I had a timely reminder the other day of the way that we can get trapped – unwittingly – in our own metaphors. I was talking to my son about possible career moves in the future, and admitted my concern that I would be taking a step down from where I had been before. With the wisdom of the young he protested "Where’s the lift?! You need to get out of the elevator!"
His comment made me laugh – and startled me out of the frame that was still shaping my thoughts, even after my unpredictable career moves, development of coaching skills, insights from the world of NLP into the impact of limiting beliefs… yes even after all that one powerful metaphor still had a hold on me, namely that a career can only go one of two ways, up, or down.
How about a new, and more resourceful frame, that frees us to make career choices based on what we love, what we’re good at, the way we want to live, the contribution we want to make, the patterns we discern about our purpose in life, rather than bumping up and down in a metaphorical elevator created by other people.
A different narrative that frees us to discover what happens when you step out of the lift and set off on a different
path, taking a spiral staircase maybe, or a flying carpet to adventures new…
Popularity: 22% [?]
Subscribe by RSS and get free updates to the blog
Comments on this entry are closed.