Career Change, Career and Executive Coaching

Career Change - Job Sabbatical Pilgrimage

Margaret Stead — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:44:18 +0000

When clients contact me for help with their career they often experience an explosion of energy, racing ahead and completing their career analysis and career change exercises at lightning speed.

The following enthusiastic Brazilian client read all my career change articles (particularly:

Career Change and What to do If You're Out of Work)

before starting his program and one of those articles became part of the life mantra of he and his wife.

My Job Sabbatical Pilgrimage

There are lots of reasons for someone to do the pilgrimage called the "Way of Santiago" (I will call it - "Camino de Santiago" or just "Camino". My reason for undertaking the Camino was as a spiritual journey suggested by my wife.

With everything in life there is a matter of timing and this was the perfect one as I had just being fired upon return from my holidays after nearly 18 years of fully dedicated Service to the Company that was once my family.

THE CAMINO: One can easily write a book about it as there is so many experience lived there. It is a miniature life. It involves everything you may deal with in life:

The decision to take the time off and "justify" doing it:

PREPARATION: Perhaps a key part of any journey and no different in the Camino.
Dealing with expectations and anxiety: Lots of questions from reading forums and preparing for the good and the bad on the Camino.

Can we walk so much a day for so many days?

Where do we start the Camino?

THE START: Finally being on the way.
The first night and the nights at the Albergue: An experience and a lesson in humbleness.

DOING IT: The walks: Long, short, hot, cold, nice, beutiful, rainy, snowing , climbing, descending etc.

Taking care of the most valuable asset you have: YOU: Crucial so you can walk the next day. Anything can and will happen. You need to rest and be ready for the next day and know how to pace yourself and NOT walk the life of others.

LIMITATION: Respecting your limits as we should in life also. Easier said than done.

The people along the way: Perhaps the best part of the Camino.

Angels, friends, families, finding your group/team, and the others that have different agendas and while very nice also are in a difference time schedule or state of form or mind.

All with a common goal of stopping the fast lane, changing directions or rethinking their ways or existence in life.

LESSONS LEARNED: Too many to write in a few words. Some include that there is a lot out there to be learned on the Camino. We get simplify or complicate our life's as we wish. We can get used to anything and can adapt and change. The only thing we really need is water, food, sleep and love.

The only factor the limits the excitement of our life's is ourselves. There is a lot of good people out there if you just open up to them. The more centered you are, the easier is to find the good in life. We should all stop and do at least one Camino every so often.

THE END: Never an end to the Camino as the Camino de Santiago as it is an experience to remember forever. The Camino may end but the Camino of Life just restarted again hopefully with some lessons learned.

If you'd like to learn more about the 'Camino' then I (Ed) can recommend 'The Camino - A Journey of the Spirit' by Shirley MacLaine, Published by Pocket Books, 2000.

Career Coach - Hip Fracture is a Death and Dementia Sentence

Margaret Stead — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 21:48:56 +0000

When my Mum had her hip replaced we were thrilled for her. She said she felt no more pain. Little did we know that it was the start of a long drawn out fight with dementia and parkinson's disease. You see there was something that the health authorities were not telling us......

Just get a load of this advertisment that appeared in November 2007's edition of Maclean magazine:

You're not looking at a hip fracture, you're looking at a death sentence.

Each year one in three Ontarians (that's people from Ontario, Canada, Ed) over the age of 65 will take a serious tumble that may land them in hospital with a broken hip. One in three of those who do break their hip will die within a year. Two thirds will experience dementia-like symptoms. Most will never see home again.

Chances are - especially if you're 65 or over - you find these numbers appalling. We sure did.

So at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, we started to look at how we could improve these odds. We discovered that the combination of compassionate dementia care and rigorous rehabilitation is powerful medicine. So powerful in fact, that 90 per cent of the patients we've treated so far have successfully completed their rehabilitation and returned home.

We're pleased with these results. So are our patients. And happily, for those who will take a spill this year, 34 other hospitals and health care organizations across the GTA have embraced Toronto Rehab's new model of hip fracture care and now offer it to their patients.

With your help we can continue to defy the odds.

Make your donation today.

Telephone 1-877-666-0605

http://www.torontorehab.com/foundation

For those of you who are contemplating a hip replacement past, present or future this information is critical to your survival or that of your loved one. If only we'd known.

Career Coach - Xmas Newsletter 2007

Margaret Stead — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:06:09 +0000

Annus Brilliantus - Flight to Canada 2007

You probably know the story by now, but just to recap a little....
Last summer we heard that Mum's carers were being shipped elsewhere and we decided then and there to bring our proposed move to Canada forward.

With only six weeks during which time we had to sell houses and cars to fund our trip - we made it just in time to arrive for Christmas 2006. Since then our life here has been one long party with our new Canadian friends and visitors from the UK. We've had Persian parties, Housewarming parties, Birthday, Anniversary and Wedding parties, Barbeques and boating, picnics and breakfasts, jewellery and cookie, theatre and Halloween, in fact, any excuse at all.

Now you'd think that with all this joy going on that we would not have had time to accomplish anything, but you might be pleasantly surprised. We bought and renovated a Victorian stone Church Manse and we've built a Bookbinding Studio, Gallery and Exhibition Centre in the barn, where we've held Champagne Strawberry and Cream Open Weekends and hosted Studio Tours. (A.k.a. 'Teas and Wees'.)

Now you may be wondering what any of this has to do with YOUR career. Well, just look at this picture that I pulled out of a newspaper dated May 2006. It was my dream home. After I had clipped it out of the newspaper, the fragile piece of paper rattled around my kitchen for a while and at one point had to be rescued from under the cat bowl. Eventually it ended up in a see-thru wallet on my office desk.

Take a look now at a view from the window of our new house. What does this tell you?

Mmmm!?

You've heard by now of Abraham's law of attraction? Haven't you? I've talked about it.

Basically what you give out - you attract back from the universe. It works literally like a dream.

There are however fundamental flaws in the way the theory is put across - especially by the makers of the Secret.

I don't know whether they know, intend to use it in a sequel or are just keeping the news for themselves. But it is the key to making these things work.

I'll be talking about it in the new year and look forward to continuing to use this incredibly powerful tool with my coaching clients in the programs we run together.

Back to the newsletter -

Mum has continued to receive the finest care in the world and she is currently being looked after at home by a nurse from the Philippines called Theodora who is marvellous and makes great spring rolls. Although Mum has had one or two little strokes she is aware and enjoying everything that is going on.

Elizabeth is our miracle daughter and has decided to join us here. Lizzie has been working as a registered nurse in Birmingham, England and is now looking for a job in Ontario. She shouldn't be looking for long as she has already got four offers. We just have to wait for her official nursing registration to come through from the College of Nurses, get a work permit and a written job offer, not much really. Lizzie's been enjoying life with new found Canadian friends (though she misses her UK gang hugely) and taking part in winter sporting activities, such as snowboarding and rally driving.

Edward has had a fantastic year spending the first quarter in Australasia partying, starting his new role with Accenture in London in May and joining us in Lake Belwood for a week of Seadooing, Kayaking and Caving and he's coming back at Christmas.

We can't tell you how brilliant it has been for us . Tomorrow we are having a celebration party because we have just received news of our permanent residency a year to the date we arrived. We love it here.

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