I’ve made a commitment to myself to find a job in a way that is itself lifechanging. Yesterday my coach introduced me to co-active coaching’s version of SMART goals. It’s like corporate SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely – don’t those words sound so efficient?) goals, but not soul-killing. Co-active SMARTs are specific, measurable, accountable, resonant and thrilling. Thrilling over timely! Resonant over realistic! I love it.
So. I’m also developing a guidebook for looking for a job with an open heart. Which means what? A map, I think.
Part 1 is this: decide what you want to do (in a way that is resonant and thrilling more than anything else).
Coaching is fantastically effective at helping to visualize this. Talk to your heart. Ask it. What is wonderful and shiny and good about you? How would you express that through work? What does an amazing work day look and feel like?
Be a kid about this. Remember when you were 5, or 10, or 18… or last week. A time when you dreamed big.
Do not, under any circumstances, take a skills assessment, sorting test, blah blah blah. It will be tempting, but don’t even think “how?” yet. Imagine and be thrilled. [Hey, self? This would be a totally rocking place to refer to all that "how to see possibilities" stuff in the book. Genius.] You’ll figure out how, find the union of practical and wow, in a bit. Get excited first. It’ll help your heart (or intuition, or gut, whatever you want to call your deeply feeling bits) talk to you.
I want to make the world more metaphorically sunlit by helping teams figure out how to build stuff together. And I want to do it in a place where people are excited about moving obstacles. I am superexcited about the idea of working at innovative tech companies. I actually like corporations even – I just want them to be places that think and move fast, fun and human.
There’s part 1, then.