I remember when I decided to change my career. I was ready for something new but just didn’t know what that new thing would be. I have many skills and I like a lot of things. How was I going to figure out what to do next?
When talk to people about what they want to do next, I find most people are stuck. They don’t want to go back to school, they don’t want to lose money and they have no idea what is next.
They can stay stuck for years. I know this because I was there too. I knew I was ready to do something different but I was stuck not knowing what that could be.
I didn’t hate my job. I just no longer had a passion for it. I had done all I wanted to do in my position. I just kept asking myself What’s next?
I had to start somewhere. Realizing my value was where I began.
The first thing I began doing was taking in compliments. Instead of ignoring what people had to say about me, I started to take the compliment. I started to listen and hear how others saw me. I realized, if I blow off a compliment I was insulting the person who gave it to me. I was basically saying “What do you know?” I found that people compliment others because they mean it. No other reason.
I worked at taking in compliments and believing they were true. This didn’t happen overnight.
How do I do this? I start by pausing, hearing what they are saying and simply saying “thank you”.
How did this help? I started to believe what people were saying instead of the critical voice in my head. The compliments helped me realize my value to others.
The next thing I needed to consider was the feeling I had that I wasn’t getting things done. I like using a daily list. But even if I finished the list I felt I needed to do more. This needed to change.
I started to keep the lists and reread them weekly and monthly.
This helped me really believe I was accomplishing things. And a lot more things than my critical brain remembered. This simple step made a huge difference.
The last thing I needed to work on was acknowledging and celebrating my successes. My brain was wired to just move on after I finished a task or accomplished a goal. I wasn’t taking time to pat myself on the back. This goes hand in hand with the accomplishments. I wasn’t celebrating my successes. So I started.
A celebration can be easy as taking a dance break after a great meeting. Or taking yourself to dinner and taking a picture to remember the celebration.
Not celebrating is like a boss not acknowledging your great work. Is that the kind of boss you want? Or the kind of boss you want to be?
With these steps I began to see my value, see that I was accomplishing things and I started to regularly celebrate my successes. I now was able to see more of the value I was bringing to the world.
Do you see your value?
Do these steps for a month and see how it changes your life.