Page 172 - Talane Miedaner - Coach Yourself to a New Career_ 7 Steps to Reinventing Your Professional Life (2010)

160 COACH YOURSELF TO A NEW CAREER

already done and pat yourself on the back (or better yet, get your
friends and family to acknowledge you!) before you start thinking
of what you want to do next. You can always use the start of each
new year and/or your birthday to reevaluate your objectives and
make changes. Have fun with this exercise! You might even make
a postholiday or New Year’s party of it and invite friends over to
do the same. Ask them to bring a pair of scissors and a bunch of
old magazines they don’t mind cutting up.
Now let’s work on your career profile so that we can see how
that fits into your new life plan.

Get Out of the Box: List Five

Alternative Careers

Sometimes we need to break through our limited beliefs about
what we think we can do or have. I was recently giving a semi-
nar for my alumni club in London, and
one of the fellows there was an unem-
There is no security on ployed hedge fund manager. He loved
this earth; there is only his job. He couldn’t imagine doing any-
opportunity. thing else. Well, the current state of
the economy meant that hedge funds
—GENERAL were an endangered species and that
DOUGLAS MACARTHUR
no matter how hard he looked, he prob-
ably wasn’t going to find work in his old
field. It’s not unusual for people to get
so caught up in one field or career that they can’t conceive of an
equally fitting alternative. The truth is that our skills and talents
are transferable to many different careers.
Imagine that your job has been eliminated from the face of the
planet. There are no more hedge funds to manage. In the space
provided, write down at least five alternative careers. What else
could you do? Look back to your list of talents, skills, and values,
and write down all the possible careers you can think of that sound
like fun. Don’t sweat it; you don’t have to suit up to do any or all
of these. The point is to get you thinking about possible options.