I often have clients coming to me with a need to change careers. They come to a session asking me to please help them discover what it is they should be doing to feel fulfilled and have a purpose. They also often express a desire for their new job to provide them an opportunity for exponential growth, promotion, and financial freedom.
Though every client has a unique experience, often underlying this need to change careers are some common threads.
Common threads such as not “feeling worthy”, “respected”, or “proud of themselves” in their current job. The client, therefore, strategizes that switching to a new career and environment (external changes) will somehow bring them the (internal) fulfillment or validation they so desperately seek. However, so long as we are logged on to a limiting belief about ourselves, no matter how often we change our external world, we will still feel dissatisfied inside. It is only when we look inward, can a real shift take place.
When we have a ‘limiting belief’ (i.e. a false truth) about our self, we will reflect this belief out (unconsciously) into our work interactions.
For example, if one person’s root-cause for career dissatisfaction is due to “not feeling respected", it may seem her colleagues, boss, or even a client will “treat her” in a certain way. But in reality, her external world is simply holding a mirror to her. It is a mirror to her limiting beliefs about herself that she internalized as truth, from either a parent, a role model or through her environment. She will unconsciously be putting out enabling behaviors so that others fulfill this deeply subconscious belief she holds about herself inside.
Subconsciously this ‘mirror’ reflects something uncomfortable to look at (because it isn’t true!), and consciously she seeks to physically escape the environment where she feels the discomfort, not realizing the root of the discomfort is within herself. This escapism strategy will not bring real improvement and can be a vicious cycle. The mirror will simply follow her into the next new environment – no matter how much money, time, or training for the new vocation she invests. Until the root cause (i.e. limiting belief) is discovered and addressed, the mirror will continue to follow her.
We cannot escape our limiting beliefs. All of us have them.
The solution is to simply face that ‘man in the mirror’ who told us something ‘untrue about ourselves’.
A career change may very well still be a good idea. However, when we take the time and have the courage to look at what limiting beliefs are affecting us in our current role, we are more likely to not carry them forward. We break a cycle of disempowerment and choose a new career more aligned with who we truly are.
Jacquie is a coach with 15 years’ experience in career counseling and development, cross-cultural adaptation, and empowering people to achieve their goals.
Throughout her career, she has gained experience in a myriad of areas including Public Relations, Language Acquisition, Education (both Primary and Higher), Sustainability, International Relations, and Personal/Professional Development. In the past 3 years, she has been leading her own holistic-health and life-coaching practice in London (www.healingwiththelight.com). She is also a Board Member at Montana de Luz, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering youth and families in Honduras.
"I believe that we are all here, in this world, to make a difference. All our passions and desires are also there for a reason. When we’re listening to our hearts, we’re following our path with empowerment. In my coaching sessions, I focus on helping you find deep down inside what it is you really love and want in life, and help you unpack and remove the obstacles to achieving those dreams." - Jacquie
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