Transforming Your Career

I was laid off from my job of 8 years in June of 2008. I had actually been looking forward to leaving that job for some time--as I had been stagnant for years and had already started in earnest to build a coaching practice.

Yet, the experience of being laid off was still unexpectedly disorienting. I realized that I had fallen into the trap of seeing my employer as the source of my financial well-being. We all tend to approach job-hunting, for example, from the perspective of a thirsty person with an empty cup--and seeking a job as if it were the stream that could supply us.

In reality, the opposite is true: that is, we are the stream, and the *employer* has the empty cup. Whether we work for ourselves or for someone else, it is essential to take ownership of what Money Coach Deborah Price calls our "hard assets:" namely, our skills, talents, passion, and personal qualities that provide benefits to others.

One of the very real challenges in recognizing the value of our own gifts is that--by definition--our *best* talents are the things that we do with the *least* effort! And it is this same ease--which reveals a talent--that inclines one to take that talent for granted.

As a career coach for 30 years, I always urge people to get help in their job search--whether the help comes from a professional or from a friend. And one reason that we need help is that we literally don't see what is "under our nose."

One of my favorite tools, accordingly, is the process of asking our friends and colleagues what *they* see as our most marketable skills; what kind of work they could imagine us doing; and what they see in us that we don't see in ourselves.

If you would like a free article--with *great* questions to elicit a powerful vision for your life and career--please write me at coach4goodchange@live.com. I believe we *all* need each other for support, and to create a better world--where each of us is valued for our *inner* treasures; not just what we produce in the marketplace. Let's begin together....