My "Coaching Session"

Well, I had my first "coaching" session with a career counsellor last night. I think it went fairly well. I suppose I was hoping for a little more to come out of it. This session was to get to know me better and she asked a lot of questions of where I've come from, my personal background, my educational background and what 'brought me there today'.

We talked about my family, my education and where I'm currently at in my 'career'. I told her, and re-iterated (about 100 times) that I didn't 'hate' my job, I just didn't love it. I don't mind what I do, and there are even some aspects of the job that I do rather enjoy. But as an overall picture, I'm not as happy as I would like to be.

She said that I have made a positive step forward, and going in the right direction. We're planning on having weekly sessions, for about 6 weeks to focus on me and my career goals. I've shown her every test I've done in the past, shown her the results and basically resigned to the fact that this process is indeed, a process.

So, my first few exercises is to go through and methodically detail what I've done so far. That would include my educational experiences, my hobbies, my past careers and career attempts and summarize everything into things I've enjoyed, things I've found 'so-so', and things I'd rather never do again. Using these experiences will start to help me piece together what I'd really like to do with my career and reach those goals.

She'll be emailing some documents outlining what she would like to see out me document and outline. The documents are basically exercises to help me think positively and help me to move forward, instead of keeping myself knocked down.

I'm looking forward to our next session already. I did feel better walking out of there. She basically said that sometimes we're so down on ourselves that we have a very hard time pulling back and looking at everything we've accomplished in our lives..and you know, she's right. Giving ourselves a break and looking at our lives is difficult; at least it is for me. I'm going to start giving myself a break and realizing that I'm starting to move forward. I'm not going to let some of the decisions that I've made in the past haunt me. I made them with the tools and information I had at the time.

It is now time to look forward and feel hopeful. I'm happy to say, that I am...and I do!