I worry about losing what I've got left…a lot. (Bridie’s story)
Feeling career stuck comes in all shapes and sizes. It hits us midlifers at different times, in different ways.
But, when we’re dealing with the big rocks of life - parental decline or loss, the ever-changing needs of our children, personal health scares, or relationship changes - it simply has to go on the back burner…until we’re ready.
Bridie decided it was time. She agreed to share her story of beginning to unpick how to make the most of what she has left.
Bridie, a client, found that both her career, and her industry, became grounded at the same time. She joined The Fierce Emporium to turn off her career autopilot and see through the fog to get her “what next?” off the ground.
So, what’s next?
I worry about losing what I’ve got left, a lot.
I'm a serial griever. I've lost a lot of family, in a relatively short space of time. As a result, it's fuelling a fear to find my 'so, what's next?‘ in life.
Time lapses when you're grieving. You shut down your sensory self without even realising. Depending on how many anniversaries, birthdays, or general sad days you have to navigate, before you know it, quite the extensive period of time has passed.
It's been a long time since I've thought about my “what next?”
I realise every couple of years that I'm not in control of it all, that I'm on autopilot, again. Until 2020, when the whole world was given a new perspective on true loss through the shared pain of a pandemic.
I lost my job.
Another loss
It felt so insignificant. As others lost their lives, and the whole world started to lose its grip on a reality, this fast became the new, everyday.
I’ve left an industry that’s completely at a loss, aviation. There are generations of families who have lost their livelihoods. Yet, it’s the prospects for a better future, long gone for the foreseeable, that the industry, and it’s many survivors, will mourn for much more than an income.
It’s a sector of industry that’s too magnificent of an invention, to not continue to adapt and evolve. As the history of many others show us, from finance to technology, it always does. Yet, how does the individual do that? How does one build back leaner, keener, and happier with hindsight?
In the same way the aviation industry will adapt and evolve, as will I.
In my experience, you have to ask an expert. That’s how an industry does it.
They imagine a future and then they model it. With a pinch of determination, droves of data, vats of verve, and their values, until they have a winning, even magical formula. Then, all they have to do is, convince everyone else to own it.
I found mine in Lucia.
We met during the first wave of the pandemic to discuss my ‘what next?’
She’s certainly found hers and is quite the expert in helping others to find theirs. I left that first meeting feeling really inspired as we talked about taking the time to lose the corporate cape, unmold, and really think about what I would love to do next. Dare I say it…dream of doing.
I lasted a couple of months.
Applying for the odd job in my mix of fields that met the one criteria on my wish list, to be local and cull the commute.
My intention, to amass the practice and experience with each application to make the next one better, wasn't working. I just couldn't crack the covering letters with confidence, or a suitability statement, without feeling like a LinkedIn lovie.
Career success?
The success of a career seems to hinge on a mere handful of good or bad decisions. If you regularly make lots of good ones, hurray for you. You're no doubt in a great place.
Yet, it seems even just one wrong manoeuvre, and the repercussions, can be relentless. Unless you can learn to make the most of it.
It seems with even just one wrong manoeuvre, and the repercussions, can be relentless.
Therein lies a moment.
Before you make a wrong turn, a number of smaller actions are required to help you determine either way. You check your roadmap, you indicate to others that you're thinking about it, you position yourself in the middle of the road while you make up your mind…all long before you make a move.
The beginning of the rest
Enter The Fierce Emporium, or rather, I did. It's Lucia's programme, designed to coach you through beginning the rest of your career.
I'm from the class of 2020. We were a dozen or so strangers, from lots of different industries, who found so much common ground in our thinking.
Which is at the heart of this course, thinking.
Taking the time to evaluate your career to date, define what success looks like in your future, yet most importantly, work out what you can put into practice promptly to get there.
As I write this, I'm only half way through the programme.
Yet, already happier.
In hindsight, my first steps through The Fierce Emporium have helped me to magnify a series of moments in my career that mattered. I may not have made the most of every opportunity along the way, but I now know why. I chose to be a present parent and put motherhood first. My best move ever.
What I now know for sure
Incredibly, it's already had an impact on my approach to ‘what's next?’
I know what I'm really good at, when and where I've demonstrated it, and why.
I will find the bravery and tenacity to adapt the way I think and put into practice my biggest ambitions yet.
I've also started to keep a journal on my future career. Not everyday, as hoped, but more sporadically, as and when inspiration strikes. Lucia's alright with that.
She can still pick a line out of a conversation you've had, and instantly identify the conscious planner whose not quite powerful enough yet to be vulnerable.
As I embark on the second half of the course, I know I've still got a lot to learn about my future self. It will take time and reflection if I am to find the bravery and tenacity to adapt the way I think and put into practice my biggest ambitions yet.
After all, what have I got to lose?
Bridie joined The Fierce Emporium Programme in 2020. When she agreed to use one of her Superpowers to share her story of being inside The Fierce Emporium, I was delighted. When I read her piece for the first time, it brought many tears to my eyes. She is such a talented writer and I’m delighted to publish her writing.
The Fierce Emporium is ordinary career redesign programme.
If you would like to see whether this is the right programme for you, book in for a free 30minute conversation.
If you liked this, you might also like these case studies
Iona’s story: So many ideas, so little time - when you know you can make an impact but can’t make a decision.
Dana’s story: A failed attempt at early retiremet prompts a re-think and a novel idea for the future.
Adrian’s story: Leaving corporate life behind after an unexpected redundancy.
