Back to work for the new year!

“I don’t want to go back to work today!”

Ever felt like you didn’t want to back to work after a holiday? That was me on a Monday morning in early January 2014.

I had enjoyed the Christmas holidays at home with my family and was not looking forward to going back to work. I hadn’t slept well that Sunday night. When the alarm went off on the Monday morning I could have cried.

I did not want my alarm to go off at 7am and I did not want to get up and go to work.

Four years later, after another 2-week Christmas holiday with lots of long lie-ins, my body wasn’t used to getting up at 7am – but I was happy to do so and to get ready for work.

So what has changed? and how…?

Perfect timing

Luckily for me, that same Monday in January 2014, I was due to start a group coaching programme with 3 other ladies – that I’d signed up for a while before.

I’d joined the coaching programme to figure out ‘what next’ for me in my career as I wasn’t feeling completely fulfilled. I hadn’t realised when I signed up, quite how much I didn’t want to stay in my current role.

Don’t get me wrong, I worked in a lovely team with people I was looking forward to seeing that day after the festive break. But things (culture, personnel) were changing…

More synchronicity

A month or so later, my team at work got together for a couple of days to do some work on dealing with uncertainty. Some of the exercises we did, together with the exercises and thinking I was doing through my coaching group, really helped me to realise that:

Staying where I was, even in a different role, was not going to make me happy, not going to help me feel fulfilled.

Although I had some idea of what I enjoyed doing

– coaching, facilitation, working with others, helping others to make their lives easier…

– I didn’t know what ‘job’ I wanted to be doing going forwards…

A taste of what might be

Around March-time, encouraged by a colleague, I attended a 2-day coaching training taster organised by The Coaching Academy. I thoroughly enjoyed the two days – the content and the coaching exercises that we experimented with. By April I was signed up for the Personal Performance diploma in order to build upon, consolidate and formalise the coaching knowledge and experience I had gained over the years.

Within a couple of months I had communicated my preference to exit my corporate role and started focusing on coaching individuals and teams full time. I’ve written about my journey to becoming a qualified coach here.

The training organisation recently named me Small Business Coach of the Year 2017.

What a difference a couple of years make!

On January 8th this year when my alarm went off at 7am on my first working day of the year after the school Christmas holidays, I found it hard to fathom how much has changed.

While I would have enjoyed sleeping in a little longer I was also excited to get back to work:

Excited about planning work with some great collaborators.
Excited about working with new clients who are starting next week and next month.
Excited about catching up with existing clients and hearing about their progress.
Excited about new service offerings.

What about you?

How did you feel at the start of the new working year? Do you love what you do? Are you feeling fulfilled?

If you’re not quite sure…

…some of the exercises I found helpful in deciding to make a career change were an analysis of my six human needs, as described in this blog from last January, or in this video – and the energy diary described in this blog.

Please let me know your thoughts by adding your comments below…

To find out how I can help you find fulfilment and do more of what you love, please get in touch via the contact form or call me on +44 7526 740486.

I have places available now for 1:1 clients (working face-to-face, via phone or via Skype).

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Wishing you a fabulous 2018!

Sian

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