The following is an excerpt of one of David’s coaching sessions in Top Coaching Techniques.
Client: I love music. I love listening to music.
David: Great. So what are two or three different jobs that involve listening to music?
Client: Um. I don’t know. I just went to a concert last week. I would love to be one of those people who help organize their tour. Yeah, that would be fun.
David: Wow. That’s great.
Client: Like, a tour promoter or just actually traveling with the band. Not necessarily making music, but helping them get their music around.
David: Yeah. Write that down. That would be fun.
Client: Yeah, that would be.
David: Now, when you do your list, you’re going to give them scores on different for each of the jobs. Just write down like twenty or thirty and then go along and score them. One of the scores will be for ease of entry. Some of them will have a really low score, because you’ll be like, ‘Oh, I don’t know how to get into that.’ Other will have a high score, like organizing tours. That can’t be hard to get into. You get hired as an assistant. You don’t apply – it’s just based on how enthusiastic you are. You jump in and get some experience, and then you just go from there.
The following is an excerpt David’s interview in Top Coaching Techniques.
Ingrid: It’s interesting that you should say that, because often times it’s easy to say or think that the grass is always greener on the other side. You can get into a bit of a habit about changing jobs.
David: You can. But, you know, I think that stability is overrated. I’ve got to say, I just had a client session today and she was saying, ‘I switched from this to that, and then I’d do this and whatever, and maybe there’s something wrong with me.’ and I said, ‘Well, maybe there is, but maybe your parents just taught you that you should pick something and stick to it, and maybe that’s not the way life has to be. Maybe you should play guitar for a while and join a band, then maybe you should try another career, say, mowing grass. Then maybe you want to be an accountant. I say, what’s the harm? As long as you follow your passion and you’re enjoying it as you do it, and you don’t spend ten years studying just to see if you like it. If you love it keep doing it, and if something else grabs your fancy go and do that.’
The following is an excerpt of David’s interview in Top Coaching Techniques.
Ingrid: So that is the case for some people – it does require a great deal of study or skill development before they can move into their actual career – so it’s not as simple as just switching from one to the other. What do you say to those people?
David: That’s a good point. What I would say is, see if you can stick your big toe in the water. So, if for example, with medicine, it takes a long time to become a qualified doctor, instead of going and studying to be a doctor for many years to see if you like it, see if you can get a job as an assistant somewhere in a hospital or around a doctor’s surgery. That way you can start getting involved with it. Get videos out, start kind of immersing yourself in that area to see if it feels good for you. Then maybe there’s an interim step.
