I've tried that before

Earlier this week I found myself at a business lunch chatting with someone who wanted to know if I'd help her with some career planning. I asked her what sort of life she'd like to be leading in five years' time and she seemed rather perplexed. "I've tried that before" she said.

I wasn't quite sure what she meant; did she have a plan but felt stalled, had she tried to define a goal on her own but found it too much of a challenge or was she hoping I could help her with some career planning as if it were her whole life and not just part of her life.

Many people who come into coaching have achieved much in their lives. They have named goals, created some sort of plan and then set off on a journey to achieve their goals. In that sense we have all "tried that before".

But with a different context, in a different time, with a different coach perhaps, if you want to change your life in any way, you have to first decide to do it and then you need an idea of the life you'd really like. Only when you have that idea, named, discussed or written or drawn in a journal can you begin to plan steps of the right size to move you into the life you'd prefer.

An hour later I happened to see the same person busily making notes and when I asked her what they were she said "I've just had some new ideas about what I might want to do next" !