So What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

So What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
By Carol Harris-Fike, Professional Coach, chfcoaching.com

The answer to the question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” seems simple and straight forward… a doctor, lawyer, merchant chief… but is it? The first question ...So What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
By Carol Harris-Fike, Professional Coach, chfcoaching.com

The answer to the question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” seems simple and straight forward… a doctor, lawyer, merchant chief… but is it? The first question to ask is: “How do you want to be in this world?” If you can answer that one, the other becomes much easier, or perhaps, not so important. Many of us think that a certain career will lead to the life we want to live, but has it? Or has it given us some sense of accomplishment, but we know something is still missing? Isn’t our contentment with life really tied to how we are living our life in all aspects?

I encourage you to play with this idea: List ten ways (statements) of how you want to “be” and pay close attention to your responses. If you have never thought about this, it is usually harder than you first think. “I want to be happy… peaceful… wealthy…” trips off our tongues, but then we come to a halt. What does each of those ideals really mean? What is the happiness about? What does peace look like? What is the wealth for? How do I describe how I want to be in ten statements that are entirely true to who I am in this world? Only then can we answer the question: If I live my life in this way, what would I be doing?

To find our answers we need to observe ourselves. Even more, we need to observe how we are observing ourselves. When we can become a different observer and truly “see” ourselves and then ask our higher self… we will know or perhaps see for the first time what is most important in how we want to be in the world. Becoming a different observer allows us more choices… and then actually provides us with the answers for which we are searching.

One of my former clients wanted to do something different with her life, but what? Her first observation was that the way to do something different meant getting schooling/training for a new career. But something just didn’t feel right and she couldn’t move ahead. We began to work from the question: “How do you want to be?” What came after a few sessions and a lot of checking in with her higher self led her to an entirely different place. She prioritized her list of ten ways to be and then searched out what her higher self knew were her true gifts. From there she discovered that her avocation of meditation and spiritual growth led her to all of the ways she wanted to be. Her higher self told her that her gifts were in teaching meditation and other spiritual practices and she had all the training she needed to begin! As soon as she made this discovery she was asked (guided?) to lead a group which led to the “wealth” she needed to live life the way she dreamed. The master’s degree and the money to get it were no longer necessary to be in this world the way she desired at this time. Asking the question: “How do you want to be?” helped this person to discover the right answers for her; it will be different for each of us. What will you discover?