Take That Approach to Careers

“Take That” Take On Careers!

A young handsome dark haired man came to me for career advice. In my mind, I thought, I thought, he could be an actor, a model or be in a boy band or perhaps be a finalist in the X Factor! The possibilities were endless. With his chiselled handsome looks of dark hair and eyes and his pleasing personality he could have given the Hollywood actors a run for their money.

In a short while, in our session it emerged that this fine man was unhappy with both his weight and looks. He had internalised all the feelings that go with unemployment, a lack of confidence, feeling low and a totally lack of faith in himself. For solace and comfort he regularly reached for chocolate.

His self talk reminded me of the following quote;

“You can be the most beautiful person in the world and everybody sees light and rainbows when they look at you, but if you yourself don’t know it, all of that doesn’t even matter. Every second that you spend on doubting your worth, every moment that you use to criticize yourself; is a second of your life wasted, is a moment of your life thrown away. It’s not like you have forever, so don’t waste any of your seconds, don’t throw even one of your moments away.” C Joyce Bell

Clearly, this man’s ego was sabotaging all his potential. Even though we made strides to identify his career path, he would convince himself he was not good enough, not clever enough, or did not have enough finances to reach his goals.

In order to address the saboteur I asked him who else in this world, your community, history or the media was where you are now. And how did they turn it around very quickly. He identified Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow. He chose Robbie Williams as he had struggled with addictions, demons and overcame them and made a massive comeback in the music scene. Gary Barlow appealed to him as after “Take That” split up; Gary had put on lots of weight and felt depressed. However he managed to turn adversity on its head. He lost the weight and developed healthier eating habits and today he is a prominent judge on the X Factor.
Then, I asked him “What is it about the qualities of Robbie Williams or Garry Barlow that you need for your life right now?”
He replied, “Focus, Persistence and Faith”.

We then worked out with a plan of action and figured out how to internalise the qualities of Gary Barlow and Robbie Williams. After he left, I spent some time pondering.
How do we tame the beast of the sabotaging voice?
A sabotaging voice is a very clever version of the ego, so how can we outsmart it? How can we use the qualities and strategies of our role models to help us daily?