The Career Life Coaching Newsletter

Today I seem to be compelled to write about something simple but also profound O. Simple isn't it - just a circle. Webster's Dictionary has several definitions, circles can be exclusive or inclusive, as in "a group of persons with a common interest" circles can be "a plane figure with a bounding edge (circumference) all points on which are equidistant from a fixed point". To come full circle is "to return to the point of departure by a circuitous path." To "run around in circles" is to achieve nothing because one is in a dither." (I like that last one, don't we all get into dithers from time to time?)

Let's play with the circle concept. Today I took my car over to Sam's Club to get my tires rotated (yep, circular imagery). While I am walking around the warehouse waiting for my car to be ready I ran into an acquaintance I hadn't seen in some time. Mini is about my age, about my height and has an engaging smile. When we last saw one another (about two years ago), we spoke of our goals and aspirations to obtain a satisfying work and life balance. Over lunch we discussed our families and the impact parents have had on our career paths.

Mini's family had an Italian restaurant in Madison for over 30 years until her parents retired and moved to Arizona. When her parents passed away, she inherited her father's recipe for making perhaps the finest martini olives in the world. (Olives-another thing that is circular, imagine that.) As we chatted over lunch, she explained that she'd been giving her personally packed jars of olives as presents to people and was wondering if she should try to sell them in stores.

I was practicing my coaching skills (having 6 months of teleclasses and two coaching seminars under my belt) and encouraged her to explore that idea. Did the concept of starting a business appeal to her or was she more comfortable being someone else's employee? At the time she was working as a marketing assistant in an office and just wasn't finding it particularly fulfilling. What did she really want to do? (I am thinking she has Dad's famous recipe and the ability to create the perfect martini olive at a time when martinis have suddenly re-emerged as the new hot cocktail.. well DUH. Go for it!) We swapped e-mails and wished one another success.

Fast forward two years-- here she is in Sam's Club leisurely perusing the wares in the middle of the day knowing that her olives are on shelves in stores all over. I like to think that the lunch discussion we had back in 2002 helped her grow beyond possibility to probability. By envisioning those olives perfectly packaged with her personal logo, on store shelves, in elegant displays, helped bring it into reality. You see just taking a first step in your imagination can propel you forward. I think that once you conceive it and believe it, then you can achieve it.

Do you have ideas floating about, things you want to accomplish, inklings of a potential future for yourself? Is there a yearning within to create? Let yourself daydream and play with your passions. You never know what small piece of a bigger picture you may discover and bring into being.

For me, writing this tonight finally happened because just too many circle symbols showed up today for me to ignore. En route to my desk for a quick check of my e-mail before bed I noticed that the file cabinet in the corner (full of family records and old stuff we still might want to look at again) had a drawer open. I tried to close it but it wouldn't latch. So I started taking files out of it to see where the problem was and lo and behold came across my first published endeavor, the "Basic Employment Skills Training" booklet I wrote 20 years ago targeted to teens participating in a school to work program. Was I laying groundwork for my future life back then in 1984? I'm thinking so. As I flipped through the book, a cartoon character in a rugby shirt Jake the Job Hunter goes through the steps to find a job. First step: Decide what kind of a job you are going to look for. Second Step: Find out where the job openings are, Third Step: Make Application and so forth.

Here I am, two decades later and Jake the Job Hunter is still in my life in the form of my wonderful clients, and perhaps some of you reading this newsletter. What goes around comes around. It's all a circle just like the earth, the sun, and the moon…