WORK IN PROGRESS
THE Personal Effectiveness E-zine May 2005

><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>><<>>
Finishing the ladder that leads to your vision

In the last two issues of Work in Progress we have been going through a process that I have called "Project you" in which you develop a vision for your life in the future and develop your ladder (or road map) to that life.

In March we created the vision, and in April we examined the part of the ladder that each individual has already navigated, and how the skills learned in that experience may be relevant to new arenas in which you may choose to dance in the future.

><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>><<>>
But first, I need your help, please.

You will have noticed, I hope, that Work in Progress carries no advertisements, that subscribing to WIP does not mean that I promptly start sending you all kinds of notices of "special offers" on which the senders automatically take their cut if you buy. Work in Progress is completely content-oriented, and I make no money on it. I don't sell or share your email information, and I don't allow this address to be used for the sending of material other than WIP. (I do know that my address has been spoofed at least once by a spammer, but unfortunately none of us can fully defend ourselves again this, although I have recently added some new security measures in attempt to prevent it.)

However, I do hope to get clients as a result of Work in Progress, from time to time, and to do that I need to keep my number of subscribers up. Every month I lose anywhere from ten to fifty readers because they have changed their email addresses and not informed me of the change. After three "bounces" to these no-longer-in-use addresses the system automatically unsubscribes these people.

How can you help?
First, please remember to inform me, or to resubscribe yourself under your new address, if you change email addresses.

Second, let other people know of WIP articles that might be of use to them, and recommend that they subscribe if you feel fully able to do so.

Third, if you know someone who might benefit from a free coaching call with me, please recommend it to them. I do not try to "sell" them on coaching, and there is no obligation resulting from this offer, nor do I add them to a "follow-up" list that will bombard them with future emails. Also, one does not need to be "broken" in order to benefit from a coaching call. Coaching clients are usually fully whole and successful people who simply know that they can use a coach as part of the "success team" that helps them to stay just a "nose" ahead of their competitors.

I would so much appreciate your help with any or all three of these points.

Now, back to our regular programming...

><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>><<>>

Here we will look at the final steps as you complete the creation of the "ladder" that will take you to the life you have envisioned. Take a careful look at your vision of where you will be at whatever future date you have selected. See yourself there, living that life. See it, hear it, smell it, feel it - BE THERE in your visualization!

Now you can take one of two methods, but I believe that the "step back" method is more effective for most situations.

In the step-back method you visualize yourself in the life that you desire. Now, to create the top rung on your ladder, or the last step in your journey, think about the very last, the most recent thing that you needed to do in order to step into this life. Not the first step, but the last. Then, what was the step before that? What did you need to do in order to get there? Step by step you work your way backwards to the present, taking note of each step as you go.

The "step forward" method takes the reverse approach, starting with where you are now and deciding what is the absolutely first thing you need to do to move forward in the direction of your vision. When you are creating an action plan, as regular readers know I am strongly in favor of the "very next step" approach. However, right now you are not ready for the action plan; you are mapping your journey. The action plan comes later. For an accurate map I find that most people work better with the step-back process, but this is your journey and you need to do what works best for you.

Once you have the rungs established, and can see what you need to do to get there, then will be the time to develop the action plan for the first ring that faces you.

As a couple of examples of how this might work, I remember reading about a man who decided that if he were to get where he wanted to go I life he needed to learn leadership, salesmanship and management skills. He enrolled in the Marines, where he took advantage of every bit of training that was available, and learned about leadership, while being paid. He then got a job as a salesman with a company that had a reputation for having one of the best sales training programs in the world. They trained him in sales, while paying him. Lastly, he set his sights on another company that placed a lot of focus on management training, got a job there on the basis of his sales experience, and went through management training with them while - you guessed it - being paid.

When he struck out in business for himself, he was as well trained as anyone could be, and had in the meantime been able to save the money he needed to invest in his own business.

On a much smaller scale - but then, we don't all want to be huge in business - there was the time that I decided to make a radical switch in my own life. At the time I was a graduate student and had spent the last several years studying social psychology and preparing to become a university professor, with my major interest being that I wanted to equip myself to do research. At the same time I had recently gone through a marital breakdown. As a result of my experiences in teaching in various local colleges while I worked on my dissertation, I was becoming increasingly disillusioned with academia. An incident occurred that locked in that thought, and I decided, for a variety of reasons not relevant to this story, that I would become an addictions counselor. Now, a degree in social psychology does not equip one to become a therapist. In fact those of us in the social psychology department were rarely even permitted to take classes in clinical psychology. In addition, the only class at my university that related to addiction focused solely on nicotine.

I knew that in order to get the job I wanted I had to have experience in the field, I had to know something about addiction, and I had to know who was who in the field. While I was still working on the dissertation I started taking classes specifically designed for future addictions counselors at a local community college. There was a wide gap between the level of work - doctoral dissertation and community college class, but it was a rung on my ladder. I followed every suggestion of the teacher, who became my mentor. When she suggested that I become active in a sub-committee, I joined it and began to know people in the field. Today I am on the local Board of that organization and some of us still fondly hark back to those days from time to time.

When I completed the doctorate I achieved one of the highest points of academic achievement - and, alas, on the same day joined the ranks of the unemployed, for at that time none of the local addiction treatment agencies was hiring. With a mortgage to pay, and two cats to feed, I did the rounds of the employment and temp agencies, and set up my schedule for the summer... or for as long as it would take to find a job.

My daily schedule took me to volunteer at a local treatment agency every morning for three hours, nine till noon. Despite the fact that my degree had nothing to do with addiction there seemed to be an assumption that I must know something and they gave me more responsibility than I should have had, since I was a volunteer and not paid staff. But I learned. At noon I leaped into my car, drove to the other side of the county, and, courtesy of the temp agency, did data entry (for this I earned a doctorate?) for an electronics warehouse for four hours. At 5 p.m. I reversed the drive so that at 6 p.m. I could start a four-hour shift in a market research company, where I telephoned reluctant respondents and tried to persuade them to answer my questions about various products, or, it being an election year, about politics. That summer I learned to eat fast food with one hand while driving with the other. (Hint, two "junior" size hamburgers are much easier and less messy to eat that one large one.)

It was, as they say, hell on wheels - only in my case that was a fairly literal description. At times I wasn't sure I could keep going, and I was barely making ends meet. However, at the treatment agency they loved my volunteer work, and when it came time for me to leave they gave me a glowing letter of reference, which was probably why I got my first job in the field However, that was not yet.

What happened next was that the temp agency, having decided that they liked my work, sent me to work for the local research office of a major computer chip manufacturing company. There I replaced the receptionist who was out on maternity leave. Apart from occasionally - but rarely - answering the phone, and signing for deliveries from UPS, I had almost nothing to do, so I learned how to use a PC (my previous computer had been an Apple II), read about addiction treatment, and did some writing.

During all of this time many people asked me why I did not try to find permanent work. They were sure I could find something. So was I, but it was not the work that I intended to find. I was job hunting, but there were relatively few jobs available in the addiction treatment field. I had completed my doctorate in May, and it was not until December that my patience paid off. I began work in as a primary therapist in an addiction treatment agency shortly before Christmas.

Just another story, nothing dramatic. But I tell it to show how a step by step process, planned and firmly followed despite difficulties, can lead to where you want to go.

This is not to say that one should not be open to changes in direction. This entire story shows how I changed direction from my original plan to enter academia.

Or does it?

You see, years later, shortly after I left my management position in the addiction treatment field in order to develop my coaching business, I received a call from my former teacher and mentor, the one who had taught the classes as the community college. She was ill, and wanted me to take over a class until she recovered. Sadly, she did not recover, and died two months later. For more than four years now, in addition to running my coaching business, I have combined my love for the field of addiction treatment with my enjoyment of teaching at the college level. As I teach future addictions counselors, without the "publish or perish" pressures of working in a higher level university, I am also able to share with them the many coaching skills that will help them to be better counselors in the battle against addiction.

So now I enjoy the best of three worlds - coaching, teaching, and the addictions treatment field. I am blessed, and I enjoy my fourth passion, writing, as I write this

It is time to return to you, your vision, and your ladder. What are the rungs you need to add so that it will lift you to your vision? It is possible that you do not know all of them right now. You may need to get closer to some of the higher ones before you can see them in fine detail. Nonetheless, sketch in what you can.

Then, with the ladder as complete as it can be, you come to the first of your actual action steps. What is the very first thing that you need to do to start your climb? Not "get a degree" but "order the college catalog" which may even come down to "find the college phone number." Not "move to California" but "decide on a community" which may mean "get information from the chamber of commerce" or "contact a Realtor" which, again, may mean that before you do those things you need to "do a search on the web."

Remember, your next action is the very first thing that you need to do, however small. Write it down. Do it. Once it is done you can see, and do, the next item. You are on your way!

(And remember that if you need help with this type of work, a free half-hour coaching call is easily scheduled, with no sales pitch, pressure, or obligation to go beyond that one call.)

><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>><<>>
PLEASE! Any re-use of this material should include the words "Copyright Diana Robinson 2005. For more information visit Diana's web site http://ChoiceCoach.com or contact her at Diana@ChoiceCoach.com."

TO SUBSCRIBE to Work in Progress send a blank e-mail to workinprogress-On@lists.webvalence.com.
TO UNSUBSCRIBE, send a blank e-mail to
workinprogress-Off@lists.webvalence.com
To offer feedback e-mail Diana at Diana@ChoiceCoach.com or visit her
web site at http://ChoiceCoach.com