Dream Career

I absolutely LOVE my job but it wasn’t an easy job getting here—it took me 36 years of learning, being, doing, hoping, having, not having, feeling and experiencing the highs and lows of real life and work. It is only now that I feel wise enough and knowledgeable enough to share this experiential learning.

When I Grow UP I want to be.

From the age of 5—15 years I went through different phases of wanting to be a Mum, Air Steward, Dancer, Model, Nun, Song Writer (I had a real desire to write the winning Eurovision song), Primary School Teacher, Nursery Nurse and a Secretary. So where did my early career ideas come from, maybe.........

Mum: watching my mum lovingly support and care for our family; wanting to be just like my mum and also being the proud owner of various dolls such as (in its day) the famous ’Tiny Tears’.

Air Steward: wanting a ‘glamorous’ lifestyle and the opportunity to travel all over the world, maybe even marry a pilot!! I also think the popular TV advert for Caledonian Airlines had a big influence....I remember wanting to be a ‘Caledonian Girl’.

Dancer: I was a massive fan of the TV programme ’Fame’ and loved dancing from an early age.

Model: watching Miss World on TV and aspiring to be like one of these beautiful woman. I wanted to wear that crown!!!

Nun: there was a real religious influence here from my childhood days, in particular at Primary School and I went through a really ’holy’ stage—that was until I discovered my like for boys!!

Song Writer: I used to lock myself in my bedroom for hours and make up songs, I would practice and practice them all day long and never got bored of it—this was a perfect escapism for me at such a young age. To this very day I still remember the songs and so do my closet friends. We often burst into these songs after a few wines!!

Primary School Teacher: I used to babysit for my next door neighbour when I was in my early teens—I loved watching their 3 kids, probably because I could be a ‘big kid’ myself. This inspired me to want to teach young children to learn and develop—I then found out that I would need to study for a further 5 years after Secondary School and this sadly (at the time) put me off.

Nursery Nurse: again my love for children and helping them to learn and have fun. My Guidance Teacher at Secondary School totally put me off the idea “that’s not the career for you he said, that’s not a good job”. How easily influenced I was as a teenager.

Secretary: well I figured I would go with the safe bet and be a secretary, after all I was good at typing, passed all my Secretarial Studies exams with flying colours and oh yes my mum did that when she left school and she told me fabulous stories about her career in this field. That was it at the age of 15 I aspired to be a secretary. Well there was nothing else, was there......???

My Career Path

So I finally had come to the idea that I would be a Secretary. So I went to typing College to learn how to touch type—this proved to be a very worthwhile skill to have during all my future jobs. What where they? Well, my career experience consists of:

Shop assistant, sales representative, hotel waitress, 20 years of various office type jobs from receptionist through to human resource management. A couple of these jobs which I liked and some others I have quite closely hated.

An Independent Decision

Then at the age of 34 I decided to think very carefully about my future career and where it was heading. Why then? Well lots of reasons I believe, but I think coming out of some personal turmoil combined with some major achievements made me a much stronger person with a ‘can do’ attitude.

This included personal triumphs and goals such as Graduating from University in 2005, running the New York marathon in 2007 and Graduating again from University in 2008. It was in 2006/7 when I seriously reflected on my future and felt much more equipped to correctly answer the question

So what do I really want to do when I grow up?

To answer this I thought about my core values, what job activities I particularly enjoyed doing, what are my strengths, what was I truly passionate about doing, what excites me, where did I want to see myself 5-20 years from now, how was I going to get there?

I had a real belief and confidence in myself and I knew I wanted to have the freedom to explore new territories, learn new things and meet new people. I knew that I wanted to help other people achieve their dreams, goals and aspirations in life, I wanted to coach and mentor people to do just that, I got excited about the thought of it and felt strongly passionate about it. I was truly ready for this and felt fully motivated and inspired to do so.

What did I do?

I researched into Coaching, went to New York and met other coaches, left my full-time job, studied for a further year and achieved a Diploma in Coaching, started up my own business at the end of 2008 and that’s where I am at the moment. I have BIG plans for the business and I know that I will only achieve this through hard work and commitment. To be honest, at times it feels like starting all over again—to what it was like over 20 years ago.

What have been the best parts of my job so far?

Most definitely supporting and empowering other people to achieve their dreams, goals and aspirations in life. Almost 90% of my work to date has been career/organisational goals related and with my Human Resource background and coaching and mentoring experience—it works very well and benefits my clients greatly.

Also being my own boss and having the freedom to use my creativity and innovation to lead the business into great things that will inspire others to achieve great things for themselves.

Personal Learning

I have learned so much over the last 17 months of my business and I feel very proud to say that I have video blogged my real time journey all along the way. My vision is that one day it will be professionally edited and shared with you at home in the format of a short film/documentary.

But.........what about being a Songwriter?

Hey, I can still do that, my career ain’t over yet, it is just at the beginning—the true beginning.