I was recently talking with one of my career group coaching clients, Allison. She made me laugh because all along, we’ve been working on narrowing down her career ideas. She wants to do something in the travel industry, and she told me that she was worried she was pigeonholing herself into this one career path. I laughed out loud and explained to her that I totally understood how she felt, but reminded her that our goal all along was to cut down her list of ideas, not add to it. This happens all the time with clients, which is completely understandable. I think at some point fear sets in and people are afraid to draw the line in the sand, and make a career move.

My advice is this: Don’t be afraid to take a stand. If you do the work to figure out your dream job, and really think it through, you will be fine. You have to trust yourself and go for it! You will figure it out as you go I promise.

Here is an example from another career coaching client, Mary. She wrote me to tell me that she wanted to become a career coach. Mary was my first client in Africa. It was such fun to work with her. She had a very positive energy and is very self-aware, so it was easy to coach her.

Hallo Hallie,

Thanks for checking in on me.

I would like to report that having reviewed the report and looked at several career options I have settled for career coaching as my No. 1 choice . I was glad to note that my dream career was definately one among the many that I had and am very optimistic that this is a path that I will not regret. Suffice to say, I couldnt have done it without you. Thanks.

To begin the steps to becoming a career coach couldnt come at a better time because infact i have found out that there are CPCC classes offered locally. I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason and am glad i ‘met’ you when I did and you set me on the course to realising my dream career . For that I am eternally grateful.

Mary