“Dream jobs are more often created than found, so they are rarely attainable through conventional searches. Creating one requires strong self knowledge.”

Tim Clarke & Alexander Osterwalder

‘Business Model You’

I knew the ‘why’ and I had an idea of the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ but it was still fuzzy and it involved me stepping up to the barriers. In reality, I was doing the work already, with the team I’m fortunate every day to work with, but I hadn’t yet moved to the job; not formally. I really wasn’t sure if I could.

Where I work, we’re fortunate to have a staff mentoring scheme. Naturally I’d avoided it for a long time. The faith to take leap like that had eluded me, but sometimes what you don’t want to do is exactly what you should do.

‘I think I might need someone with an entrepreneurial mindset…someone who can push me to step out of my comfort zone; not allow me to wriggle, and avoid the difficult questions.’  

Jean recognised where I was.  I needed a coach not a mentor. She knew exactly who could help; if he was willing.

‘So I’m reflecting back what you just said; you’ve worked hard for two years to carve out a role doing something you really care about, and now it’s going to happen, you don’t think you can do it?’

Ouch …face right up against the barrier.

And out it flood; Rivers of self doubt, the fear of failure, the imposter syndrome, someone else would probably do it better, what did I know about this stuff? I didn’t have the knowledge, the ability, the courage, maybe I didn’t have enough experience, the right experience…a vision but zero confidence to make it happen.

‘It seems to me from what you’ve said that you don’t accept who you are.’

Bulls eye.

The irony of it; someone who had decided they wanted to help others to get out there and find themselves and their path, didn’t accept who she was. In a double irony I’d signed up for an on line group called ‘The Be Yourself Community’; An international group of entrepreneurs sharing ideas on authenticity in business and in life. How could I possibly be myself when I didn’t even even accept yourself? That’s a pretty fundamental barrier. Could I break through, or would I?

The prescription was fairly simple. Stop thinking and start doing. Small steps to grow capability; capacity, confidence. Decision, action. With action came learning and new insights. Kaizen.

I chose curiosity over fear to break through that barrier. I did wake up one day and say

‘I’m OK. I’m just me and I’m learning to do what I was meant to do.’

Thanks Coach. You know who you are.

A design challenge: How might we scale coaching in learning to remove barriers,  create breakthroughs and more impact through people?

Explore ‘Business Model You’ here.