DylanIt’s been a lot over the last year as I’ve moved through this career transition from Project Manager to Coach. We can often focus intensely on the end goal and, as a result, overlook the small pieces of progress that happen along the way. As a project manager, I spent over 20 years sequencing the pieces to get a project from A to B. Although the pieces between A and B are important, it was really arriving at B that was expected, rewarded, and celebrated. I mistakenly took that same alignment of all the pieces, and waiting to celebrate the end, into this career transition.
Carrying that end-goal thinking into this transition has often caused me to question if I was moving forward, and to doubt my own abilities and effort in this transition. Sure, there are days I see progress and think “Wow! Look what I’ve accomplished.” But there are a lot more days where my thinking is closer to “The end goal seems so far away, am I wasting my time?” It is often through grounding conversations in my relationship as well as through my ongoing sessions with my own coach that I can regain the perspective that progress can be slow but even slow progress should be celebrated. And then I take a deep breath and eventually start the planning again (it’s a hard habit to break after 20+ years).
12 months ago, I did my first formal coaching course just to “try it on.” In the time since, I have done several more, had numerous clients and read several coaching books. That is progress, slow progress that is sometimes intangible but progress all the same. In the next month I will complete my formal CTI training and enter their 6-month certification program. I’m trying hard to appreciate the steps and not plan beyond the end of that.
Beyond the training there was another important piece to put together, the website. Having been in technology for a long time, that was the relatively easy part. I configured the technology, found a great photographer and a great copywriter and mashed all the pieces together. Because I’ve lived in tech, I under-appreciate this accomplishment, so today, as I write this, I’m looking back at the dozen baby steps it took me to get this site up and running and officially say that it is live!
I’m going to take a few minutes to savour this accomplishment and strive to keep reminding myself as I go forward that every journey starts with a first step. Although I have a lot of steps left to take, I have already taken a lot and I’m proud that my website is up and running. I’d love to know what you think and, if anything there sparks an interest, please drop me a note or book some time so we can talk.
