Borrowing Courage from Others for your Career Change

This is me last month at the top of the Space Needle in Seattle.

I got to the top and with my first step out onto the deck I suddenly realized that I have a mild fear of heights 🙈 

The glass at the top is slanted at an angle that leans outward so you really do feel like you’re on the absolute edge of the building.

I really hadn’t anticipated being freaked out and suddenly here I was feeling like I was going to plunge to my death if I got too close to the edge.

My best friend, Kristina, on the other hand, ran right up to the glass putting her hands out and leaning on it to look out at the world.  She didn’t see a reason to be fearful up here.

The photo of me sitting at this table was my compromise photo.  It’s not the photo that I wanted - I had of course wanted one standing up against the glass like everyone else, but this was what I felt safe with at the moment.

As we continued to walk around the needle, I watched Kristina and everyone else touching the glass, leaning on the glass, and I even saw one of the staff members banging his fist on the glass to prove its strength.

Slowly but surely my brain started to realize that none of them were falling through the glass and dying, and I finally started feeling more comfortable.

This whole experience got me thinking about my clients and some of the reservations that they often have when they dedicate themselves to finding a job they’re excited about.

The different steps involved in the process often feel scary, uncertain, and uncomfortable at first.  Many of them wonder: Is this even possible???

But what can help you ease some of these fears is borrowing the courage of others. 

We're often not the very first person ever to do something, especially when it comes to job searching. Simply knowing that other people have gone before you and have been successful in changing their careers is reason to believe that if you can be courageous like them and take the necessary steps, that you can achieve a similar result.

Who are other people doing what you want to be doing? Who can you borrow courage from and use their success as your evidence that it’s going to be okay?

🔸 Who do you know who has put themselves out there reaching out to strangers and has gotten a job from it?

🔸 Who do you know that is creating content on LinkedIn and is getting a great response?

🔸 Who do you know that totally pivoted their career and is now having the time of their life?

Use these people as proof that the thing that scares you is not actually that threatening.  If they can do it and survive (or even thrive!) so can you 🙌

If you don't know of people doing what you want to do, go FIND THEM. Dig around on LinkedIn, ask your network who they know, put a search into Google. We have tons of resources at the tips of our fingers, you simply have to utilize them.

Just as I watched Kristina up against the glass if you surround yourself with people that are doing what you want to do, slowly your brain will start to absorb the fact that it’s possible for you too!

You start with baby steps, like my photo above at the table.  You use stories of others' success as inspiration and to support your belief that positive outcomes are possible.  Then ultimately you can move onto the bigger steps, like my photo I finally was brave enough to take standing up against the glass.  You’ve got this :)