Are You Stuck? Your Next Chapter is Waiting.

A Next Chapter can be created anytime, if you (really) want to.  Even in a pandemic.

It’s true. 100% of the time.

However, the majority of leaders I talk with who are at a Crossroad Moment all experience one or more of these common scenarios:

1. We feel stuck or paralyzed trying to figure out what to do next, how, and when.  We run the scenarios, do research and never leap into our lives of impact, joy, ease and financial sustainability.
2. We ignore the pulling we feel.  We tell ourselves this feeling will pass, we should be happy, or it’s just how it is. We keep ourselves busy.
3. We wait. We tell ourselves that before we can make a change we/or the world around us must first… (fill in the blank: come out of a pandemic, get more experience, stay in the current situation for 3 years, etc. etc.). Or, we wait for someone else to make the decision for us (an employer, a doctor, a client, a partner).
4. We listen and believe all the “practical” reasons why what we want is not possible. Or why we’re not qualified, smart enough, fill-in-the-blank enough.
5. We jump into action, but our decisions are made from outdated self-definitions of success or “best practices” that don’t leverage our uniqueness, and we end up repeating the very dynamics we thought we were moving on from.

My own Crossroad Moment was a personal and professional journey through ALL FIVE before I figured out how to unlock the missing and foundational pieces no one teaches us – that are needed to create a path forward into our dream scenario.**

Moments of change and transition offer us unprecedented possibility to actively pause, connect,  gain insight and clarity on what we are seeking, reveal our true value, shift and change, and transform.

And, while ultimately they can result in joy, Crossroad Moments can certainly appear initially through pain and suffering – a terrible work environment, being fired, a health emergency.

As I write this, I want to give my husband a big shout out.  Peter took his Crossroad Moment and, by setting an intention to help others – our son (successfully) battling brain cancer and other children and families fighting cancer, his Next Chapter began to unfold.  We travelled around the world, he retired early, we moved to a magical place where he felt creative energy for the first time, and he set about bringing his dream to write a children’s book to life.

And… he seems to have been able to SKIP over all of the five scenarios above!  🙂 

This week (long story short!), the advance copies of his book “Dragons on the Purple Moon” arrived, and they are available for pre-order now, to raise funds for Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation!  He DID it!

A Next Chapter can be created anytime, if you (really) want to.  Even in a pandemic. Even when you’ve never written a children’s book before.  Even when you don’t know if everything is going to be okay. 

It’s true. 100% of the time.

Most of us just need a trusted guide and proven process.**

If you, or someone you know is stuck I’m offerring a free Strategy Call to start exploring the possibilities and YOUR unique Path Forward. Today.

To your success,

Kathryn

Next Chapter Coach
Creator of The Career (Life!) Breakthrough AcademyTM

**This is what The Career (Life!) Breakthrough Academy^TM teaches, it’s what I coach every week in the Mindful Leadership Membership Group,  privately with leaders at Crossroad Moments as a Next Chapter Coach or with non-profit arts and culture organizations as a professional Interim CEO and transition strategist.