...with a little help from his future time travelling self
It is 2001 I am wearing my comfy green cords with the elastic waist. I am in Chesham in Buckinghamshire curled up on the sofa smoking and eating pizza.
I am overweight. I am not performing particularly well at work. In short I am in a rut.
It is not that I am terrible at work, it is just that I don’t really care enough about it to try. I took a role because it was a start in a corporate company.
The role that came along was with Comet, and the department ‘cookers and microwaves?!’ (not an area I had dreamed about!)
I didn’t care about retail, or even marketing really, it was just the next step on the journey I had set out on. I was not fulfilled or interested in the detail of the role. Weekly sales meetings, range reviews, forecasting sales and managing stock.
It was fast moving with opportunities to make mistakes if you weren’t on the ball which I wasn’t. I always remember when I accidentally ordered 3000 gold microwaves from Korea which never sold.
So here I am, not earning much, not enjoying my role, not performing well and wondering what went wrong. I can tell you now 18 years later, at the time at 24 years old, I was clueless.
I had fallen into the trap of following a career path that was expected of me. I had also taken the available job without assessing it in the right way.
I can’t tell you what it was that gave me the drive to get up one day and do something about it. That is what I did though. I had little experience of interviews and still wasn’t clear on what I wanted which was probably why it took me 22 job applications to move on.
Move on I did though… and my salary went from £19 to £35k overnight as I took on a marketing buying role with the airports authority B.A.A.
I had thrown myself in the deep end without a care and it was sink or swim. Bizarrely, the fact that the role was much more complex, with more challenging politics and a more senior role it meant I performed better.
Why? Because I was learning, I was challenged, I was motivated. I had to get difficult senior people to work with my department even when it made their own agenda’s harder to deliver.
I learnt a skill and expertise in marketing procurement. I was fortunate that a recruitment consultant put the marketing and buying experience on my C.V. together and suggested marketing procurement. By pure chance I moved into a growing field that would become a niche I could use.
I had my great new salary and over a few years I doubled it and doubled it again. I had more experience in the marketing category as a buyer than almost anyone else. I grew over the next 12 years to have over 10 huge blue chip names on my C.V. and to guarantee I could walk into new roles.
HOORAY?!
ACTUALLY NO…
I was still not happy. I was earning but I didn’t feel connected. I had not done the right personal discovery work. I wasn’t in a role I had designed for myself based on my deep interests and values, it was another role I had fallen into and stayed in for years. Years I could have saved! Don’t get me wrong I gained heaps of valuable experience working for 12 blue chips and across 5 industries but it is not what I needed for me.
What would a time traveling 42 year old Miles come back and tell his a stubborn 24 year old self?
He would share my proven career change process.
My Four C process, which starts with exploration and groundwork to build confidence, comprehension, capacity and context.
“Take out a piece of paper young Miles”.
Brainstorm all that you care about and what excites you.
Everything you are naturally gifted in.
Everything you care about, everything you want in your life. Everything that you are fiercely connected to that makes you, well YOU.
Ok well done my fat, little, pizza-eating, smoking no-hope former self.
I am going to sort you right out!
So now you know what you care about, let’s get your thinking straight.
Let’s study YOU!
Let’s study cognitive behaviour. I want you to understand how human thoughts operate:
Your thoughts …produce your feelings …which lead to your actions …and create your results.
Now practise deciding what you want to spend time thinking about.
Sounds hard huh, guess what… it really isn’t.
Actually decide what you want to think about to support your most resourceful successful self. Deciding what to spend time thinking about is completely available to you. You don’t have to fall back on the repeating pattern of negative stories which are probably not even true about your self-worth.
You have your wants and needs.
You can think and guide your feelings more positively to set goals.
High quality, genuine and authentic career goals.
If you are striving for a role you care about, that will be personally authentic. How amazing and powerful you will feel in that interview when you say you really want this AND actually mean it!
Think how genuinely motivated and energised you will feel and how convincing you will be. Faking it can work, but surely a genuine and well aligned direction will mean you don’t have 20+ false starts and failed interviews!
I honestly wish I had been able to jump in Marty McFly’s DeLorean and travel back in time and give my former self this advice.
I would have started coaching years ago. I would have started working on a truer calling to which I was more suited and I could add value. I would have built my Mission, Vision, Purpose and Values and ensured they gave me the drive I needed to build a successful coaching practise years ago.
My Purpose is:
To help people feel that they can do anything they want in their lives wherever they are and however they feel right now.
My Vision is:
To create new energy, belief and power for individuals. Offering both free material and affordable great value options for personal growth. To develop a community who support one another and feel excited to interact and share progress and stories.
My Mission is:
To have 10,000 individuals feel proud of what bold and exciting changes they have achieved for themselves. To be a certified master coach and coach effortlessly and powerfully.
My Values are:
Fun, Passion, Creativity, Accomplishment, Ambition/Respect, Health, Accomplishment.
If you are ready, only if you are ready, to commit to change in your life, then:
Click to register and read my free career change guide:
..and then
Click to apply for a 121 call with me and discuss your next chapter: https://82cqbsx0.pages.infusionsoft.net
Let’s start your journey now!
Testimonials:
“Working with Miles is great; Our video-calls help me to focus on the action I need to be. His tools facilitate a structure to my thinking and allow me to come to the answer myself. I would wholeheartedly recommend working with Miles if you want to step up” RS – Owner - software business
“Miles is a fantastic listener but asks powerful questions - ones that make you truly look at your options in full, lavish technicolor. I can recommend him without hesitation.” PM - Senior Leader Exhibitions company
“I am extremely pleased I opted to do a course with Miles. As a character he is incredibly engaging and really throws himself passionately into supporting you. I have found Miles to make our sessions really specific to me and this I think is key to his success rather than just blind me with a serving of textbook theory.!” – M.D Ultra high value goods business
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