Through the Fog

It was last century.

I was driving, alone, in an unknown city.

I had a destination.

I had studied the map and had my route plotted out in my head (No GPS. No cell phone).

There was a thick fog.

I could barely make out traffic signs.

I had NO sense of direction. The sun was not evident: I detected no sunrise (SE), no sunset (SW)…

I realized, with discomfort, I was LOST.

I stopped to check a street name – having to pull over to read it.

It was not on my mind’s route map. What was the next street?

I pulled along to the next street and then stopped to pull out my map.

I had to go to the index to find where these streets were located.

I was well off course and heading in a very wrong direction.

Discomfort rose as my inner voice, which had been mumbling, was now screaming “you’re lost! YOU are LOST!” as if my inner voice and I were going to drive off the edge of the earth or some axe murderer was about to leap out of the fog.

Sometimes professional growth can feel like that.

Stuck in one place or bumping along, unable to see a clear route forward - in any direction - that is enticing or exciting, or isn’t just frightening! Fear of the unknown.

How do we grow by tackling challenges when The Challenge can be figuring out the very next step?

How do we grow when we are stuck or lost or fearful or confused?

I have known some people who, at the age of six, knew they were going to be This or That. Their journey was not without challenge, but it appeared to me to be magically simplified. Linear.

That was not my experience.

Further, unlike driving, there have been few way-finding indicators to provide clues as to direction or next steps.

I didn’t come with an end-point definition of “Optimal, Maximized Me”.

When I turned 18, 28 or (add decades as you choose) I received no Schedule or Plan, complete with Milestones, for reaching that “Optimal Me”,

I came without GPS. Maps or Manuals.

How about you?

How do we Realize our Potential?

How do we even know What our Potential is?

We do get some hints: We get inklings of our Strengths when we do things that charge us up and give us great satisfaction, and maybe even energy. We can take assessments that might tell us everything we already know, but maybe don’t quite recognize. We can ask friends and family…

And then, at some point, we “take a chance”. Something might catch our imagination and we “give it a go”.

That takes courage and there are no guarantees.

How many times have you found yourself well over those falls of failure and after drying off and reflecting a bit, got up and chose a different route? (I was dreadful as a Lab Tech and as a professional Sales Rep to name but a few areas of enlightenment.)

We learn.

We grow.

Those “mistakes” are refiners and distillers  – helping us to figure out what we like by removing what we don’t.

And sometimes, we won’t know what we don’t like if we don’t try it!

Life is an adventure of discovery -

And a thinking partner – a coach - can help you in the distillation; help you find a route through that fog of uncertainty and fear.