Two weeks into the new year, if your inbox and social media feeds are anything like mine, you’ve got about a thousand messages talking about setting goals, intentions, and developing plans to make your big dreams become a reality this year. Your 2020 vision is just one click away!
Perhaps your new year plans include a career pivot, uplevel, or change. Maybe you’ve even started implementing some new strategies and began taking action. You’ve started the year off working diligently towards your desired outcome.
How’s it feeling so far?
If your response is anything less than a “fan-freakin’-tastic," it might be a sign to pause. Because making big moves in our careers–and lives–requires more than just clear goals and a solid plan. It also needs life-giving energy to fuel the journey.
A little bit of joy may need to be in the mix.
When we’re laser-focused on the outcome, we disconnect from the moments along the way that give us affirmation, gently guide us in a new direction, and spark joy.
Charging forward through change with a racehorse mentality in order to avoid fear takes us even further away from the long-term fulfillment and success that we may be so desperately seeking. When all your eggs are in the just-get-me-through-it basket, you may find yourself incredibly disappointed when you reach your goal and it isn’t everything you’d hoped it would be.
You’ve made a bold decision by deciding not to settle and begin exploring a career shift. You've chosen to let your superpowers shine and allow yourself to tap into your potential. Now think about how you want to feel in the process and consider that joy can be a powerful navigator. Because while you are venturing into an unknown, it could also be AH-MAZING.
Joy allows you to discover pieces of you that may be just what you need in the next chapter of your career. Joy allows you to meet people that not only help you along your path but who may also become friends. And with joy guiding your open mind and heart, you may stumble upon new opportunities that you otherwise wouldn’t have noticed with your outcome-only blinders on.
Claim joy as the conduit.
Selfishly, I type this article as a reminder for myself as we begin anew. As an entrepreneur, I’m bombarded with messages on the daily (um….maybe hourly) that share promises of how I can become a wildly successful coach overnight if I only do X. The X is different, but everyone is offering THE way. What an incredible outcome, right? Except it doesn’t feel right. That’s not how I want to build my heart-centered business and it doesn’t bring me joy.
Making joy in my journey a priority has me starting 2020 intentionally, peacefully, and making space to create all my goals. Joy reminds me that there isn’t one right way and that this isn’t a race. Because even though I’ve read it a gazillion times it is, in fact, true: it isn’t just about the outcome, it’s about the journey.
If you’re looking for support and accountability in connecting to more joy in your career journey this year, let’s chat. Let’s make 2020 your year of great growth—and joy!