I have been working in my basement office for about five months. My desk is situated so I may look through the full-length sliding door to the creek that gurgles behind our complex. Today I decided I would clean the windows. What a difference that makes.
There is now a risk birds could mistake the glass for an opening.
Cleaning the cobwebs and dirt off these sliders seems like an apt metaphor for our work. The cobwebs and dirt show up gradually so as not to be of immediate concern. I know both are there, yet I look around them because I have more important things to do. What a difference clean windows make.
We do the same thing with our jobs and careers. The job is changing, the responsibilities are growing, and we accept these. Granted we might even grumble about the changes, but in the end, we accept and work around them. What we don’t notice is the impact on us and how we would feel if we dealt with those changes differently.
When we do choose to act, we have choices. In this case I cleaned the windows. This entailed cleaning six sides of three doors. There was dealing with the stops, shifting the doors back and forth. Working inside and then outside, first to get the cobwebs and surface layer dirt off. This was followed by the wash and squeegee cycle.
I am proud of what I did, but I see streaks where I hadn’t cleaned the squeegee. If I paid to have these cleaned, this would need to be addressed. However, I let myself off the hook, “because I had to get back to work.” When have I used this before to avoid completing a task?
The point of this story is there are things in our jobs and careers that we wait until they reach a critical mass before we act. When we do act, we are likely to choose to address the change ourselves. Just like cleaning the window, what part of the change will we let slide?
An alternative to figuring these things out on your own, you could use a coach in three different ways.
- First is to have a Free Consultation to gain an alternative perspective and consider what actions you might take.
- Second could be using my Life Reset program to help you look at where you are in your career today and what you would want to change.
- The third is Accountability Coaching for those who have a goal in mind that has been gathering cobwebs. I could support you in making headway on this objective and support you through the obstacle that has been insurmountable.
Spring is over and the social distancing guidelines are being relaxed. Now would be a good time to leverage this time of change to take a new look at where you are and where you want to be. Let me know how I could help.
