The Curious Hummingbird

Sometimes I feel like a loser in my #career. Do you ever feel this way? It can be paralyzing. Here is how I came to convince myself otherwise!

The “standard path” is to start in an entry level role and steadily climb your way up. While few stay at the same company for an entire career these days, most of us are still “climbing” - consciously or not. Society tells us we are “successful” in our careers if we get promoted, better titles, maybe even a company car.

That’s not me. Well, not anymore. I have certainly received promotions and been glad! (I deserved them) Adding a “Senior” to my title ain’t bad either.

But what motivates me is curiosity, learning something new.
So I’ve zig-zagged across multiple job roles and functions.

I have followed my #curiosity.

What do Program Managers at Microsoft do? Oh this sounds fun. Maybe I will be a team manager for a Marketing team at a start up. Great experience!

I sound so chill and confident, don’t I?

Far from it when it came time to explain my experience to a new hiring manager or networking contact. Then I feared I would be judged fickle, or inconsistent, or not ambitious (none of these are true).

Then one day while preparing for a job interview, I heard the author Elizabeth Gilbert speak on the danger of assuming we all have one, singular passion in life. And that she had suddenly realized this (thanks to some frustrated feedback from a fan) and could clearly see all of the “hummingbirds” in her life:

I was a hummingbird. I AM a hummingbird.

I now know and believe this clearly from identifying my values - they match.

Knowing this has helped me recover from many stressful, distressing and sometimes downright #toxic work environments. I can take what was good, bring it to my next experience and leave the rest.

What are you in YOUR career? What do you want to take with you and what to leave behind?

I can help you find out.
Schedule a free 30 minute session with me.

“Hummingbirds spend their lives doing it very differently. They move from tree to tree, from flower to flower, from field to field, trying this, trying that. And two things happen: They create incredibly rich, compelling lives for themselves. And they also end up cross-pollinating the world. That is the service that you do, if you are a Hummingbird person.

Because you bring an idea from there, to over here, where you learn something else, and you weave it in, and then you take it here to the next thing you do, so that your perspective ends up keeping the entire culture aerated and mixed up and open to the new and the fresh.”
Elizabeth Gilbert, author

#coaching #careerchange #professionalwomen