Image via: https://unsplash.com/@nordwood
As I previously shared, my husband and I moved a year ago from the Texas Gulf Coast (we lived 1.5 miles from the beach) to the Missouri Ozarks to live on 8.5 acres of raw, forested land.
For those who don’t know, prior to this move, we sold our 2K-sq ft home on N. Padre Island, TX, relinquished a majority of the contents and moved (temporarily) full-time into our 28-ft Brinkley RV.
The why behind our decision to uproot from Texas and make such a big change was multifold, as such decisions generally are. But at the center of it all was our desire to have more land, to enjoy the four seasons again and to be near my 3 sisters / their families and my 93-year-old father, who all live in Missouri.
As well, the Ozarks provide a beautiful backdrop, with undulating hills, mountains, rivers and lakes. So much opportunity for visual beauty and for physical movement immersed in nature.
The Process of Building a New Story
The process of liberating from so much clutter has freed us to focus more on the broader landscape of life and work and to separate the mental wheat from the chaff, as it were.
Stepping into another chapter of my career and life, with the accrued wisdom that 28+ years’ business ownership and more than 60 years’ life brings, I’m also finding clarity with what is important … and what isn’t. What is meaningful, and what is noise.
Similarly, in my work with clients in the throes of change, many of whom are in the final ‘chapters’ of their corporate careers, I witness human beings–executives, senior managers, fathers, mothers, husbands, wives–who are struggling to wrangle down oft-conflicting emotions associated with this change.
Many have experienced personal health victories and illnesses (their own and family members’); career wins and devastating job losses; evolving values and belief systems; and much more. As such, they are coming to realize that life is indeed as short as the cliches say, and now is the time for a reset–perhaps their final meaningful reset–that is both mindful and focused.
Fine-Tuning the Aperture of Your Story
A recent tech executive gave me a big compliment, asserting that the executive career storytelling process I take clients through (worksheet, interview, narrative story copy) is the “magic sauce” that no AI tool can replicate (and thus, integral to just such a career reset).
It is during these conversations that we apply a process of peeling back their goals and initiatives to look beyond the metrics and bottom-line impacts and discover what direction the client wants their Career Story to go for the future. How do they visualize their energy being leveraged, their experiences being tapped and their time being used?
Often, it is more than just the next executive leadership promotion or the next board role. There’s a profound clarity they seek. The career storytelling process becomes a cathartic way to crystallize their next phase goals and aspirations. It seems at this point in their careers, the phrase, “hopes and dreams” is almost trite; it is more about purpose and peace and a narrower aperture from which to fine-tune their visions.
They seek to create a future that they can confidently walk into, with peace and hope girding them, even amid the ever-evolving, and sometimes ‘all-consuming’ world and life challenges. Above all, they seek to leverage their wisdom alongside others who align with that wisdom, while also giving back, mentoring and sharing their experiences with younger and less experienced people who are also hungry for meaningful purpose and a better future.
This purpose, hope and peace are constant themes of the conversations I have with clients, nearly every single week.
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If any part of this story resonates and you would like to discuss how we may bridge the story of who you used to be with who you are now and who you want to be in the future, please email me with the subject line, “Change” at jacqui@careertrend.net, to start the conversation. I would love to discuss how my processes and writing experience building more than 2,000 career stories can help you refine your aperture to the story you envision for your future.
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