Managing Career Transitions in a Spiritual and Practical Way
I was recently interviewed by Cherise Greski for the Chicago Practical Spirituality Examiner. I wanted to share her article with you. Enjoy!
How can we be practical and spiritual in the current economic times? Many people are struggling financially and spiritually because they have a strong desire to do meaningful work but wonder about the practicality of that path and paying the mortgage.
Today, I’d like to introduce you to Linda Cassell, Executive Coach and founder of Quantum Leap Coaching, who uses a number of spiritual approaches to finding a career that makes your heart sing and also supports the practical aspects of living in the physical world.
Linda, How did you start in your coaching business? I spent the first 20 years of my career heading up non-profits and always used my leadership positions to coach. Often I would coach colleagues, board members and sometimes those I directly reported to. For several years, I conducted workshops for individuals who wanted to create their ideal work situation.
One day, while talking to my own coach, I asked about her about her practice. She talked about coaching as a business and then asked a powerful question: “Why aren’t you doing this? “
It was like a light bulb went off – that is the power of a coach – just having someone outside of yourself ask you a specific question in context to what you are talking about. And, in that asking, she gave me the impetus to pursue coaching and to do this wonderful work.
How long have you been coaching? Informally… all my career. But let me answer it this way… If my parents were still on this earth, they would tell you that I’ve been coaching since fourth grade! Formally, though, I’ve been an executive coach for the last four years.
How has your business evolved over that period of time? It has evolved as I have become more skilled as a coach. I went through the training at the Coaches Training Institute and the more training I had, the better I became at coaching. I started out as a ‘life’ coach, but my real passion was working with executives who wanted to improve their professional lives by combining customized personal development techniques with concrete business strategies.
As the economy has changed over the past two years, have you found that there have been different issues that your clients on work with you? That is a great question. Certainly, I am dealing with many people who fear they will be downsized or have been downsized. I find that the economy plays a role in most of my coaching relationships. It’s challenging to listen to mainstream media, whether employed or unemployed, day after day, to resist internalizing the doom and gloom economic predictions. I help people avoid “internalizing” the recession. We can’t deny that there is a recession and many people are suffering. But, you don’t have to “internalize” the recession. You don’t have to take on that energy. If you do, it will shrink your thinking and, consequently, it will adversely affect your ability to see new possibilities and to create new opportunities for yourself.
Of course, it is particularly challenging if you are currently unemployed. It’s natural to worry but worry is our enemy. You must stay focused on what you want, not what you fear. If you focus on the bright, new future you want to create, chances are that’s what you will get.
Have you developed any special tools/techniques to help your clients during these challenges? I am such a proponent that external changes are an internal process. My work always begins with - What is happening on the inside? What is really going on? What do we feel is really possible in this situation?
It is interesting because many times, especially in Corporate America, we move so fast. There is no time for introspection. Anywhere from 60-80% of the work I do has to do with what goes on inside of ourselves. Once we clarify that and combine it with concrete business strategies, that is when I really see the changes.
Who is your typical client? My typical client is usually an executive who has made the determination that s/he wants something better for their work life. There is something so purely beautiful when a person decides that I am NOT going to spend the rest of my life doing “HAVE TO” kind of work. They have decided that they want to do work that they love, work that is meaningful to them.
Money is important, it is necessary, but it can make us feel that we don’t have any choices in life. In other words, I have to stay in this job because it pays xxxx dollars and I need xxxxx dollars to take care of my family. So, no matter how miserable I am, I have to stay here. Many studies have shown that over 50% of the population is unhappy in their work. How sad is that? I just find it thrilling when someone decides that they are not going to take it anymore. I’m going to find a way to make a wonderful income with work that is meaningful. There may be steps I have to take to get there, but, absolutely, it is possible.
Many people plan for retirement. As I discovered last year with my husband’s death, retirement doesn’t always come. Can you speak to that? I have people who have been recently downsized. They hated, really hated their jobs but when they were downsized, it was traumatic. All of a sudden the job they hated, became the object of their desires! Why? It wasn’t the work they missed, it’s the income. And, that is understandable. Most people aren’t prepared, they don’t have the 6-9 months of savings they need to sustain themselves. They panic. The easiest thing to do is to focus on finding a position like the one they had – even though they really hated it.
I help them see that they can do something that they love that will bring in money. Once their belief system shifts, the whole world opens up to them. One of the things about being alive now is that there are so many more opportunities to do meaningful work that can sustain one financially. And, you are no longer penalized for looking.
If you are out of work, and you are experiencing money pressures, I encourage clients to look for or to create consulting opportunities. I call this, taking the edge off, get some money coming in the door. You can continue looking for a full-time staff position while you are generating an income. Alleviating the financial pressure while finding something that makes your heart sing is a key to being happy. When you take the requirement of making your dream (work) pay your mortgage, it allows you to free yourself to experiment.
That is where people get into trouble because they expect the dream to immediately pay the bills. And, when people do that, they don’t give themselves the opportunity to bring that joy into their lives.
How do you help people get out of that negative space? I like to help people develop a crystal clear vision of what they want. If failure and money were not an issue, what would you like to do? Asking that question opens them up to the possibilities. Then we capture that vision on an index card or post it note that they keep with them. That becomes the focus and the fuel to drive them towards their goal– especially when things begin to get rocky. Having a very positive vision is important.
Sounds like affirmations, positive mental attitude, the Law of Attraction (LOA). Are you familiar with those techniques? It is very interesting. When I made the transition from Life Coaching to Executive Coaching, I was very, very careful about my vocabulary because I made the assumption that Corporate America would not be interested in things like the Law of Attraction. I feared that clients might think I was some “new age”, way out in the clouds “counselor.” However, I found out that by filtering myself, I was actually limiting my effectiveness to be a powerful coach. I know these personal development techniques work. They have worked for me and they have worked for my clients. So, if I am not being authentic how am I really going to help someone else? How can I ask my clients to be true to themselves if I am not true to myself?
Yes, I absolutely talk about LOA and a variety of spiritual and personal development practices. I am a passionate student of the mind. I have studied the subconscious. I know how to replace limiting believes with positive ones that will get us where we want to go. I am very open about that now.
And, guess what… Corporate America is a lot smarter about these topics than I was giving them credit for. They are not running away!
When talking about the spiritual aspects or tools, is there a specific one or two that you have found most helpful? I would say that mastering the nuances of our minds is critical. Our minds and feelings are so very powerful. We have this wonderful thing called the subconscious. If you really want to learn how to use the subconscious as a tool for change, read The Power of Your Subconscious – by Dr. Joseph Murphy. When I found out how easy it was, if I change my thinking, I change how I feel. If I’m feeling positive, confident about what I want and not burdened by thoughts and worries, I will notice opportunities that might have been before me but I just didn’t see them. Suddenly the right people show up, I’m suddenly in the right place. It may seem like magic but it isn’t. Rather, it’s that we are functioning at a level that gets us what we want. It’s the whole like attracts like idea.
You sound so positive, did you ever face any challenges in your career? I was unemployed several years ago and my greatest challenge was in learning to appreciate my former employer. Once I was able to do that and let go of the residual anger, within 30 days, I got, what was for me at that time, my dream job making $10,000 more than my previous position. I will NEVER forget that. It was such a powerful lesson for me.
So, now, regardless of what my client’s employment situation is, I stress appreciation. Some people will object. They will say, “you are asking me to appreciate the guy who just fired me?”. My response is that as long as you are focused on the anger you feel, you are not going to have any psychic energy to get what you want, which means your attention is on the past and not on creating a bright, new, wonderful future. There is always at least ONE thing you can appreciate about the guy who fired you or the person who did whatever it was that has caused you pain. That doesn’t mean that bad things don’t happen, it just means that at some point, we have to choose to let it go. We don’t want to hang out in that negative space. We work through that and that is when the real magic starts.
It is fascinating that you use the word appreciation. It appears that you work with your clients in learning to appreciate what they have so they can move forward. Yes, I’ve written about my experiences with appreciation. Readers can go to my website and receive the free report about how I used appreciation to increase my income by $10,000 but that wasn’t the real gift. The real gift is what happened to me internally as I went through this experience – letting go of the resentment and the anger. Realizing what a powerful place it is to create from a place of appreciation and that I have to take responsibility for everything that happens ‘to’ me— the great things that happen and the not so great things that happen. I can’t necessarily blame my boss for what happens, for example. I have to look at the role that I played as well. I find that very empowering. I can create great things and I can create not so great things. So, why not use the tools and techniques that I know will create great things in my life?
Of course, I appreciate Linda for sharing her time in this interview. So, readers, if you are ready to really embrace a career that makes your heart sing AND pays the mortgage, Linda has the following special offer:
For the first five readers who contact Linda and mention this article, you have the terrific opportunity to receive a free “jump start your career” coaching session. This is an extremely valuable offer – especially if you long to move into work that is joyful and fun. Yes, even in *this* economy, you can create the ideal work you want. I know Linda can help you discover work that will make your soul sing.
You can listen to the interview: Click Here
