What are your work-life boundaries?

Part of my work with clients is talking about their non-negotiables for their next roles.

What are the 5 things you need to be in place for this next role to feel successful or meaningful? Flexibility comes up for many clients – yet it means different things to different people.

So – what does it mean to you?

And how’s it going?

Sometimes it’s as simple as - I want to be treated like a grownup. If I need to run an errand during the day AND I get all of my work done – it’s not a major event where I need to account for the 30 minutes I was gone.

Also – most of the working parents I support want to log off between 6:30 and 8:30 to spend QT with their families.

They may log on after to check a few emails…or they may dive into the latest streaming true crime docuseries. Or both at the same time

Whatever you want it to look like with your work day, it’s important to take the time to reflect on your work-life boundary-setting wins – and the areas where it may be falling apart.

Are you able to carve out sacred, disconnected time?

Is it respected by your employer or your clients?

Are you jumping into after hours or weekend work without being asked? Where is this coming from? Does it feel expansive and energizing?

Or is it coming from a place of fear? I need to prove my value. Responsiveness equals usefulness.

We’re going to be discussing setting work-life boundaries, holding our lines, the discomfort when others disagree, powerful ways to say no…and more in our next Career Connections Conversation.

To be part of this chat and a member of this growing community of vulnerable, supportive and wise humans sign up at rachelbgarrett.com/connections.

Our last conversation about asking for help was heart-filling. Everyone walked away with new friends and career advocates.

Hope to get you thinking about how it’s going with your own boundaries – and even better get to chat with you about it soon!

Using AI in Career Pivots

I’ve been wanting to experiment with ChatGPT for a while now, but family, business, life…all the things have been going on and taking up a lot of my time.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, while I was procrastinating from reviewing my taxes, I thought – right now is my moment. Let’s play!
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I decided to start with one of my clients’ biggest questions in the career pivot.

How do I translate my strengths into potential paths outside of what I’ve always done?

This question stops people in their tracks because they don’t know what they don’t know.

I typically fuel them with answers from their network, online research and my own knowledge of which skills typically go with which roles.

Yet, what if we had a tool that could fast track clients with answers that they then could experiment with to see if they resonate and feel sparky?

So, I jumped in with two of my favorite hobbies: the Clifton Strengths and learning more about me.

I asked ChatGPT, “What careers are best for people with the top 5 Clifton Strengths: connectedness, activator, maximizer, communication and individualization?”

And oof, freaky.

Number one response…

Life Coach or Mentor:

This role allows individuals to leverage their connectedness to help others see the bigger picture and find meaning in their lives. The activator strength enables them to take action and initiate positive change, while maximizer helps them focus on optimizing their clients' potential. Effective communication skills are essential for guiding and motivating clients, while individualization helps tailor coaching strategies to each person's unique needs and goals.

Interestingly, Marketing Manager was also in the top five paths mentioned – so according to ChatGPT, I was on track with my previous career, as well.

I continued my experiment by asking about my clients’ strengths. Then adding in salary parameters and other variables from their non-negotiables list.

I wouldn’t say we were on-target all the time, but like anything generated with AI right now – it gave us some new ideas to think about, to ponder, to expand our thinking beyond what we know and what our circle of other humans know.

All to say – if this is the point you’re at, where you’re clear on your strengths, but you have no idea how to translate them into a new career path – give it a shot! You have nothing to lose and only new possibilities to gain.

Lastly, because I couldn’t help myself, I did ask ChatGPT: Write a blog post about how to use ChatGPT in a career pivot in the style of Rachel B Garrett.

And…it was complete shit.

So fellow humans who enjoy writing – there’s still a place for us. For now.

What are your Q2 career goals?

Did your first quarter fly by like mine?

Between kicking off my 2024 cohort of Career Command Four-Month Shift, helping all of my news clients remind themselves of who they are and matching up the right roles to their gifts, and starting my new community – Career Connections – it’s been a bit of a whirlwind.

Full transparency – I’m behind on solidifying my Q2 goals. And writing this note is helping me to get back on track – so thanks for the space to share and also – I mention this because it’s part of a process I use for goal-setting and planning that fits with my style and my strengths.

I begin all of my goal-setting with free writing or sparky conversations with colleagues and friends.

I must start from a creative, exploratory place before I can buy in and attach my name to tasks and due dates.

My (almost) thirteen year old daughter and I have been discussing this recently. We share a personality quirk that we can easily follow rules, jump into projects and go above and beyond – when we buy into that thing – whatever it is. And when we don’t – there’s struggle, often an impasse.

If you’re aware of Gretchen Rubin’s framework of The Four Tendencies, we’re the Questioners and we’re learning how to navigate being who we are with some self-awareness, self-honoring gifts of doing the things that energize us and the tough love of – sometimes there’s just shit you have to do.

After I let my ideas percolate for a short period of time, I like to make sure they’re aligned with my values and my overarching goals for the year.

You may remember, I am prone to epiphanies and I can create new things quickly. So, I’ve built in ways to validate whether or not these new ideas fit with my overarching goals for the year that I set in December of 2023.

In addition to my revenue goals, I have Career Self Care Goals in categories like: Energy, Relationships, Growth and Positioning. These are the domains where I can get intentional about how I want my business and career to look and feel – beyond the numbers.

Sample goals in these areas:

• Energy: Don’t send emails on the weekends. (I may write them, but I won’t send them)

• Relationships: Continue to set two networking conversations a month with people from my career advocates list. Hint: if you don’t have a list like this, I recommend making one asap.

• Growth: Research Embodiment Coaching Certification (I love thinking about all the new tools I can bring to my work!)

• Positioning: Rework my LinkedIn to reflect my current offerings and messaging.

This all feels doable for me in addition to all I have on my plate already. I like to make my goals realistic and even inviting and fun. Because – we all know what happens when they’re not. Not only are you unlikely to achieve them – but you may not even set goals for the next quarter/year/ever again.

I’m curious to hear more about how you’re thinking of goal setting. What has worked for you in the past? How do you continue to tweak your process? How can you make it fit with your personality, your style and your strengths?

Career Clues from your early career

A few weeks ago, I reconnected with a former colleague from one of my first jobs. Actually, he hired me into an ad agency digital producer role in the height of the dot com days – and it changed the course of my career.

I hadn’t seen him in nearly two decades and we were transported back to that –anything was possible– time of our lives.

Not only was I energized by spending a couple of hours with my old friend, but I was also brimming with a visceral delight to revisit someone else…

24 year old me.

It’s not like I haven’t thought about her much – but it’s typically in the realm of my personal life woes and the 20’something struggle to learn adulting on the quick.

Yet – when I think about the fierce, driven, risk-taker I was at that age in my professional life – I’m not only confounded by her, I want to take her to dinner and pepper her with questions.

According to cultural box-checking...the reasons I was finding success and momentum in my career were not obvious.

I didn’t ace college. I had zero connections. I didn’t have a one year plan, let alone a 5 year. In fact, I had no clue what I wanted to do short or long term. Some of you may remember I changed my major 5 times!

And while I may have been scared shitless often in my personal life, somehow in my early professional life…

I advocated for myself like a boss – even with colleagues and managers twice my age.

I built deep and meaningful relationships with people who spoke my names in rooms I wasn’t in.

I ran towards change when others ran from it.

I jumped into new exciting challenges, even when I had no idea where they would take me.

I brought joy and jokes that landed at least 70% of the time.

And in revisiting early career me, I see so many clues that could have led me to where I am right now in my career.

Not just in the work I enjoyed, but in the person I showed up to be.

In the qualities that have always driven my momentum.

I invite you to do the same with your early career self.

Take 24 year old you to dinner and bring your curiosity.

What do you have to learn from this person who may not yet be fully immersed in the high stakes of adult responsibilities that are currently on your plate?

And what can you do to embody that version of you – even for an hour this week?

I can’t wait to hear what 24 year old you made you do that you thought you would regret!