What I Learned This Summer Part 4: Trust the Magic

My dog wants me to work here

Today might be a little longer than usual as the story is so good. The point is to show you how to make the magic happen in your career.

Hint: Wait. Pay attention.

Here's the background of seemingly unrelated things that have been rolling around in my head for a couple of years:

• I live near a college and walk my dogs on campus everyday.
• I love the energy of early adulthood, and paid for my PhD by working in student affairs as a Residence Hall Director.
• My clients now include a number of 21-year-olds, and it's thrilling to teach them the lessons I wish I had known at their age.
• I have loosely thought about creating a program for young adults and have done nothing with that idea.
• I miss having colleagues that I see every day and the ambient conversations that happen in the cafeteria and hallway.

Here's the story:

My husband and I were walking on campus, and he suggested I might do a program for college students. I couldn't shut the conversation down fast enough. It was my restorative August, and I could not tolerate even a fun, inspirational conversation about work.

As we continued to walk, a door opened and hundreds of new students poured out. We pivoted our route to avoid the crowd and found ourselves walking next to a woman. I asked if she had just presented to the first years, and it turns out she is the VP of Student Affairs. We discovered we're neighbors, discussed her kids, our kids, and then I mentioned how much I loved my time in student affairs. Then she said, "Might you be interested in a part-time job?"

For the first time since I became a coach, I thought... "yeah, maybe."

We're having tea soon.

I don't know where this will lead or I want to add a part-time job to a full life, and here's my point. The magic happens when you least expect it. I wasn't just not looking, I actively shut down the conversation. Then one minute later, an opportunity fell out of nowhere.

So, let yourself long for things. Let ideas roll around in your head. Think about and even talk about unrelated interests. Then say hello, be out in the world, watch for the open door, and walk through with curiosity.

I'm amazed as you are.

My next live event, Energizing U, is coming up on October 26. If you want to amp up your energy and movtivation, this one's for you! Sign up here.

3 Surprising Steps to Create Opportunity

Time to read: Less than 2 minutes

This created professional opportunity.

Many moons ago, I moved to a new city. Starting with grit and my husband's 10 friends, I started a networking campaign to find a job in Human Resources. I had no direct qualifications for an HR role, and a job search coach told me plainly that I had a snowball's chance in hell of getting a job in HR.

Six months later, I had two HR job offers in hand. (And I sent that job search coach a nice "thank you"/"I told you so" note.) The process of creating those opportunities was predictable and surprising. I was discouraged and elated during those 6 months.

Many of y'all have reached out recently in order to create opportunities for yourself. Using my story as a backdrop, here are the 3 surprising steps to create opportunity:

1. Get started: Don't subscribe to the false belief that you have to have all your ducks in a row and your story 100% straight in order to start. When I was looking for a job, I met with anyone and everyone. Each conversation gave me a chance to hone the story of what I wanted. The early conversations were awkward. By the time I finally met people with actual jobs, I was crystal clear. Consistent action set me up to be ready for #3.


2. Be patient: Creating opportunity takes time. Don't subscribe to the false belief that if you don't meet some artificial deadline, you're failing. Feeling like a failure is a sure-fire way to stall your efforts. There were times during my job hunt when I didn't want to go to parties. I was tired of feeling like the drag with nothing to talk about but job hunting. The truth is, six months is not a long time when you're creating something new. Keep your eye on the prize and take one step forward at a time.


3. Wait for serendipity: Don't subscribe to the false belief that your effort alone will create opportunity. Ultimately, the dream job that launched my career in Human Resources didn't come from strategically networking my way to the right person. My job came through a new neighbor when we bought our house. Over the proverbial fence, he told me he was a recruiter for an HR department and offered to take in my resume.

The recipe for creating opportunity is one part effort + three parts serendipity. When you put in the work, the stars eventually align for something magic and unexpected to happen. That you can believe.

With rebel love,

Christina

P.S. Know someone who wants to create opportunity for themselves? Forward this email to them. They can join us here.

P.P.S. I'm working on something exciting that will come out later this summer. It's been a while since I've offered anything to all of you and your friends. Stay tuned. The little elves are working on it.