Coach´s Corner By Barbara Wunder
Then there are women who transition from the financial world of work to coaching. Could you leave something secure for something that speaks to your heart? What are you willing to give up – money, security, benefits – to meld the drive in your heart with the job that you secretly dream about? Barbara Wunder reflects on pursuing a very personally defined success at 50ish.
Ever stop yourself in your tracks, and look back at where you’ve come from? I have.
Sure I had a career, but I was zombie-like in it. I felt that I was buried, trapped by many fears. Even thinking of change was daunting: What would it take to make a change? What would people say? I was boxed in and the saboteur was me.
| Even thinking of change was daunting: What would it take to make a change? What would people say? I was boxed in and the saboteur was me. |
How did I die? By being unconscious – just going through the motions and not looking up. My head was focused on the doing without considering the meaning to me. I didn’t want to appear ungrateful for the life I had, but I needed to ask big questions: Do I like what I’m doing? Does it suit me?
| How did I die…. I didn’t want to appear ungrateful for the life I had, but I needed to ask big questions: Do I like what I’m doing? |
I held my unhappiness inside. But I needed to make noise - to speak it to myself and to others out loud – to hear my inner thoughts. I started to talk openly, and then like a snowball made with the greatest packing snow, I started to roll. Speaking my ambitions made them more real. My confidence built. Instead of suffocating with fear under the snowball, I found myself ON it, scouting direction and choosing the path that felt right for me. I wasn’t always sure of the path, but I let the momentum, my expanding network and my "future" carry me, all the time aware of consciously avoiding the previous pitfalls.
That’s been my path for six years. Breaking the transition down into bite sized pieces is exhilarating. I feel that life is more in the moment. I recognize milestones. Now when I look back, all the moments and milestones fall into place, creating an amazing vista. I still have overwhelming days, but overall it feels "right" and the "dips" become a chance to check in with myself.
While I’m a low risk person, my inner zaniness, is liberating me. I can now watch myself move forward through attitude. I recognize that sometimes just thinking the new thoughts is far more challenging than taking action used to be.
I continue to work fulltime while transitioning. I credit some of those people who I worked with for helping to create the new me. Their contributions were many: allowing me to take courses on company time, sharing the financial cost, and reworking my job status. Today I work 4 days with the firm, and one day a week as an executive coach. I’ve discovered what I was born to be.
Why would any employer support that? To maximize their return! My employer recognized that keeping me happy furthered their investment in me and created the possibility of a continuing a more dynamic relationship in future. While I’ve had to accommodate the changes in work and in salary, the benefit to me is that I’m not starting from zero. And I’ve joined a coaching firm on my one coaching day, getting access to their clients, and giving them the opportunity of accessing my network.
| I am creating a new way of working – one day at a time. |
I am creating a new way of working – one day at a time. In this way I can transition to my own coaching practice without isolating myself or going it alone. There are many roads to career transition. My change is about a win win win: for me, my existing company, and the firm I work with one day a week.
What’s the transition that you’re dying to create?
01.10.2007
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Barbara is a Toronto based professional coach who has navigated through four careers including health and nutrition, marketing to the foodservice industry, fundraising, and most recently developing not-for-profit partnerships in the financial services sector.
Barbara holds a Bachelor of Applied Science from Ryerson University, and is a graduate of Toronto General Hospital as a Registered Dietitian. She trained as a coach through The Coaches Training Institute of San Rafael, California.
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