Feeding a kangaroo in Australia while holding my daughter was a fear I conquered. I think you can tell by my face that I was not super confident …
There’s no doubt about it. Finding time for yourself, your career goals and your job search is SO hard! We have families to take care of, bosses to answer to and not to mention your commute to work takes hours!
The Antidote to Fear and Time Challenges For Career Transitions
When you come home from work, you are exhausted, and all you want to do is veg because you have already worked too hard for the day.
When we are stuck in this cycle, we don’t work on growing ourselves and achieving our career dreams because we are too busy. You are busy accomplishing other people’s goals all day to have the time to even make a dent in our own goals. You lack the time for you and your passions.
The irony in this is that the more we push away our dreams and goals, the more stressed, frustrated, and unfulfilled we become as we get farther and farther away with each day and week and year that passes.
I know I have been there.
It Leads to Fear
Fear of the future. Fear of failure. Fear of not being competitive or good enough. Fear of putting yourself out there and being visible. Fear of asking for help and fear of making a mistake. I know I could go on and on about fears.
So, how do you move past that fear and lack of time? Here is my antidote to fear and time challenges for women who are truly dedicated to taking back their lives and succeeding in their careers. And it is simpler than you might think.
The Old Me
I used to be a people pleaser and would say yes to everything and would feel major guilt when I let someone down by not attending something. Other people continually booked meetings on my calendar that I didn’t want to go to anyways. I had meetings with friends I didn’t want to say no and let them down. I had networking events every night on my calendar I thought I “should” go to but didn’t want to.
My calendar was completely in control of me.
The Day I Made a Change
I decided I had to make a change. I had enough. I knew there was something more. I had heard of some other people online from podcasts I had started listening to who actually woke up at 5 am. So why couldn’t I try it? That first day was tough but I got up at 5 am and put a good solid hour on writing my blog and reading a personal development book. By 6 am I was a different person. I was ready to tackle the day.
I didn’t care that I had to go to a job I hated because I had moved my career goals forward ALREADY that morning. I felt empowered. I felt on fire. I felt like I could do anything at 5-6 AM and no one could tell me what to do with that time but me!! Now the first time might not be super easy, but you will get the hang of it. Think about this, do you want to be spending your best hours right when you are fresh first thing in the morning working on your own goals or someone else’s goals?
Can you see how empowering this routine is and how just 15 minutes doing a couple of these items can change the momentum and course of your day? You might think getting up earlier will make you tired, but you will likely have MORE energy. You may even be so excited about what you were working on in the morning that you will want to get right back to it the second you get home from work (instead of watching TV).
And that leads me to tackle the second thing holding most of us back, fear. Fear can control our lives and keep us from achieving our unique purpose in the world. It’s that voice in the back of your head pushing you down and reminding you just to stay stuck, because you couldn’t possibly be anything more.
It’s also about insecurity, uncertainty, and lack of control.
To get over these things, the very first thing I always do is hand it over to God and stop TRYING to be in control. And then I ask myself these three questions.
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What is the worst thing that can happen if I go after my goals?
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What is the best thing that can happen if I go after my goals?
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Is it worth it to go all in?
