Brenda Griffin  Get A Job Expert

If you must begin then go all the way, because if you begin and quit, the unfinished business you have left behind begins to haunt you all the time. ~ Chögyam Trungpa

     When was the last time you lost your car keys?  Remember the swirl?  I call it PFRD - Panic, Frustration, Regret, and Disgust.  Panic - you can't find them!  Frustration - you need them now!  Regret - you didn't put them where you normally leave them.  Disgust - you didn't follow through on making the special place to keep them (and you're beating yourself up, bargaining that if you just find them, you will finish the project!)  Sound familiar?

     Keys are one thing.  But what about your unmet career goals?  The same swirl can form when you don't have something you need!  Maybe you're unsure of your path.  Maybe your industry is dying; you need to reinvent yourself before it's too late.  Maybe you've lost passion for your job and it's impacting other areas of your life. Or, you desperately need a paycheck after a layoff. 

     Enter career PFRD.  Panic - you aren't where you want to be. Frustration  - you don't know what direction to take. Regret for not acting sooner.  And disgust for letting so much time fly by.  Not a productive place to be!

     Next thing you know, you're stuck finding it easier to do nothing than taking time to figure it out.  Have you given up on your career goals?  Is it easier at this point to deny what you long for? Are you tired?  For a few months, many years ago, I said yes to all of the above. But in truth, none of these were working for me.  Are they working for you?

     The good news?  Pushing past career PFRD isn't as hard as you may think.  The answers are inside of you. You've left yourself clues along the way that will direct your path.  All you have to do is take time to look.  Are you willing to slow down and invest the time?

     At first, I thought my career was on permanent hold. Why?  I'd heard the key to my career path was remembering what I liked doing when I was 5 years old. The problem? I didn't remember being five!  So I panicked.

     How did I push myself out of the vortex? I stopped looking for answers in a way that wasn't getting me anywhere.  I might not have remembered being 5, but I did remember being eight!  What I discovered was pure gold. And just what I needed to move forward.  What was my discovery? More importantly, how can you get your own discovery?

     Grab a sheet of paper and do "the look back."  (For Get a Job Tools, do this in your career profile).  "Look back" at your life in 5-year increments, starting from an age you remember!  With each 5-year block, write down your most satisfying moments.  Include times with friends, family, school, sports, volunteering, and overall activities. How were you spending your time? What were you doing that you really enjoyed? What moments do you find yourself recreating? Continue to the present day.

     Next, apply this 5-year "look back" to your work life.  Yes, you had assigned tasks.  Which did you like the most? What projects did you take on just because you liked doing them?  What would you naturally step up to do?  What were you getting recognition for while deep down thinking, "I can't believe they're paying me to do what I love."?

     What was I doing at age eight?  Playing teacher after school.  Complete with a blackboard in front of an imaginary class.  I was also coaching my friends when I saw that they were stuck and asking for help. I was taking time to share, even back then. 

     After completing my career profile, it was easy to see my patterns with teaching and coaching emerge along with several others. I could see my options for career opportunities were endless. Gone was the PFRD! Completing my career profile led to rethinking my career, establishing new goals, and finding more rewording work. 

     Sound too simple?  Well, it is!  Or at least it can be.  All you need to do is actually do it. All you have to do is look.  Look for your life by looking at you life. 

     I encourage you to set up a time each week to work on your career profile and mining your own career gold!