I haven’t talked about this for awhile, so it’s time for a refresh.\u00a0 Career Plan B is one of the most powerful concepts I’ve run across, yet one of the simplest.<\/p>\n
If you could no longer do your job tomorrow, what direction would you take?<\/strong><\/p>\n It doesn’t really matter why you can’t do that job anymore.\u00a0 And sure, life would be miserable for awhile.\u00a0 But remember, this is just a mental exercise, one which will help give you a better perspective.<\/p>\n So, again, what direction would you take?<\/strong><\/p>\n Perhaps you’d go back to school and build your education in a different area.\u00a0 Maybe you’d launch your own business, selling your expertise as consulting.\u00a0 Or you might partner up with someone you admire.<\/p>\n Maybe you wouldn’t work at all, and instead focus on your family and helping the community.<\/p>\n The world is wide open, which is why this can be such a great exercise.<\/p>\n When I work with clients, I often find much more energy around this alternate career path.\u00a0 Some of it stems from a bit of burnout in the current job, and the “grass is greener” effect of something new.\u00a0 But I also tend to find that clients have some deeper values at play, ones that they’d love to explore if they had the opportunity.\u00a0 I even have some exercises which help people figure out what these areas might be.<\/p>\n But we aren’t done yet.<\/p>\n The second half of this exercise is:\u00a0 Now that you have this information, what’s keeping you from exploring and preparing?<\/p>\n I’m not suggesting that you quit your job tomorrow.\u00a0 I’m saying that if you would want to go acquire some new knowledge and experience, there’s probably ways to do that before<\/em> you lose your job.\u00a0 Night school, internships, hobbies, exploration … use your imagination.<\/p>\n Some of you know my story.\u00a0 Back in 1997, I decided that I had some new directions I wanted to take my career.\u00a0 It was rather vague, but after working with a career counselor I was able to put some words to it.\u00a0 Ultimately, that ended up with my passion around coaching, and I started doing part-time work as a coach and facilitator off and on since 1999.\u00a0 When I got laid off in 2009, moving into business coaching full time was a logical choice, and it helped that I had ten years’ experience.<\/p>\n My Career Plan B turned into Career Plan A, and it’s what I’m doing today.\u00a0 It would have been much tougher if I had waited until 2009 to get started!<\/p>\n What alternatives would you love to explore?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"