“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.” – Aldous Huxley
Where Do I Go from Here?
By Andrea Novakowski
Caroline, the owner of a retail shop, was feeling out of sorts. She had recently turned 50 and both of her children were in college. She told me that she was feeling like everything around her had shifted, and she wasn’t sure how to adjust to it.
She realized it was time to make herself a priority. She was ready to take a step back and begin to explore how she wanted her life and work to look in the near future.
We talked about a number of tools that she could use to start gathering insights for herself:
- Journaling. Starting each day posing a question to get your intuition and the idea generation part of your brain engaged as you record your thoughts.
- Talking. Having conversations with others who are on the other side of this transition point to learn more about their journey of discovery.
- Meditating. Ask yourself a question, then sit quietly and let your inner wisdom bubble up.
- Walking. Just as with journaling, you can ask yourself a question and then go for a walk. Studies show that when you walk in nature, you generate ideas. It’s a form of meditation.
- The Results AcceleratorTM. A unique, internal 360-assessment designed to reveal both opportunities and barriers to your success by helping you differentiate between what you have learned and who you are. As you come to know yourself better, you are able to make better choices that are aligned with your identity, values, and best leadership style.
Caroline started out by working on her own for a month using the first four tools. This allowed her to spend some quiet time with herself to tune in to her own ideas, thoughts, and wisdom.
After that month, we talked again and she said she was ready for facilitated coaching with the Results Accelerator to tap into knowledge about herself that she couldn’t access on her own.
The Results Accelerator process helped Caroline realize that her current life looked drastically different than it did when she opened her store 15 years ago. Back then, her focus was on raising her children and building a business to put money in the bank for college and retirement.
It wasn’t just “who was living at home” that had shifted. Her priorities had shifted. How much free time she had and what she could do with it had changed. With the children’s college taken care of, there had also been a shift in the family’s financial focus, and she had new options to consider.
Together, Caroline and I looked at the themes, purposes, and goals of life at its different stages, or Life Quarters. At 50, you enter your third quarter, the time when you explore authenticity and becoming who you know yourself to be. No longer are you willing or able to put up with many of the things you did to arrive at this point. This is the time when many people change jobs, close businesses, and let go of relationships that no longer serve them.
Caroline noticed she was being pulled toward civic leadership, becoming more and more interested in what was happening in her town. Back in high school, she’d done a lot of reading and thinking about the environment, but then she’d put it aside. Now she wanted to get involved in town planning to ensure that the ramifications of increased building were considered.
“The Results Accelerator affirmed that it was natural to look at my life differently and have my interests be drawn to new areas (or return to ones of the past). Now is the time to investigate what’s really important to me.”
Taking this opportunity to do some self-study and consider her journey helped Caroline make some intentional decisions about where she was going next. She said she felt more grounded, more certain of her direction, and more comfortable in who she had become. No one tool made this difference. It was using them in an intentional order, plus a combination of internal and external processing, that made the difference.
YOUR CALL TO ACTION
Are you at a time of transition? Do you feel like it’s time to add something to your life or remove what’s no longer working for you? Are you burnt out by your business, or have you forgotten why you started it in the first place?
The Results Accelerator is a tool that can make a difference for you and your business. It can help you generate insight, leverage your experiences, build self-awareness, and reveal important patterns, all of which will steer you toward better decisions and move you toward your goals more quickly.
Summer is the perfect time to discover (or rediscover!) where you are headed. Sign up for the Results Accelerator now and come learn about yourself, your purpose, and where you want to go next.
