Why choose us?

Career Psychologist success stories

Below are a handful of the many hundreds of people we’ve helped to get unstuck and move forward with purpose over the past 10 years.  Many more to be added soon!

  • Lana Novak

    From Art Director to Portfolio Career

    I was working as an Art Director in advertising for over 10 years. I then had my daughter and suddenly my work/career outlook changed completely... edited

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  • Natashia Variava

    from HR to Entrepreneur

    I always admired entrepreneurs but was never brave enough to venture on my own. The classic ‘fear of the unknown’ led to 5 years of not making a decision…

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  • Ronan Carter

    from Consulting to Wellbeing Entrepreneur

    I thrive on challenge and wanted to get involved in something more fulfilling – something I was passionate about [...] I wanted something different but I didn’t know how to take action to get it or have the courage to do it myself...

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  • Rebecca Magnus

    from Business Development to Freelance Copy Writer

    I had just left a difficult job in Business Development for a start up food company. On the face of it, the job was a good fit for me, flexible hours in an industry I love. However, the job was a very poor fit for my lifestyle and personality...

    Read more

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  • Career Change, Career Development, Developing Coaches - ACT Training, Executive Coaching, Getting Unstuck coaching

    How Did You Get Stuck? Gradually then Suddenly.

    In Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises one character asks:

    How did you go bankrupt?”

    “Two ways, gradually then suddenly” comes the reply.

    And in a nutshell that explains how so many of us get trapped in career paralysis.

    No one plans to get stuck in a job they hate.  Most of us make a series of what seemed like rational, logical decisions to get where we did.  We did what was expected, followed the advice we were given, took the opportunities available and ended up stuck in a job that leaves us counting the minutes til 6pm.

    How does this happen?  Gradually and then suddenly.

    We make a decision to take a job because that’s all there is available.  Some of us thought the job might sound good at dinner parties.  We take another similar job because it’s better paid.  And then another because we hope to get away from that awful boss.  Then we stay in the job because moving would surely be too difficult now…

    None of these decisions is a bad decision per se.  But taken together they reflect a ‘safety first’ bias whose short term costs are hard to detect but whose long term costs bring a creeping sense of meaninglessness.

    If we can bring ourselves to face the pain we are experiencing – instead of numbing it as usual –  we usually discover that our decisions have nearly all been made in the service of one overriding goal: the avoidance of pain.

    As Jim Loehr says in the Power of Story:

    “We look out of the airplane window reviewing our belief system and realise that it’s an anti-belief system, a rejection of our values…We don’t see the consequences of one bad decision – I’ll eat this, I won’t go for a run tonight, I’ll take this job and pay off my loans, this job will give me confidence.  But each decision makes it less likely we’ll do the ideal, and the effect mounts”.

    How then can we get unstuck?  Well there is no instant fix, even though minds like the idea of instant fixes.

    Getting unstuck happens in the same way as getting stuck does, through a series of small decisions and actions, but tentatively moving towards our values, rather than just avoiding pain and discomfort.

    Gradually, then suddenly.

    gradually then suddenly

     

  • Career Change

    Paul McCartney and Doubt

    I recently went to go and see Paul McCartney play live – actually twice – in Winnipeg and London’s O2 arena.  All the old hits were there including Hey Jude, Lady Madonna, Yesterday, All My Loving, Eleanor Rigby, Blackbird, Band on the Run and Let it Be.

    Imagine writing all these songs before you hit 30…