Teachers in Transition

Teachers in Transition - Episode 90 - Identifying Your True Purpose

December 16, 2020 Kitty Boitnott
Teachers in Transition
Teachers in Transition - Episode 90 - Identifying Your True Purpose
Show Notes Transcript

As a Heart-Centered Career Transition and Job Search Coach, my approach to career coaching a little different, I think, from the average, run-of-the-mill career coach. I start by asking each of my clients to ponder what they want to do rather than what they think they might be "qualified" to do or what they might be willing to settle for in their next career. Why? Because I believe that we each have a purpose in life, yet most of us struggle with identifying it or knowing how to put it to its best use.

If you have ever wondered what your true purpose is, you might enjoy taking this quiz. It could shed some light on your unique purpose and offer some insights on how you should be using your purpose to its best effect in your life.

To take advantage of the quiz, just click on the button that says, "Take the Quiz."

After you have taken the quiz, you might like to share it with your friends just for fun, so feel free to share it on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

And if the results of the quiz get you to thinking about how you could best use your unique purpose in your life, I would love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to email me. Just reply to this newsletter, and let me know your thoughts or your findings.

If you are not living a life that is allowing you to live your true purpose, maybe it is time to think about making a change. If 2020 has taught us anything, it is that we cannot take a day for granted. I suspect we have all individually and collectively lost someone this year whether it was to COVID or something else. When someone we know dies--especially if it is unexpected--it serves as a reminder that it does not pay to put off too long the things that we truly desire.

I have been lucky in my life that I found my life purpose early in life--and I have been double lucky to have found a new purpose in what I am doing now. My current purpose is helping others find their purpose, and it just doesn't get much better than that.

If you are feeling stuck in a job or career you no longer love, it's time to consider your other options. So, take the quiz, and see where it takes you. I hope you enjoy it. The link to the quiz is here:  https://www.tryinteract.com/share/quiz/5fd4e1c91452b400168b5345

Until next time.

P. S. 

If you are thinking that 2021 is the year that you are going to break free of your current job or career to find something more fulfilling and perhaps more fun, I am offering a Masterclass on December 26, 2020, at 2:00 PM EST on how to "Jumpstart Your Job Search for2021:  The Step-by-Step Master Plan for How to Leave the Classroom for the Career of Your Dreams."

 

To register for the Masterclass, click here:  https://kittyboitnott.lpages.co/jumpstart-your-job-search-for-2021/.

 

If you aren't interested but have a friend or family member who might benefit from listening in, feel free to share the link.

 

I hope to see you there!

Speaker 1:

Are you a teacher who's feeling stressed out and overwhelmed. Do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing some other kind of job or perhaps pursuing a whole different career, but you don't know what else you're even qualified to do. You don't know how to start a job search. You just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you're not alone. My name is kitty Boitnott. I'm a career transition and job search coach. And I specialize in helping burn out teachers, just like you deal, not only with the stress and overwhelm of your day to day job, but to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you to join me for teachers in transition. In some episodes, I'll be speaking to stress management techniques and how you can manage your stress on a day to day basis. In other episodes, I'll be talking about career transition. What tools do you need to be successful in a job search when you're moving from one career into a totally different track. These are questions that you need answers to, and I can help you find those answers. My name is kitty. Boitnott welcome to teachers and transition.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back to episode 90 of teachers in transition the podcast and the YouTube channel and thrilled, needless to say, to be talking about being on episode 90. I never really thought I would get this far. So thank you for listening and making it possible for me to continue this podcast. If you've listened to me in the past, you know that I alternate topics each week, one week, I talk about stress management because I am a certified stress management and sleep science coach, along with being certified as a life strategies coach, I'm also a trained and experienced career transition and job search coach. So on alternate weeks, I talk about career transition and job search strategies. And you may have guessed from the title of the podcast that I specifically work with teachers who are in the midst of their own career transition or life transition, or a combination of the two. And I talk about stress one week and career transition on alternating weeks. This week, I'll be talking a little bit about career, but I want to take a little bit of a side note about my approach to starting a career transition or looking for a new job. And I'm going to tie it to a special gift that I have for you, which is a quiz on how to identify your true purpose in life or your true passion. If you will, what is it that makes you, you, what drives you? What, what keeps you going? And the irony in this world that we're living in is that too many of us find ourselves working in spaces where we are not living up to our purpose. In fact, we may be totally disconnected with that purpose. And for too many of us, we haven't yet even identified what our purpose is. We may have a, uh, a sense of that. What we're engaged in now is not what we really want to be doing, but it pays the bills. So you do what you have to do, right? But it doesn't feed your soul. And my approach. I've the reason I refer to myself as a heart centered career transition and job search coach is that I want to help you find a job or career and endeavor that will feed your soul and will help you to live the kind of life that you want to be living without the constant day-to-day stress and strain and struggle that too many of us fall into the trap of feeling. Now, when people come to me to talk about career transition, often they want to begin the conversation with, you know, I've been teaching for 10 years. I don't even know what else I'd be qualified to do. And I want to encourage you to think that that's not the first question you should ask yourself. And that's not the first question that I asked my prospective client. It's not, what are you qualified to do? But based on your current experience of life, your past experience, your, your education, what you're interested in doing, what, what drives you? What lights you up? What causes you to go into your zone of bliss? If you will, what does that, what is that? And so I want to talk about what would you want to do instead of what do you think you might be qualified for? Because frankly, what you might be qualified for would be something you'd feel like you were settling for. And I know that a lot of my clients come to me because they're just, they're burnt out with teaching this year, especially has just about done the Nan, the, the folks who are in charge have met well, but they have asked teachers and that, and this also goes for our nurses and our doctors and our first responders and, and, uh, all of our essential workers, what we've and it's nobody's fault. So don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to blame anybody. The pandemic has forced us to do things that we never even thought about doing before. We've had to, as I have said to my students, this semester, they've been asked to build the plane while they're trying to fly it. And the problem is there. Hasn't been an aeronautics engineer on hand to tell them how to build a plane. They've been asked to build it from scratch, with no assistance, lots of directives, lots of this is how you're, this is what you're going to do. And this is what our expectations are, but not a whole lot of assistance, or, you know, you, you you're given the tools that you need, but you're not really trained on how to use them properly. And then everybody's just been tossed into the mix. Do you do, do it, teach, get your kids engaged regardless of age, regardless of social development, regardless of anything else that may, may be going on. And like I said, it's nobody's fault. I'm not blaming. But what I know is that it has stressed a lot of people out. And these were people who were already stressed out to begin with. So if you feel that way, if you feel like it's time for you to start at least exploring your other options, rest assured, there are options out there. Teachers are educated, they have skills, they have knowledge, they have experience, they have a heart, they have excellent work ethic. They want to help people they're helpers. And so the kinds of careers that appeal to them, or the steal, the careers, where they would be involved with people, they're just, they're just burnt out with the system. That's asked them to do more than they can sustainably do. And it's nobody's fault. It just is what it is. So when people come to me, my first question is now, what do you think you might be qualified to do or what you think you'd have to settle for? If you made a change, what do you want to do? That's where I think we should start. And maybe even more importantly, what do you not want to ever have to do again? So you want to make a list. What are the things you would love to do, keep doing for a lot of teachers, curriculum development. That's, that's an area of interest creating lesson plans that I have had clients who love doing that part is the execution of the plan that they don't love with kids who aren't all that engaged and interested in learning. That's what burns a lot of teachers out. They still love the kids. They don't love the fact that a lot of don't seem to want to learn. And a lot of parents aren't supporting the teachers. There's, they're letting the kids slide and blaming the teacher. If the kid doesn't do well, we've got a, got a lot of problems in the system these days, and it, it wears, it wears you down. I mean, that's, that's where I was when I felt my own burnout. I knew I wasn't in a position to go back to the classroom. I was too tired to deal with kids, to deal with drama, to deal with standards, to deal with testing. I just, I didn't have it in me to do so. That was, that was the moment of truth for me, as far as my burnout. And when I hired my career coach, one of the things that she encouraged me to do was to not think so much about what I might settle for or be qualified to do, but what did I really want to do? And I made a list of the things that I wanted to continue to do in my life and the things that I didn't ever want to have to do again. And for me, this is not for everybody, but for me, what kept coming up was that I really didn't want to work for anyone else anymore. I wanted to own my own business and be my own boss. I was over getting up at the crack of Dawn to be stressed and out of the door before the sun had even hit the sky, I was over it. I'd had enough of four o'clock mornings and long days and coming home exhausted. And so I wanted to work from home if possible. And that's how coaching came about. For me, it's not for everybody. And I was in a position to be able to do it and not everybody can, but that's still where I want people to start. What do you want to do? Because that can lead to all kinds of possibilities, thinking about what you want, as opposed to what you think you might be able to get opens up possibilities instead of limiting you. You see what I mean? If you think only about what you might be qualified to do, you're automatically limiting yourself. But if you're thinking in terms of what, what are you truly passionate about and what is it that, that, that little voice inside of you is calling you to do that? You keep saying, no, I can't do that. You know what I mean? Everybody has it something inside you, that's nudging you that saying, wouldn't it be great if you could, you feel in the blank with whatever your answer is, and yet you keep ignoring it or pushing it down or shoving it aside because you've convinced yourself that it's not possible and you don't even want to entertain it because, you know, just be a disappointment if you did. That was sorta how I felt about coaching in the beginning of, of my search for something. I honestly didn't think that coaching was a real job. And so every time the idea of, well, you could set up a coaching practice, you could become a coach and work with teachers on your terms. I would push that aside. Nope, no, I don't even know how to do that. And it's not a real job. But once I opened myself up to the possibility with the help of my coach, suddenly all sorts of openings popped up. And I, and within a week of my giving myself permission to at least look into what it would take to become a coach. I met a woman who was a life coach. And as I asked her questions, I found out she'd been in business for seven years. She was doing well. She had clients who paid her for her advice and counsel. She was part of a group of other coaches in the city who are a part, a member of a, of an organization that supports coaches and professional development for coaches. I had no idea. There was an entire community of coaches of all kinds, life coaches, funks way, coach coaches of career coaches, personal development, coaches, executive coaches, financial coaches. The list is endless. I had no idea. And I would have still not at an idea if I hadn't given myself permission to look at the possibilities. So you see why I'm such a fan of promoting that at least to start your search. You S you start with, what, what would you love to do? What do you feel like your purpose is? Which leads me to the free gift I have for you today, because you may not yet know what your purpose is. You may not have identified it yet. A lot of people have it, and even more people perhaps have identified it. But if convinced themselves that they can't live a life, that's in alignment with it. And so they, they try to ignore it. So I'm going to offer it to you today. It's a, it's a, it's a fun little quiz that it's called. What is your true purpose? Now, if you're already enrolled in my weekly newsletter list, you've already received a quiz. You may not want to sign up for it, but if you, you may want to go back and look at the newsletter for, for this week. And it came out on Tuesday, today's Thursday. So on the 15th of December in the weekly newsletter, there's embedded a quiz. Now I found out that the quiz might not have shown up on everybody's newsletter because of the way the browsers work. So if you didn't see the quiz in your newsletter, you might want to go back and open it up in Chrome. It works in quote. Or you may just, if you're interested and you didn't get to see the quiz on Tuesday, download the quiz today, but I'm going to provide you a link to a quiz that asks several questions that lead to what is your true purpose. And like I said, it's a fun little quiz. I don't know if it's all that scientific, but the reason I encourage you to check it out is that it may very well lead you to think about some things differently. It may offer you some insights. It may offer you some new ways of thinking about yourself and your own life. Now I'll tell you that as you take the quiz, there are four purposes that are possible as answers for you. The first one is that you lead with love, not war. Wouldn't that be great lead with love, not war that that's for the folks who are not all that competitive, who are looking to, to be supportive and helpful. There's also one though, that's called use your strengths to support others. That was, that was the answer that came up for me. And ironically, isn't that great. Since I did use my strengths to support others every day in this business, another one is let your light inspire far and wide. And the fourth one is, make learning a lifelong pursuit. And each one of the answers offers that you should do three things. And in alignment with whatever the answer is for you on the quiz. And that is to get clear about your current circumstances. This is especially important. If you're thinking about changing your career, you need to be very, very clear about your current situation. What is it that's driving you to make the change that you want to make? Is it, is it so permanent that you have to make a break with your job altogether, or would a transfer get the job done? Is it time? Are you bored in your current situation? And you're looking for a little more challenge. Maybe you should start looking for some leadership opportunities. And then of course, it's possible that you're just ready to make a break and move into a totally different arena. Get about your own circumstances. The second thing is to investigate your limiting beliefs

Speaker 3:

To many

Speaker 2:

Of us. And I include myself in this have this sense of we, there's only so much that we can do. And beyond that, anything else that's for other people, other people become famous. Other people become thought, influencers. Other people become authors. Other people become keynote speakers

Speaker 3:

That's for other people.

Speaker 2:

But what if the other people thought that there would be no people in those roles? So embrace what you have to offer and consider what is holding you back? What is the limiting belief? Is it that you're not enough? Is it that you don't have enough training? If you don't have the right kind of education, you didn't grow up with enough money. What is it? You grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. We all have stories in our heads, from our childhoods that tend to stick with us into adulthood. And until we eliminate them,

Speaker 3:

I mean,

Speaker 2:

Consciously and, and studiously eliminate them. They tend to hold us back.

Speaker 3:

So

Speaker 2:

Identify your limiting beliefs and then do whatever you have to do to eliminate them, override them with a new story, override them with a mantra or an affirmation that allows you to eliminate whatever it is. That is your limiting belief. That's keeping you back and you may have more than one. So be aware of all of the limiting beliefs that you may have had, and they may not even be yours. They may be what you inherited from a family.

Speaker 3:

Remember who

Speaker 2:

That you should be satisfied with your station in life, whatever that happens to be and whatever that means, and that you shouldn't aspire to be famous or be an author, or to be a, whatever you might want to be. So identify and investigate your limiting beliefs. And finally, and this is one of the most important pieces of advice that I can offer in any arena, whether you're looking to change your job or you're looking to make your current situation better, or you're looking to improve a relationship, or you want to take charge of your health. Finally

Speaker 3:

Take

Speaker 2:

Small steps toward your goal. Now that of course assumes that you have a goal and maybe you haven't written down or clearly identified a specific goal. You need to do that. If you want to move out of your current circumstances and into a new set of circumstances, a new reality, but small steps, you don't have to, you don't have to change your whole life overnight. Nobody's able to do that. You can't even change your whole life over the course of a month or six weeks. They say that creating a new habit, it takes at least 40 days or six weeks. Other people say 21 days. For the most part, it takes several months to absolutely instill a new habits to the point that it's ingrained in you. And it has become a daily habit or a weekly habit. So whatever you decide to do doing something is better than nothing and trying to do too much will only make you feel bad about yourself. You'll feel like, well, Hey, there's proof right there. I'm not good enough to do that. And that is simply not the truth. The truth is, and I believe this with every fiber of my being, the truth is you can do whatever you set your mind to do. As long as you don't let those limiting beliefs hold you back. And as long as you're willing to invest yourself by taking small daily action, I have a program that I refer to as the can do program that can do model for doing anything in your life that you want in briefly. I mean, I can do a whole nother episode on, on this at some point, but briefly what can-do stands for for me create the goal that you want, establish the vision for whatever it is that you want in your life, activate your belief in your ability to have be, or do whatever it is that you've set your mind on. Let nothing and no one discourage you or get in your way, take small daily action. That's where the D comes from daily action toward your ultimate goal. And if you've done those four things, you've created the vision for what you want. You've activated your belief in being able to accomplish it. You let nothing and no one including yourself or your loved one stand in your way. And you take small daily action in the direction of what you're trying to create. O stands for the outcome. The outcome must be according to the laws of the universe, the outcome must be what you've envisioned for yourself or something even better. That's the law of attraction, right there create activate, let nothing and no one stand in your way. Take small daily action. And the outcome must be at least what you've envisioned. And usually it's something even better. So I encourage you to take the quiz, think about what I've offered today. If you think you're on the verge of making a career change or a job change in the coming year, I'm offering a free webinar on Saturday after Christmas, December 26th, at 2:00 PM Eastern, I'll put the link to the registration page in today's notes, along with the link to the quiz and the link to the newsletter. And I invite you to join me. Won't cost you anything, but about an hour of your time, it's the Saturday after Christmas. What else are you going to be doing in the pandemic? You hope, hope you're not heading for the store to do any, any, uh, exchanges of gifts this year. So join me 2:00 PM Eastern I'll, uh, hope to see you there. And at that time I'll be offering for the last time, the pandemic pricing on the jumpstart, your job search program in its current form in 2021, starting January 1st, I'm rolling out a slightly different version of the jumpstart. Your job search program had a different price points. So if you want to get in on the current savings, you need to be on that webinar presentation on the 26th and think about joining. Okay. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me@kittyboitnottatgmail.com as always, if you would please review the podcast so that other people can find it and offer a review so that, um, I don't know how you're feeling. Let me know if you have any topics that you'd like me to cover and for this week, that's it. I hope you'll enjoy the quiz. I hope you'll think about what I've said about not settling and not focusing so much on what you're qualified to do, but instead on the possibilities of what you can be doing and think about that can do method too, because that can be life-changing. If you'll just embrace it, have a wonderful week, uh, Al won't be with you next week because it is Christmas. So have a wonderful Christmas holiday. I hope you'll stay safe and well, and I'll be seeing you after the new year bye-bye for now.

Speaker 1:

So there you have it, an episode of teachers in transition. I hope you enjoyed the information and I hope you'll plan to come back, please subscribe to teachers in transition so that you can be alerted of future episodes. And let me know if you have any or topics that you would like me to specifically cover in a future episode, I'm more than happy to help with individual questions as well. So email me at kitty boy, not at boys, not coaching.com. If you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start. I'm Katie Boitnott and this is teachers in transition.