In my work with high-achieving women, many are in the frightening and exciting question “what now?” exacerbated by the pandemic.
The constant state of unknowns, employment situations that are not responsive to changing needs, new discoveries about what’s most important (and what’s not!) are all coming into the fore with greater clarity.
If you find yourself in that question, you are probably feeling tremendous dissatisfaction with how you’re living and working right now, OR you’re hearing a strong call toward something new you can already envision.
These two energies are equally useful: the angst and discomfort of needing to MOVE AWAY FROM, or the strong inclination to MOVE TOWARD something you can already see or taste.
I’ve written a lot about this: My own “what now?” was terrifying.
I had reached a satisfying conclusion of my global OD work with corporations after 25 years. I knew in my bones I was done with it.
But I had absolutely no idea what was up ahead or what I wanted.
When we have created a life around doing what we love – what we’ve been good at – it’s difficult (no matter how much we’re taught otherwise!) to separate our identity from what we’ve been doing and doing well.
The only way I could get to a renewed, reinvented place in my life was to go THROUGH the wilderness, even though I believed it might be the end of a life I loved and for which I felt proud.
My “going through” included interviewing 100 women.
You will have your own “going through.” It’s a basic principle of how we reach breakthrough changes in our lives: rather than avoiding, we walk forward using our courage, curiosity, and intuition to help us with every step.
And we’re smart enough to find guides to help us so we don’t feel alone.
So many women have navigated the wilderness of their work/lives with outcomes beyond what they expected: composing whole new ways of being, living, working.
We can compose what we want … and we usually know, somewhere deep inside, what some of the characteristic are.
If you’re not sure where to start:
1) Make a list of what you’re Done With. What you feel you’ve outgrown. What bores you, frustrates you, under-utilizes you.
2) With the room you’ve created by being honest about what you’re Done With, begin to capture and write down glimpses — even if they’re far off — of aspects of life you’d like to welcome. They’re already showing up in moments when you’re relaxed.
And needless to say, I’m here to listen for 30 minutes anytime you’d like to share what’s going on in your “what now?” question. I’ll help you find the next small step.