You may be familiar with the quote from Confucius - "choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life". Well, at the risk of disagreeing with age-old wisdom, I believe that for your career, as in other areas of your life, it's crucial to do what you love….AND there's more!

When I began my career as a life coach, I was thrilled to be doing a job that I loved. But as time went on, I realized I wasn't as fulfilled as I thought I'd be and that was puzzling to me. Why, I asked myself, if I'm doing what I love, was I not wildly successful and completely thrilled?

I could have persevered, but why push and endure when I could create and thrive? What I came to realize is that I had ignored some key elements of success.

There are 3 key components to setting ourselves up for success:

1. Create clearly defined goals with a realistic action plan. Not having an action plan is like driving around in your car without a destination, wondering why you're not getting anywhere. Lots of effort and few results! Instead, create an end goal and break it down into realistic measurable steps. Along the way, continually remind yourself about why this goal is important to you.

2. Create a support team. You don't need to do this alone. Who are the folks who may (or may not) mean well, but leave you feeling defeated? Identify who they are and STAY AWAY FROM THEM. Then, identify and seek out the people who support you. People who'll help you get out of a funk and even be willing to give you a well timed kick in the pants. Don't have people like this in your life? Well, I bet you know a few folks who are trainable and all you need to do is tell them what you need. And remember, in this age of modern communication, they don't need to live near you to be a part of your support team.

3. Create an inspiring environment. Never underestimate the impact your environment can have on you - it can soothe, energize, inspire or clear. I'm continually amazed at the impact of seemingly small things such as buying flowers, listening to music (for ideas visit http://www.orangecoaching.com/favorites.htm), or adding a fresh coat of paint. These may seem like small things but they can have a huge impact.

Give yourself permission to create success and have it be easy. You don't have to struggle and it doesn't have to be hard. Really.



Next Month: Goal Setting for 2005 (or Just Say No to New Year's Resolutions!)

This month I've got a personal note to share about a recent success. On November 9th I gave birth for the first time, to our daughter Willow. My goal was to have a childbirth experience that was as natural as possible. I had read a quote that really landed for me. It stated that depending on the approach, childbirth could be something that you did or something that was done to you. I knew that I wanted to be an active participant in my experience and even though going without pain medication wasn't something I looked forward to, I trusted that with preparation, I was capable.

The 3 components of success (listed in the action section) had a huge impact on my experience. When we arrived at the hospital, the room was beige, beige, and beige so we immediately swung into action and personalized the room with flowers, lots of color & personal effects and popped in CDs. At the end when I needed "pushing" music, we popped Chaka Khan into the CD player which helped me find my female power!

My support team was invaluable. The midwives & nurses were there for medical support but the people I really leaned on were my doula and my husband. They were a constant presence throughout the day providing food, words of encouragement and helping me to be as comfortable as possible. When I got discouraged, they reminded me why this approach was important to me and how capable I was and I was able to re-gain my strength and focus.

Of course the goal for the day was to deliver a healthy baby! But what kept me focused during the long 15 hrs were smaller milestones. This helped me to acknowledge my progress and keep going even when I got tired.