The Mid-Life Challenge: Make a Plan to Re-ignite Vocational Passion

Nobody will stop you in the hallway at work to ask if your career provides meaning and personal fulfillment. Recognizing that something's missing in your vocational life and taking the initiative to change must come from within.

Serena Williamson found a way to turn her passion - helping writers hone their skills in order to get published - into the catalyst for a new, more fulfilling life. Serena now runs her own small publishing house.

Software engineer Bonnie Vining needed a new career that would value her warm personality, not suppress it. So she left the high-tech world and opened Javalina's Coffee and Friends.

After Anita Flegg lost her engineering job, she embarked on a program of self-improvement. The journey led to personal discoveries and her calling: She provides information and support to those who, like her, suffer from hypoglycemia.

I have found that many high achievers who lose enthusiasm for their work share common traits:

• Their work has little connection to the things they really care about. Work is a barrier rather than a path to fulfillment.

• While they may be doing something they're good at, it isn't something they want to do. Unfulfilled professionals haven't taken time to align their abilities with their interests.

• They have never made a long-term plan to guide them toward a more fulfilling vocational life. They tend to set short-term goals, or set no goals at all.

• As they reach mid-life and understand the need for meaning, they turn to their current workplace as a source of what's missing. Most organizations, though, are structurally incapable of providing nourishment for the soul. So the mid-life employee's frustration grows.

Mid-lifers like Serena, Bonnie, and Anita take stock of their lives and careers. They develop a plan to re-ignite their energy and enthusiasm for work. The process involves a number of steps, but the common thread involves taking responsibility for making life changes. Here's how:

• Identify what's most important to you, then develop and work a plan to get there. The plan should involve short-term goals that lead to a long-term objective. When Bonnie decided that engineering management was no longer for her, she applied the discipline of the corporate world to her new career: owning a gourmet coffee shop. Bonnie learned everything she could about specialty coffees and how to run a coffeehouse. She made good use of experts in the field. She then moved quickly toward her goal of opening Javalina's Coffee and Friends in Tucson, Ariz. The thorough approach increased her chance of success.

• Make a list of your abilities and interests, and then see how they match. You may be doing something you're good at, but don't enjoy. Instead, find something you enjoy and then learn what it takes to get good at it. Serena was fortunate that her vocational calling was right under her nose. For years she helped friends and colleagues improve their writing skills through informal coaching sessions. She realized that the gift for teaching others how to transform ideas into prose wasn't just a hobby. It was a vocational calling. Today, she runs Book Coach Press, which has launched 13 book titles (including my own "P is for Perfect: Your Perfect Vocational Day").

• Don't be afraid to move toward your goals. Many people understand the need for change but are frozen in place. There's fear that we may be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. When Anita lost her engineering job, she avoided self-pity and instead grasped the possibilities of her new freedom. She began a journey of self-discovery that uncovered a long-undiagnosed illness, hypoglycemia and with it a new calling. She soon wrote a book on hypoglycemia. Now, she helps others understand and manage the disease. Anita turned what could have been a series of unfortunate events into a new calling that has brought vocational passion to her life.

Remember: No one will pull you aside at work, look you in the eye, and ask if you're really happy with your career and your life. The power to understand what's missing and do what's necessary to find it is yours alone. Take responsibility for change, and change will happen.

About The Author

Craig Nathanson is The Vocational Coach? and the author of the new book, P Is For Perfect: Your Perfect Vocational Day by Bookcoach Press and the publisher of the free Ezine, ''Vocational passion in mid-life''. Craig believes the world works a little better when we do the work we love. Craig Nathanson helps those in mid-life carry this out! Visit his on-line community at http://www.thevocationalcoach.com

---

Embracing Excellence

Joey rises before dawn to pack his lunch, eager for... Read More

Corporate Coaching and Employees: One Step Ahead

"Don't shoot... We're on the same side."Contrary to popular belief,... Read More

Personal Life Coaching And How It Can Help You

Coaching is an effective process used to support individuals in... Read More

Strategic Checklists

I've been through a couple of checklists in the past... Read More

How To Increase Your Coaching Record By At Least 25%

"How can I become a better and more effective coach?"... Read More

Life Coaching for Success and Fulfilment

We live in a world of rapid change and uncertainty.... Read More

The Executive Coaching Contract

Having found a coach you feel comfortable and excited about... Read More

Top Ten Tips for Living Authentically

1. Know your purposeAre you wandering through life with little... Read More

The Enchantment of Tribes to Belong To

I am remembering and have a desire to share with... Read More

A Perrverse Confidante

Direct Answers - Column for the week of July 15,... Read More

Who Do You Talk To?

Many of you reading this will be running businesses, or... Read More

Executive Coaching and the American President

Perhaps no one better than a former U.S. president has... Read More

Getting Unstuck: Moving Forward To Success

Ever find yourself stuck in that awful loop of inactivity?... Read More

HR Professional in New Avtaar: HR as a Coach and Mentor

IntroductionThese days in corporate sector, everybody is talking about the... Read More

Avoid the Tendency to Underestimate Your Greatness

As a whole I think there is a sad tendency... Read More

4 Steps to Successful Goal-Setting

Successful people have always had clear, focused goals that guide... Read More

Learning To Recognize Your Ego

What is an ego? Well, in case you didn't know... Read More

Great Advice

It never ceases to amaze me that every time I... Read More

Managing Performance Every Day

The scenario?The company has decided it needs to eliminate costs.... Read More

Saying NO to Good Opportunities!

Tracey started her video production company 2 ½ years ago,... Read More

Nourishing Your Network

It takes less effort to keep an existing customer than... Read More

Miscommunication - Root Cause of Problems?

People of two opposing ideas can stir up arguments and... Read More

What You See is What You Get

H. Jackson Brown Jr. once wrote, Your mind can only... Read More

Reduce Anxiety About Decison Making

What's the alternative to making decisions?Allowing someone else, or circumstances,... Read More

Use a Journal for Self-Discovery and Self-Expression

As a therapist, I often suggest to clients that they... Read More

You Can Get There From Here

But first you've got to raise your standards.I know at... Read More

Choosing The Right Coach

Coaching has become a very popular way for people to... Read More

Plug in Your Systems for Success

Have you ever noticed that so many of us who... Read More

Mailey?s Introspections [Monday, December 6th 2005]

As I work with clients as their introspective Inner Peace/Relationship... Read More

Forget Resolutions - Craft A Life Theme That Works

How many people do you know who, in January, enthusiastically... Read More

Let?s Say You?re a Dog. Are You So Competitive You?d Eat a Carrot?

Seems like a gal always learns something out on the... Read More

How to Quickly and Easily Deal With Rude People

Where I live there seems to be a a growing... Read More

An Example of Allowing a Desire to Arrive on Its Own

I don't know why, but it seems we trip over... Read More