Mira Rutter (MSc Banking and International Finance) is a career, personal growth and wellbeing coach with her own coaching practice Rutter Coaching. We recently spoke about her own career transitions and have been allowed to publish extracts from her blogs.
7 STEPS TO FOLLOWING YOUR DREAMS
So, you have spent some time asking yourself various questions about what makes you happy, what activities make you lose track of time, what you are naturally good at, what makes you feel great about yourself, who you want to help and what causes you strongly believe in. You also now have an understanding of your values and what you need in order to feel fulfilled in your career and live your life with purpose. (If you haven’t, then check out our 7 Steps to Finding Your Passion guide.)
So what now?
Now, it’s about chasing your dreams or perhaps if you haven’t fully identified what it is you want to be doing, it’s about taking some actions to define it clearly and then chase it.
Remember that famous Benjamin Franklin quote, ‘If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail’? It’s about committing to making a change and a difference to how you live your life, whether it’s a small or a major change that you are looking to make. It’s about taking actions and saying ‘no’ to the status quo and remaining complacent and saying ‘yes’ to having focus and determination.
At the end of the day, if you are following your passions you are optimising your life because you are spending more of your time doing what you love and you are fulfilling your potential. And who doesn’t want to be doing that?!
7 STEPS TO FINDING YOUR PASSION
When you wake up on a working day, do you think to yourself ‘I’m so looking forward to today and all the exciting things the day ahead will bring?’
These days we’re all being urged to ‘find our passion’ but what if we don’t know what it is or how to find it? Or perhaps we know what it is but we don’t know to go on about following it? We’re expected to take control of our careers, but often with minimal resources or support.
In our busy lives, the days, weeks, and months fly by and it’s very easy to find ourselves on a career path determined by others or by circumstances. That job offer or project that came along and is now a career. We get stuck where we are and can end up feeling uninspired and lacking motivation. I’ve been there myself and I know what it’s like.
And the one thing we never get around to doing is taking a step back and asking ourselves ‘What do I really want to be doing?’ ‘What will make me jump out of bed with joy every day, even on a Monday morning?’
Last week, Simon and I delivered a very engaging and interactive workshop at Barclays HQ in London as part of their Careers Week. What we found was that people didn’t know what questions to ask themselves to help them find out what they are passionate about and how they can gain that invaluable insight about themselves. We also saw on our social media that people wanted to know more about how to find their passion. So, I want to use this blog to help you to take that step back and explore what motivates you, what’s really important to you and what you are passionate about.
Passion. What is it to you?
First of all, take a moment to think about what feeling passionate about your work means to you.
Your passion is the reason you wake up in the morning, and just the thought of it can keep you up late with excitement although preferably not too late. It can also be a quieter feeling of satisfaction, knowing you’re living life on your terms.
What are the benefits?
Have you ever wondered what difference will feeling passionate about your work make to you? What about to your family, to your company and to society?
I personally know how scary it can be when you feel like your life has no purpose or direction but finding your passion can change all that.
Finding your passion is like finding your personal road map. When you find your passion you feel happy, fulfilled, work doesn’t really feel like work, your relationships with your family and colleagues improve and many more… And you are so much clearer about in what direction you are heading and what steps to take.
TIME TO REBALANCE? – 7 WAYS TO ACHIEVE BETTER WORK-LIFE BALANCE
It’s Work-Life Balance week. Hurray! I guess it says it all that if we’ve had to dedicate a national week to it.
Do you feel overwhelmed and overstretched by constantly having to juggle a demanding job and various personal commitments? Are you frequently stressed, exhausted and struggling to fit everything in? You are definitely not alone.
In our hectic, 100 miles per hour lives, we often get pulled from pillar to post, drown in detail, more is expected from us and we demand more of ourselves. As a result, we tend to forget to get off the hamster wheel and take a break to think of what it is we really want, and why.
What is work-life balance anyway?
Let’s pause for a moment and think what having work-life balance means to you. What would an ideal week would look like to you? How much time would you dedicate to work? How much time would you dedicate to your family? How about to yourself – downtime, personal development time? What about your hobbies and interests? How about exercising?
I truly believe that leading a healthy, balanced lifestyle is the key to feeling happy, energetic and fulfilled.
There are a lot of things that depend on others, but there is a lot that can be determined by us. So, it’s important to focus on what you can control and influence. Even if that sometimes is ‘just’ your mindset.