The key to ending overwhelm
Recently I was coaching with a client who was contemplating quitting her job after many exhausting and difficult years with the same toxic employer.
She knew she needed to leave – for all the reasons you’d expect:
To improve her mental, physical and emotional health
To create space for contemplation, planning and exploration
To get inspired and develop fresh ideas for a career pivot
To actually have the energy to redo her resume and start applying!
And yet, she felt so overwhelmed.
Not so much by the steps it would take to get her to her next job, but by the inner conflict she felt about leaving – specifically WHY she was choosing to leave.
Did resigning mean she was a quitter?
Did it make her a failure?
Did it mean she couldn’t handle it?
Although it would have been easy for me to dismiss these fears with an emphatic ‘NO!,’ I knew it wasn’t as simple as that.
As the saying goes, There are three sides to every story: Yours, Mine, and the Truth.
Our brains are meaning-making machines, and they love to tell stories. But assessing the difference between Story and Truth isn’t always as simple as it seems.
So I said to my client, ‘This is the current story you’re telling yourself about quitting – and it doesn’t seem to be helping you.’
‘Would you like to choose a different story?’
She said yes, so together we explored alternative stories she could tell herself about resigning:
This is the story of how I stood up for myself and said ‘no more!’ to toxic workplaces
This is the story of when I said goodbye to unfulfilling career path so I could say hello to a total career pivot
This is the story of choosing to align my work with my values and my authentic self
It might not surprise you, but I was particularly excited about #3!
That’s because pursuing our values – and aligning our lives to support them – NEVER steers us wrong.
Which means that when we’re feeling overwhelmed, reconnecting with our values is a surefire way to lead ourselves out of uncertainty and into clarity.
So, in celebration of my brave client and in support of anyone else who’s feeling overwhelmed this Summer, I’m excited to share with you my new free training:
Goodbye Overwhelm, Hello Clarity! Use Your Values to Chart Your Course
In this live training and companion workbook, you’ll get access to powerful tools, eye-opening questions, and quiet reflection time to consider what your values are and learn how to begin re-aligning your job and life to support them.
I really encourage you to set aside an hour, grab your favorite drink and a notebook, and join me in this live training session to learn more about how your values can help you get out of overwhelm and get back into clarity.
Whether you’re thinking about quitting, or simply want a values-refresher, I know this training can support you.
Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Onward,
PS: If you’re bored by the same old career problem but you’re not taking any action to improve it, I want to invite you to learn more about my Coaching Strategy Intensive.
It’s a four week program that’ll get you clear on the change you want to make, and quickly running experiments to make that change happen. Read more here and book a call with me to explore how this new program can support you to move out of boredom and into action this Summer.