How to Fly Out of Your Mid-Life or Mid-Career Tailspin

Flight Crew: Ladies and Gentlemen, We’re experiencing a delay and are waiting until a gate is available.

Your plane pulls away from the gate at the airport as you sit back and get ready for your flight. Then, you have to wait for 10 or 20 minutes or even hours. You can’t get up or leave the plane. You’re at the mercy of whatever is holding up the the plane taking off. The same goes for being up in the air and haiving to wait. The danger in the air is that the plane will eventually run out of fuel. Not Good.

Holding Pattern

Last week, I had a new client call me on the fly (no pun) and they wanted to meet for 20 minutes. When we got to the coffeeshop, he descirbed how he felt like he was haiving trouble bridging the gap between what he has done in his past and what he wants to do with his future. Sound familiar. You’re not alone. In fact, you’re in the majority.

He has a ton of experience with several different orgnaiziationas in his field and with his year-old social enterprise which he co-founded. During our meeting, I guided him through the following process to help help create clarity…clean air space. I thought it might be useful to you.

Step #1 — Make Your Map…Get Clear

  1. One Large sheet of paper, draw circles and write your major life and work experiences in the cirlcle…1 experience per circle.

Step #2 — Reflection not Judgement

  1. Remove the “how’s” from your mind…you’re not trying to solve anything.
  2. Look at the circles without judgement. Just read to observe and expand your awareness about what you’ve proabably forgotten ove the years.

Step #3 — Self-Awareness + Happiness

  1. After 5 minutes of observing, then take 10 minutes and meditate or pray to help your conscious step away from the chatter in your mind that’s trying to solve a problem or criticize you.
  2. From those moments of silence, you will create space for clarity.
  3. Put the page away and come back to it later in the same day.
  4. First, look for the connections on your page that make you feel happy.
  5. Second, create an action to bring that connection to life.

If you need a little more of a jumpstart, then sign up for the Beta version of the Zen Doughboy Academy’s newest course How to Use a Happiness Practice to Avoid Mid-Life and Mid-Career Crisis. Special discount registration of $10 (regular $50) which gives you lifetime access to the full On-Demand class. All we ask is for your feedback to help make the course better for when the full class launched on June 1st.

Safe travels.
Anthony