Creating a Career from the Inside Out

The Coreporation is happy to announce that Sharon Seivert and Pat Campbell have written A Guide for Mastering the 5 Elements of Success in Your Career. This is a companion book intended to be used with The Balancing Act: Mastering the 5 Elements of Success in Life, Relationships, and Work (Inner Traditions, 2001.) This Career Guide outlines a new paradigm for career transition - one that could help you proactively design (or redesign) your own career from the inside out.

Perhaps you are an executive whose company has just announced a merger, and you want to take control of your own career before someone else makes a decision for you! Maybe you're a career coach who wants a new, highly effective tool for your clients. You could be in-between jobs, or not happy in your current job. Possibly you would like to transfer to another job within your current organization, move to another organization within your industry, or change your career entirely. It could also be that you are at the very beginning of your working life, a college student who wants to have an exciting career that employs your talents so that you can create a prosperous, well-balanced life. In any event, The 5 Elements of Success® provides a logical step-by-step formula that can significantly increase your odds of making a successful career transition.

The Elements of Success is a simple but comprehensive approach to deliberately creating a work/life that is happy, healthy, and prosperous. It is based upon the cross-cultural metaphor of the classical five elements, long used to describe the building blocks that make up all living systems. This powerful archetypal template (i.e., human instinct) can be seen in images across the world: compasses, clocks, baseball diamonds, medicine wheels, the "X" that marks the spot, spirals, and the Alchemists' squared circle. (It may even be that this worldwide symbol of wholeness and balance is modeled on the human body, with its core center [trunk] and four limbs.)

The squared circle is featured on the cover of The Balancing Act. The ancient Alchemists used this image to represent the successful bringing together of heaven (circle) and earth (square) to create "gold" (i.e., heaven on earth). Indeed, many cultures around the world have employed varieties of the 5-element symbol to represent how we can make our lives "a miracle of one thing:" integrated rather than fragmented, unified, healthy, and prosperous. What a great goal to aim for while creating your career!

Interestingly, the circle and square share the same five equidistant (mathematically perfectly balanced) points. Taken together, these five points encode a "secret formula" for finding and keeping your balance: The 5 Elements of Success®. The power of this formula lies in the fact that these five distinct steps are integrally connected to, and naturally grow out of, each other.

As the below chart indicates, The 5 Elements of Success® outlines a natural progression that parallels the standard steps in career transition. It provides a roadmap that illustrates a deliberate cycle you can follow to create a new career and work/life balance that best suits you.

A Guide for Mastering the 5 Elements of Success in Your Career will show you how to use The 5 Elements of Success to tailor your career so that it fits better within the context of your whole life. That is, any career decision you make will be integrated within - and serve - the larger context of your whole life. In this way you will start working to live, rather than living to work. The ultimate goal, then, of this innovative 5-step process is a career that is well suited to who you are, and that therefore makes your work and life a congruent, whole, and seamless fabric. Indeed, following the five steps outlined in this career guidebook significantly increases your career clarity - and with it - the odds of finding or crafting a career that fits you like a designer suit, rather than like something you pull off the sales rack.

When each of The 5 Elements of Success are aligned with each other, your success is inevitable. In this deliberate creative process, you will stand at the center of your own compass and choose a new direction for yourself. You may wind up in an entirely different place - one you never imagined, or only dreamt of previously. Or, you may wind up in a new job that looks very similar to where you started in this process; however, your experience of it will be quite different. In any case, by following this innovative career process, you can be certain that you will have made the most carefully considered decision possible. With this compass in your hand, you will never again be a passive worker for someone else's agenda. You will be able to deliberately create a life of your own choosing so that you are no longer a victim of circumstances or your environment.

Career transitions can be very uncomfortable (especially when you have suddenly lost your job or find yourself feeling hopelessly stuck in one that you dislike). Actually, the fact that you feel this discomfort could be good news - an indication that you know you are off track. Indeed, we may need to first go out of balance before we can move on to a new kind of life or work. Although this career guidebook will not help you attain a perfect state of balance, it will help you experience your work life in a new way: as an ongoing dance of balance and imbalance that results from learning, changing and growing. So, the discomfort you feel at this time could just be growing pains!

Here are some symptoms of imbalance that you could experience in a career transition (these are categorized below by The 5 Elements of Success®.)

1. Core Identity/Values. Most people have a great deal of their identity tied up in a job. This can result in severe disorientation when they (voluntarily or involuntarily) lose it.
2. Vision. Many other people have a hard time thinking about their new future, because that's now changed significantly. As a result of this significant shift, people can become afraid, or lose hope and become depressed for a time.
3. Mission. Other job changers experience confusion, not knowing what direction to go in, what actions to take. This can result in a kind of temporary paralysis, depression, lack of energy, or an inability to act effectively.
4. Interactions. Almost all people feel strongly the loss the day-to-day workplace connections and interactions that have been important to them when they lose their job. If they don't make efforts to form new relationships or reframe the old friendships, they can suffer from isolation.
5. Structure. And most everybody who goes through a career transition loses the solid structure that was afforded them by their job and that they have learned to rely upon (this could include daily habits, income stream, nice place to work).

Because it is not uncommon for all five elements to be adversely affected at the outset of a career shift, it would not be surprising for you to feel quite off-balance for awhile. (In the classic book Transitions, William Bridges describes the transition process as including three phases: endings; the neutral zone [where you find your new balance before moving on to…]; beginnings.)

The Balancing Act companion career guidebook will provide you with a systematic way to move quickly out of the ending phase Bridges describes. It will help you to re-orient yourself, let go of the identity that you've recently lost, and determine a new one that fits you better. It will also help you make the most of the neutral zone so that you create the best possible new beginning. The compass, with its center and four directions, is an excellent image for you to keep in mind throughout your career transition. It will remind you how vital it is that you first find your own center, your own core, before moving off in any new direction.

Unfortunately, people often want to skip over these vital initial steps in a career shift and instead move on as quickly as possible to finding their next job. This is understandable - a job loss often causes an immediate panic reaction. However, an incomplete career transition process usually has a poor outcome. A job quickly, yes. One that suits you - very unlikely! In fact, getting a new job as soon as possible after losing your last one is akin to running to the corner bar after your long-time mate walks out the door to find an immediate replacement. (Seems a little desperate, right?)

Happily, it doesn't take much time to locate your new center point of balance, and from there, a whole new career and work/life balance. It does however require a willingness to ask and answer some tough, foundation questions that will eventually result in launching a strong new career. This preparation process is not unlike the highly disciplined Olympic athletes who pause for one tiny, critical moment, fully concentrated and completely aware, to locate their perfect point of balance before leaping into action and going for the gold.

Below are testimonials from executives who have used The Balancing Act and The 5 Elements of Success® in their career transition process. If you would like to learn more about A Guide for Mastering the 5 Elements of Success in Your Career, please contact The Coreporation.

"The Balancing Act presents a wonderful guide for reevaluating your career, interpersonal relationships, and future goals. It helps you work towards the dreams you were meant to live."

"Thought provoking…very useful for career, life, and work situations."

"I have spent the first half of my life wasting much valuable time and energy on unimportant activities and thoughts. The second half of my life will be much improved because of the wisdom I have gained through The Balancing Act."

"I would recommend this to anyone whose life has been out of balance and/or is in transition."

"The material has helped me focus on elements of my life that I did not consciously think about."

"I would recommend this seminar to virtually anyone. There is no one who walks the earth who would not benefit from learning this material."

"The facilitators created a warm, safe environment for us to learn and upon up in."

"This seminar is perfect for anyone in a transition point in life."

"I felt that the class was about me, and that the facilitators believed in the material - and used it themselves."

"Excellent!! Excellent!! I will continue to use the Elements of Success in my work, relationships, and day-to-day activities."

"It has been a great personal growth opportunity and also a great experience interacting with the other participants."

"The forum has given me helpful 'nuggets' I can use in my work search. It has taught me more about myself and my habits - good and bad - and how they enhance or sabotage my efforts."

"The Balancing Act has taught me the critical importance of being in control of my thoughts, feelings, emotions, as well as how and with whom I spend my time. I think that much of my life has been wasted on misguided energy and effort at the wrong activities and with the wrong people. My thoughts used to run wild with negative looping, adversely affecting my entire being."

"I feel very fortunate to have been a part of this seminar and a benefactor of it. I have been spreading the word about the Elements of Success. I talk about the book and the Executive Women's Forum to family and friends. Being fully aware of the elements and feeling the beauty of aligning them has brought me great peace and contentment even amidst transition."