Recently, one of my private coaching clients (who gave me a permission to use his example in this post) has landed an incredible career opportunity. I’ve been watching his personal growth and development for several months, and his progress has been a joy to be part of. He has worked so hard to get this job and got so excited when the final decision has been made that has got the position. Eager to take his career to the next level, he started planning all that was necessary. But there was one last challenge he had to face: to hand his notice to his present employer. The thought of this made him feel very edgy, uncomfortable and agitated. He has been working for the company for over a decade and a half. Also, the idea of leaving a secure job, starting from scratch again, wasn’t suddenly as appealing as when he received the good news about getting the new job.
Handing a notice is never a pleasant situation to deal with. It often involves hard feelings and discomfort. The day before handing his notice I received a phone call from him. He said that he is feeling very nervous about approaching his current manager and he is not sure if he can do this. I advised him that this is completely normal and I helped him to centre back to the present moment by encouraging him to take a few, deep breaths. Then, we could carry on with our conversation.
I reminded him how much work he has done on himself up to this point and how proud I was of him. When I started coaching him, one of the things he wanted to work on was to take steps towards changing his career. At his current job, he felt demotivated, unappreciated, always going the extra mile, but never feeling valued or acknowledged for his great work and efforts. However, when something went wrong, his manager would call him to the office almost immediately to see what’s going on. (I want to point out here that the latter happened very rarely).
My client was very worried how his manager is going to react to the news about handing his notice. I encouraged him to do what he does best, to be his beautiful self and to stand in his power. I also reminded him to always put himself first, something he has rarely done for himself for all these years in this company. Now is the time to finally embrace everything he had worked so hard for and claim it fully. He began feeling better and said to me, that’s exactly what he is going to do. He got so caught up in the circle of worry how his notice is going be received and completely forgot why he is actually leaving the company in the first place. Sometimes we how to remind ourselves all the reasons why we are doing what we are doing before we take the big step to make a change. The excuses and thoughts such as: ‘It wasn’t that bad after all’, ‘I should maybe give it another year’, ‘I should just stay put and see what happens’ will be entering our minds. This is perfectly normal.
To cut long story short, my client has successfully handed his notice. They were some hard feelings involved and the manager has tried to change his mind and acknowledged him for his hard work in the end, but it was too late. Now he feels that so much weight has been lifted off his shoulders and he is finally ready to start a new venture he worked so hard for and he truly deserves.
The moral of this story is to always put yourself first, to always follow your dreams and to listen to your inner wisdom. When you feel like you need to do something, change something, be somewhere else or let go of something, it’s time to act and explore new venues and think of new options. You can absolutely face any challenge you face if you have the willingness to put in some work and step out of your comfort zone. Have courage, my friend.