Page 139 - Marky Stein - Fearless Career Change_ The Fast Track to Success in a New Field (2004)

Setting and Reaching Enticing Goals

when setting your goal, you’ll notice a bit of anxiety well up again.
Refer back to the first chapter and review your record of dealing
with fear and risks successfully in the past, and remember that if
you did it then, you can also master your fear now.
Perhaps your obstacle is an external rather than an internal block.
Maybe, for example, you are a single parent and your young child
needs babysitting at night while you go to the evening seminars you
need in order to make your move into your new vocation. Perhaps you
don’t have enough money to afford both the seminars and child care.
This brings us to the last step in the goal-setting formula.

Step 4. Brainstorm Ways to Break Through or Get
Around the Obstacles to Your Goal
Brainstorming means allotting a short time, perhaps 2 to 10 minutes
to write down every single thing you can think of that would solve
the problem, no matter how remote or silly it might sound. Inviting
friends or family for a group brainstorming session can also be
quite effective.
In brainstorming by yourself or with others, you may come up
with solutions like “trading” child care with a neighbor who also
has children, winning the lottery, taking on an extra job, standing
on the street with a sign saying “put me through school,” or getting
a loan to help defray your costs.
Of course, some of those solutions are ridiculous, but brain-
storming helps your mind be more creative and uninhibited.
Out of all the solutions you write, it’s likely that one or two will
be feasible.
You could ask the neighbors to watch your child for the time it
takes to complete the seminars, and you can return the favor and
watch their children at a later date. Or you can get on the phone
to your mom in St. Louis and see if she wouldn’t mind staying in
the guest room for a few weeks and watching her “little angel.”
(You know she won’t mind!)
If you simply cringe at the thought of living with Mom clean-
ing up after you and giving unsolicited advice, you might consider
trimming one of your preferred activities or products as we did ear-
lier in your “transition budget”—even if it means putting off buy-
ing that wide-screen TV for now or cutting back on the cell phone
minutes so you can afford a sitter.

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