<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Doesn\u2019t every aspect of your world, both personally and professionally, seem to be driven by the pandemic these days?\u00a0 Considering that, a friend commented that she was struggling with holiday decorating.\u00a0 She lives alone and will have no one in her home for the holidays due to the pandemic.\u00a0 What to do?\u00a0\u00a0Tradition, habit, and other people\u2019s opinion of whether or how she should decorate appeared to be muddling the decision-making process. She really does have choices:\u00a0 she could go full-out in decorating, just because she loves the way it looks.\u00a0 She could choose just to decorate the rooms she will most frequent.\u00a0 Holy cow, she could do nothing at all!\u00a0\u00a0This is such a metaphor for choice and the age-old question, \u201cWhose life is this, anyway?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0To truly \u201cown\u201d our decisions and choices may be one of the earmarks that we have reached adulthood, regardless of our age.\u00a0 I\u2019m not recommending ignoring the needs of others when they are impacted by your choices, but this may be a great time to reflect on how you make choices, personally and professionally.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you are being honest with yourself, you may find that decisions and choices are being run out of habit or \u201cThe way I\u2019ve always done it.\u201d\u00a0 Life changes, you get divorced, you move out-of-state, you are terminated.\u00a0 Seasons of life change, you get your master\u2019s degree, you have a child, you near retirement age.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to keep doing things the same way, especially if you have never really considered YOUR wants and needs.\u00a0 Perhaps it is time to move out of rote and into intentionality.\u00a0 The ability to choose differently at home may give you the skill and confidence to translate this into your career. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was an advocate for women to \u201clean in\u201d to their career long before Sheryl Sandberg wrote the book Lean In <\/em>and coined the phrase \u201clean in\u201d.\u00a0 With that said, we are all vastly different, with different skills, temperament, and aspirations.\u00a0 Choosing for yourself can be tough, especially if you have spent your entire life pleasing others.\u00a0 It\u2019s time to ask, \u201cWHY?\u201d\u00a0 Why am I making this choice?\u00a0 Are you living the career your parents wanted for you?\u00a0 Are you in the job that seems to be the usual for your circle of friends?\u00a0 Have you chosen to step up into leadership because a professor or mentor saw that as an opportunity for you?\u00a0 Have you succumbed to the influence of media as to what you should be aspiring?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps you are considering a major choice like changing careers. The Career Foundry identifies 5 reasons to make a career change:<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n I work with many women who are exploring this stage of choice.\u00a0 However, your choices don\u2019t have to be that dramatic.\u00a0 One of my clients felt the \u201citch\u201d to have a higher income and switch her focus from a customer service role to a sales role.\u00a0 Another client, given the option of a promotion that would have put her in charge of a large team, turned it down.\u00a0 With some guidance, she came to the realization that \u201cherding cats\u201d, her term for managing others, would make her life miserable.\u00a0 She wanted to be responsible for HER work only.\u00a0 She came to me with her husband\u2019s comment, \u201cAre you nuts?\u00a0 Of course, you will say yes to a management position.\u201d\u00a0 She was finally able to remind him, he was not the one that would be \u201cherding the cats\u201d!\u00a0 It isn\u2019t easy bucking the perspective of others, even when they are well-meaning.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your choices may seem less dramatic than these but still will make a difference in your life.\u00a0 Recently, I had a client say \u201cNo\u201d to serving on a committee that would have an impact on the diversity and inclusion policies of her company.\u00a0 Though she was passionate about the power of diversity and inclusion, with small children and the iffy nature of the pandemic and childcare, she declined.\u00a0 It was all about the season of her life.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where in the world do you start with taking the reins of your own career?\u00a0 A good first step will be to go through the steps in Kay\u2019s Consulting Corner.\u00a0 Perhaps that is not nearly enough assistance.\u00a0 If you are struggling with career choices and need someone without a \u201cdog in that fight\u201d to guide you, I might just be the woman for you.\u00a0 Call me at 513-561-4288 or email me at Kay@highheeledsuccess.com<\/a>.\u00a0 We can arrange a complimentary consultation to talk about your situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Doesn\u2019t every aspect of your world, both personally and professionally, seem to be driven by the pandemic these days?\u00a0 Considering that, a friend commented that she was struggling with holiday decorating.\u00a0 She lives alone and will have no one in her home for the holidays due to the pandemic.\u00a0 What to do?\u00a0\u00a0Tradition, habit, and other<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3,26,4,17],"tags":[9,96,97,6],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Qkhe-aT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=675"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":683,"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675\/revisions\/683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}