Coaching For Success - Life Coach Carole Ann Rice looks at the agony of the comfort zone

Ever heard yourself or a colleague or friend sigh “I just sort of drifted into this” when taking a rain check on their career and where they’re headed? Unless you were one of those totally weird kids who at the age of six who knew they wanted to be an accountant, the majority of us strayed from the path of our dreams of being astronauts, vets or famous novelists and, like rudderless ships, “drifted” into our current situations.

How or why we ended up so carelessly sleepwalking into something that could well keep us shackled and unhappy for over 40 years of our working lives, should be viewed as a wreckless mistake instead of a common norm. Studies have revealed that students with clear set goals of what they wanted in life were more likely to achieve them than those who drifted without focus at the whim of fate.

Little wonder then that the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in a survey published last year revealed that only 35% of employees actually engaged with or felt a passion for their work. Great chunks of lives spent biding time, making do and putting in the hours simply to get to retirement with some sort of pension and nest egg to make up for the lost years of youth, energy and passion.

Sorry to depress you but if this sounds like I could be reading your mail then it’s time to wake up and smell the nursing home.

Golden hand cuffs such as pension schemes and private health insurance do go some way to add security. But safety nets soon tie boulders around your dreams if your heart yearns for a high wire act or the trapeze when it comes to your career. Suddenly what was the comfort zone is feeling distinctly uncomfortable.

There are many ways in which coaching can help people re-engage with where they are now even if the position they hold only partially meets their intellectual capabilities. Taking more risks, learning to be more confident, devising and stategising new goals within the organization or within a sales context can breathe new life and new possibilities into an established role.

Often after you have been established within an organization for some years it can seem like the grass elsewhere is always more verdant and the need to move on becomes a burning issue. Sometimes the desire is simply to establish whether or not you would “make the grade” in another set up and this could lead to the out of the frying pan into the fire syndrome.

Coaching can help get to the heart of the discontent whether it is to truly pursue a long held dream and completely re-train and turn your life around or simply make more of where you are now, what you are doing and how to maximize your potential within that established framework. You go from drifting to directional, sleepwalking to nowhere to slip streaming success. You may not remember why you got to where you are but you will definitely know where you’re heading.

Carole Ann Rice is MD of The Real Coaching Co. Book a free 30 minute session now http://www.realcoachingco.com/