly a little ADD or ADHD.  He never finished a book. He often did not finish paintings. He carried the Mona Lisa around with him for 13 years…adding a touch here…a brush stroke there until his death. His list of unfinished paintings and projects is extensive.

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Why Is A Career Transition So Difficult?

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Whether you planned for the career transition or it was

 unplanned…it is still often difficult.

career transition

While an unplanned career transition may be more challenging, any change involves adjustment. Most of us live as if our lives will stay the same every day. I was listening to the podcast ‘Hidden Brain’ where people were asked to look ahead 10 years. How much change do they expect to happen? Then people were asked to look back 10 years at how much change had actually happened. There was a huge disconnect! People looking forward predicted there would be little. People looking back saw quite a bit.  

How do we prepare those we work with for the inevitable change that will occur in their lives and a career transition?

Our goal as career coaches and practitioners is to help our clients understand that change is inevitable and there is a process that people will go through. Sometimes starting with anger or confusion and eventually on to making a plan. As William Bridges says, you have to begin with the end (put closure to what you were), then move to the neutral zone (often confusing and uncomfortable) and then to the beginning (starting that new job). Our job is to help them through this process and help them make that plan.

There are three deer that walk behind my house every night, around the neighbor’s house, and over to a small grove of apple trees. Every night. We are also creatures of habit and that consistency is what makes us comfortable on a daily basis. When we change jobs that career transition shifts our lives. Our roles, routines, relationships all are shifted.

When I left the community college six years ago to go full-time with Peak-Careers, I was in charge of that career transition. I choose to leave. But I was surprised at how much my day changed and the adjustment I went through!

  • My role was different, I was no longer the director of the Advising & Career Center.
  • My relationships changed. I no longer chatted with fellow employees at the copy machine  I worked solo now. Much less collaboration or team projects.
  • My routines changed. My commute was from the kitchen to my office.

So what can we do to help our clients / students with their career transition? Whether it is from college to work or from one job to another?

  1. Help them create new routines. If they are currently out of work, get them to “create a work day”. Get up at the same time they did for work. Set goals to accomplish daily.
  2. Get them to talk about a past career transition (or any other transition) that they “survived” and maybe even improved on. How did they navigate that transition? What supports did they have? What strategies did they engage in?
  3.  Try to normalize the change by seeking support from others, practicing healthy mindfulness or exercise, to calm themselves.
  4. Help them create goals to move on.

They will get through this career transition. It may not happen in a week. It may take several months even. But help them see the career transition for what it is, something they are going through and will get through.

How do you help your clients through their career transition?

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Explore this topic with other career service providers and practitioners further…

– – >  Check out my 5 – week, discussion-based, online seminar approved for 15 hours of continuing education by CCE.   Transitions Seminar

Read more of my blogs on transitions and my interview with Dr. Nancy Schlossberg

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a monthly newsletter for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

Sign up here to receive my  TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON.  You can also receive the career practitioners newsletter which includes a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. 

Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life. By Gregg Levoy

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Wow. This is a very thought-provoking book about the various aspects of finding your passion in the world.

Callings

From paying attention to the voice in our heads, to having the courage to act upon that voice, and the journey that it often takes to get there. Gregg is a bright guy that has so much to say about this topic and how hard it was for him to find his passion that ultimately led to his life writing this book, doing passion retreats, and speaking around the world. As I try to summarize this book I am skimming the 100’s of sentences and paragraphs that I have highlighted looking for nuggets to share here.

If you have read my blogs you’ll see how serendipity and trusting hunches is important to me and in Callings, he devotes a chapter to synchronicity, another way to create luck in your search for your new career path. Synchronicity is a coincidence…a meaningful coincidence that can inform us, primarily through intuition. A few times Gregg was on one of his journey’s looking for a change in work (to find that passion), he would find a Queen of Hearts playing card. One of his friends said it was telling him he was on the right path. I love those stories.

This book is a journey and one that I encourage you to take if you find yourself searching for something better. My book is filled with highlights and notes and my morning journal has even more thoughts from this book scattered throughout.