Fall 2017 Navigating Transitions Newsletter - Updates and information on "Growth Mindset"

Bountiful Fall Blessings to You!

I hope this letter finds you healthy and happy. Just in the last week, here in Northern California, the weather has turned a little more crisp in the evenings, and it’s starting to feel like Fall.

It's been an eventful year for me, so far. This last Spring, I moved to Sonoma County, and the transition demanded a lot of my focus and energy. I now feel settled and have been enjoying the rich offering of wines and food in this area, as well as the outdoor beauty.

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 A stock photo of my new hometown of Petaluma

This Fall also marks my second semester providing academic and career counseling part-time at Santa Rosa Junior College. I am enjoying working with my team and supporting student success on a variety of levels, while continuing to thrive in the expanded creativity of seeing clients through my business. For those who don't know, I didn't always enjoy my work, however...

When I initially moved to the Bay Area, I worked as a Case Manager with a loud, chaotic non-profit in San Francisco. As an Introvert, the noise overwhelmed me, and I struggled to focus. My supervisor was a critical micro-manager, and the focus was on pushing paperwork versus developing client connections. I hated going to work each day and couldn't wait until 5 o'clock. After that job mercifully ended, I took time for soul searching and clarified what was most important to me, vowing to make my next career decisions carefully. These choices ended up leading to college counseling and eventually starting my own business. If you feel ready for some soul searching, feel free to check out my Career Clarity Questionnaire, which may give you further clues.

Back to the present...So now, after my recent season of transition, I am ready to once again work to increase the counseling services I offer through Navigating Transitions. I am excited to re-focus on growth and reaching out to clients in my local area – and beyond through phone and Skype.

As one way to support this expansion, I am now leading my active and successful Meetup group on career transitions in Petaluma, offering events once a month. The next Meetup is Friday, October 13th and will include career transition tips and networking time. I invite you to join us, or would love if you spread the word to others who might benefit. If you don't live in the area, I suggest making a trip of it and going wine tasting or sight seeing!

My passion is still helping talented Introverts who have outgrown their jobs - and may be distracting or isolating themselves and feeling disconnected from their greatest gifts - to recognize and focus these gifts in a rewarding career that feels like play and makes a huge difference in the world. 

But I have found in my own life and in work with clients over the last 10 plus years, that having talents or gifts does not equate automatically to success. Two of the most important additional components in success, I believe, are a love of learning and persistence, or “Growth Mindset.” A recent blog post I read on the website, Udacity, “The Importance of Curiosity and Persistence in a Knowledge Economy,” analyzes this in an interesting way, including discussing the difference between resilience and persistence (hint: reactive vs. active). The post ends with this, “These are individuals who have taken it upon themselves to learn something new, and despite the pressures of the outside world (work commitments, family obligations, financial pressures, etc.), they stick it out, and they learn, and they achieve, and these achievements make new and better futures possible.”
 
I also wanted to share a few quotes on this topic from well-known people, which I find inspirational:

• "Great spirits have often overcome violent opposition from mediocre minds." Albert Einstein, (1879-1955)
• “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” Maya Angelou, (1928 – 2014)
• “Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.” Barack Obama (b.1961) *I like this one because it speaks to how hard it can be to keep going, and a key reason people give up.
• “Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness.” Oprah Winfrey, (b.1954)
• A last thought from me, re-shared from a previous newsletter: “You don't have to leap off the cliff into the unknown; you can build a bridge to the career of your dreams, one piece at a time. Sometimes that means finding ways to tolerate or even enjoy your current job without going crazy; meanwhile you are persistently growing and building.”

Lastly, I have a request I hope you will consider. I have space available for four new clients and would appreciate your support in reaching people who are unhappy in their professional work and want a meaningful change. So if you need career counseling, or you know someone who does, will you contact me or forward this email today? I'm making plans for the next year and would love to include you in my work. 

This newsletter will go out approximately once a quarter. You're already signed up, and you can unsubscribe at any time. I hope, however, that you'll enjoy receiving it, and that you'll find it worth sharing with others as well.

To Your Success and Happiness,

Kristina

Kristina Bennett, MA
Career Counselor
Navigating Transitions Career Counseling
www.HelpNavigatingTransitions.com

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