Welcome to Freestyle!
In this, my first Freestyle Careers blog post, I want to tell you why I named my career change business Freestyle Careers, how I discovered that wanting more than one career actually has a name, and invite you to find your flow!
Freedom is one of my top values – and for me this means the space to create a life in which I can thrive. The clients I work with find themselves stuck in their careers, perhaps feel unfulfilled and dissatisfied; but they also retain a growing conviction that they can actually shift into new career directions which bring them greater balance and fulfillment.
When I established Freestyle Careers, I wanted to develop a new way of opening up horizons for clients to build a life including work that fulfills, energises and motivates them. This is a space to feel fully alive and filled with purpose.
Freestyle to me means: drawn by hand; created with a flexible template; outside the normal rules; using imagination and flair; exploratory; original; off-road; and authentic. Does this resonate with you? Then stay with me…
When I was growing up in the bleak Fenlands of Cambridgeshire, I remember the excitement of the summer Olympics and how I feasted on the inspiring performances of skaters and gymnasts. The technical routines were extraordinary examples of skills and prowess, but it was the freestyle performances that made my heart sing. The flow and rhythm, the story-telling, originality and magical combination of skillful moves – all these dazzled me. And so I have found, has it been in life.
Much as I enjoyed colouring within the lines when I was a child, as an adult with a wide world to explore, I have realized that to feel enriched and full of vitality, I need to get out of a box (or career) that someone else has drawn and create my own freestyle landscape.
So while my career started as a secondary English teacher, I soon extended this to an overseas setting, then shifted focus to creating career programmes for women returning to work after a break. This morphed into another 3-year stay overseas – which turned into 22 years! In this time I transformed into a university lecturer, literary festival programmer and career specialist. I progressed and was enriched by each career I pursued, but the need to change direction seemed a powerful force. It seems this has a name – in career terms, I am a ‘Scanner’.
Best-selling author and thought-leader on the subject of Scanners, Barbara Sher describes them as:
“a very special kind of thinker. Unlike those people who seem to find and be satisfied with one area of interest, you’re genetically wired to be interested in many things and that’s exactly what you’ve been trying to do.”
Does this sound familiar? Then stay tuned.. I’ll be diving into this topic of what Barbara Sher calls ‘refusing to choose’ in another blog post very soon.
But back to my career story.
Now settled in the UK and ready to use all my powers of invention to build the next phase of my life, I’m excited by the prospect of working with more clients who want to take a leap of faith in themselves and to explore how their lives and work could look in freestyle technicolour.
But this is not just a flight of imagination – even if this is the fuel that fires the process – my Freestyle Careers packages draw on tried and tested career-change processes, philosophies, experience and actions. As a CTI-trained coach I share a belief in the power each of us has to envision and create a life that is true to who we are. Imagination and practical action; energy and experimentation; creativity and connecting – all are key to creating your future. And it can become a reality!
Want to learn more? Sign up to this blog and you’ll receive future posts in which I’ll be sharing hard-won wisdom and practical tips on:
changing career direction
discovering your values and what they mean for your career
exploring career opportunities
getting unstuck
building self-belief
creating a career change roadmap
building momentum
finding your flow
moving into your new role
To get started, why not download my gift to you – the Freestyle Guide to Discover Work that Sets You Alight.
As we head into autumn and the days shorten (at least in the northern hemisphere!) this is the perfect time to take stock, reflect and build your energy for what might just be a more freestyle and fulfilling 2018!
Welcome to Freestyle Careers!
I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions and ideas – in the box below, let me know what resonates, what’s keeping you stuck and what freestyle means to you.
Warmest wishes
Becky