Question: I often make goals but have a hard time achieving them. I think the reason I am not achieving them is because I have a hard time scheduling myself. What should I do?

Answer: First you need to look carefully at how you are trying to schedule yourself. You may be working against your natural body clock. Are you a night person and are bursting with creativity and motivation in the late hours? This is great, but could be difficult if you have early morning obligations. On the days that you do not have early morning obligations, allow yourself to work though the night, even if it means sleeping in the next day. People have the tendency to put rules around themselves and their schedules and that’s where the obstacles begin. Give yourself the freedom to be yourself whenever you can.

For people who are working a nine to five and trying to accomplish goals, staying up very late may not work well. Try to investigate if there is any possibility of changing work hours or looking for other positions with more flexibility. I know of companies that allow their employees to create their own schedules within reason. Instead of having workers who are less productive, flexible work time typically creates more productive workers.

Can’t change anything in your current schedule? Make a list of the three things you want to accomplish towards your goal during the week. Then make a list of things you want to do for pleasure (i.e. watching TV, drink with a friend). Carve out time to complete the three tasks (make them smaller tasks) during evening or morning hours and then reward yourself with the pleasurable tasks. You have to have some discipline and make the three tasks a priority. They come first and then you can jump into your other activities. As I’ve mentioned in my blog, these small tasks will add up to achieving that larger goal.

Do you have a question for Laura? Email her at:Laura@corelifedesign.com

Laura Tirello is a Life and Career Coach.  Her company, Core Life Design, works with people who are looking to find their highest potential both in their careers and personal lives. She helps her clients develop a life plan for success and create a balanced life. For more information about Laura and her life coaching business, visit corelifedesign.com or email Laura at Laura@corelifedesign.com.

Enter the Young Money/Core Life Design CONTEST! WIN A FREE SESSION WITH LAURA!

Life & Career Coach Laura Tirello has generously offered Young Money readers the chance to win a free life coaching session. All you have to do is answer this question: What is the craziest thing you’ve done to reach a goal?* Email your answer to Laura@corelifedesign.comand she will choose one random winner at the end of the month.

The winner will receive a 60 minute coaching session from Life and Career Coach, Laura Tirello of Core Life Design. The session will be conducted by telephone at a time agreed upon by the winner. The session will focus on an area in the client’s personal or professional life in which they are seeking improvement. The client will be coached through their particular issue and given tools that may help them continue to create successful outcomes in their personal and/or professional life. The winner will also receive an email summary of the session from Laura Tirello.

You have until June 1 to enter. Winners will be notified by email by June 5. Include a working email address with your answer.

*YoungMoney.com reserves the right to publish your answer. You may request to be kept anonymous.

Wow, I have gotten so many interesting submissions to the “What’s the craziest thing you’ve done to achieve a goal?” contest. It’s really amazing what people will do to achieve a goal; it’s also interesting how much resistance people have to setting or achieving goals. I also noticed a pattern where people who had achieved the goal were analyzing what they had done and whether it was the right or wrong way to approach meeting the goal.

As a “recovering” perfectionist (I say recovering because it’s a hard habit to break), I think it’s important to allow yourself to make mistakes. Goals are never perfect, they are flexible structures that need to be molded and shaped for the constant challenges that arise when attaining a goal. If you made your goal extremely rigid and don’t adjust and fine-tune it along the way, you will likely find yourself struggling to meet that goal. This could be because you are not making the goal reasonable to your particular situation. And if you are a fellow perfectionist, try this mantra: “perfectionists are losers.” This notion was emphasized heavily when I went through my coach training because in order to learn to do something well, you have to allow yourself to make mistakes. The greatest learning and personal growth often comes from our mistakes. If you refuse to accept a challenge because you may not perform perfectly, then you are missing out on a ton of possibilities.

Onto the goal setting process. Do you find yourself making one larger goal and then getting stuck on all the small parts that will make it happen? Here are some suggestions:

•    Think of your goals as SMART (source unknown)
1.    S=Specific
2.    M=Measurable
3.    A=Achievable
4.    R=Realistic (what result do you want to achieve)
5.    T=Time bound

•    Does this goal fit into your overall master plan? How?

•    To make the your goals attainable, look at each goal carefully. Set a specific goal (e.g., amount of sales in first six months of business), then review goal on a daily/weekly basis. Modify the time frame as needed. If you are finding due to other variables in your business you may need 9 months to reach that goal, change the goal accordingly. If you meet your goal in 3 months rather than six, increase the goal for the next six months. Being able to modify the goal takes the pressure off and gives you the control of pacing your progress.

These smaller goals are what will help you achieve your master plan. So if you want to create a multimillion-dollar company start with the month-to-month goals. This goal framework will get you to start looking at your goals to determine if they are reasonable and realistic within a certain time period. Breaking down goals into specific small pieces will help you to achieve them at a steady rate and help you meet success. That doesn’t mean you have to sit around waiting for the larger goal to finally happen. The larger goal is a culmination of the success of the smaller goals; we will look at how to create goals towards your Master plan in upcoming blogs.

It is not too late to participate in the “What is the craziest thing you’ve done to achieve a goal?” contest. The winner will be selected at the end of the month. Look for the submission information at the end of this blog.

Do you have a question for Laura? Email her at:Laura@corelifedesign.com

Laura Tirello is a Life and Career Coach.  Her company, Core Life Design, works with people who are looking to find their highest potential both in their careers and personal lives. She helps her clients develop a life plan for success and create a balanced life. For more information about Laura and her life coaching business, visit corelifedesign.com or email Laura at Laura@corelifedesign.com.

Enter the Young Money/Core Life Design CONTEST! WIN A FREE SESSION WITH LAURA!

Life & Career Coach Laura Tirello has generously offered Young Money readers the chance to win a free life coaching session. All you have to do is answer this question: What is the craziest thing you’ve done to reach a goal?* Email your answer to Laura@corelifedesign.comand she will choose one random winner at the end of the month.

The winner will receive a 60 minute coaching session from Life and Career Coach, Laura Tirello of Core Life Design. The session will be conducted by telephone at a time agreed upon by the winner. The session will focus on an area in the client’s personal or professional life in which they are seeking improvement. The client will be coached through their particular issue and given tools that may help them continue to create successful outcomes in their personal and/or professional life. The winner will also receive an email summary of the session from Laura Tirello.

You have until June 1 to enter. Winners will be notified by email by June 5. Include a working email address with your answer.

*YoungMoney.com reserves the right to publish your answer. You may request to be kept anonymous.

We’ve talked a lot lately about becoming clearer on your goals and creating action plans. The number one problem for many of my clients is moving from the goal to the action. It’s not that they don’t have good intentions or lack the motivation; it’s the big O word that gets in their way. OVERWHELM. Many of us want to move on and achieve, but get stuck in the overwhelm. There is so much to do, decide, and a tremendous amount of choices, so it’s not uncommon to know what step to take next.

What it all comes down to is prioritizing. Defining what really is urgent and following that action through will give you the relief, (and time) needed to accomplish your other goals. Pay close attention to your mental state when deciding when you think it’s urgent to do an important task, it just won’t feel right. For my readers that need proof beyond the “feeling” thing, I’ve included some specific examples.

Martha Beck wrote an article called “Urgent! Urgent! (Or is it?)”. In the article, she discussed one of Randy Pausch’s time management speeches. She included the quadrant below, which Pausch used to illustrate Stephen Covey, Sr.’s, a renowned time management guru, concept of urgency. He used the below matrix to illustrate how to define the urgency of daily activities.

Now quadrant 1 is the easy one, it includes eating and providing shelter for our family and ourselves. It’s the other quadrants that we get stuck in.  Stephen Covey, Sr. suggested spending less time on mindless tasks, even the urgent ones, and more time on the important tasks of life. He created the exercise below:

1.    Get 20 or 30 note cards. On each card, write down one thing you should do, want to do, plan to do, or dream of doing. Include everything, no matter how large or small. Keep this up until your brain runs dry.

2.    When you’ve written down all of your goals, plans, and ideas, separate the cards into two piles: things that have to be done right this minute (or feel like it) and those that don’t.

3.    Now go through both of these piles, separating each into “important” and “not important” stacks. The four resulting stacks correlate with the Covey quadrants.

4.    Carefully place both your “not important” card stacks in a safe spot. This, if my experience is any indication, will insure that you’ll never find them again. If you do happen to stumble across them at any time in the future, burn them.

5.    Commit to eliminating from your schedule all the activities that didn’t make it into the “important” stacks. If you have time after doing your important and urgent things, use it on important but not urgent activities. No matter how pressing something may seem to be, if it’s not important, just don’t do it.

Yes, it does take some work to break your daily habits and thought patterns, but it’s well worth it. It may be difficult at first to break the pattern of constant “it has to get done”, but over time you will find yourself choosing the best thing for yourself and your ultimate goals.

Join me again next Tuesday when I will be discussing how to break down one of your larger goals into smaller manageable pieces that will fit into your day.

Do you have a question for Laura? Email her at:Laura@corelifedesign.com

Laura Tirello is a Life and Career Coach.  Her company, Core Life Design, works with people who are looking to find their highest potential both in their careers and personal lives. She helps her clients develop a life plan for success and create a balanced life. For more information about Laura and her life coaching business, visit corelifedesign.com or email Laura at Laura@corelifedesign.com.

Enter the Young Money/Core Life Design CONTEST! WIN A FREE SESSION WITH LAURA!

Life & Career Coach Laura Tirello has generously offered Young Money readers the chance to win a free life coaching session. All you have to do is answer this question: What is the craziest thing you’ve done to reach a goal?* Email your answer to Laura@corelifedesign.comand she will choose one random winner at the end of the month.

The winner will receive a 60 minute coaching session from Life and Career Coach, Laura Tirello of Core Life Design. The session will be conducted by telephone at a time agreed upon by the winner. The session will focus on an area in the client’s personal or professional life in which they are seeking improvement. The client will be coached through their particular issue and given tools that may help them continue to create successful outcomes in their personal and/or professional life. The winner will also receive an email summary of the session from Laura Tirello.

You have until June 1 to enter. Winners will be notified by email by June 5. Include a working email address with your answer.

*YoungMoney.com reserves the right to publish your answer. You may request to be kept anonymous.

Q: In the last blog you talked about making turtle steps, small do-able steps that help to achieve goals. I am having a hard time accomplishing my goals because I get overwhelmed with the task. What do you suggest?

A: Here is a basic example that we can all relate to. When I tell myself, “you have to organize this sock drawer today” and then I go look at the drawer, I usually shut it and go do something else. Feeling overwhelmed is a very common response. So the best way to get it done is in very small steps. I create a plan. The first day I might go to the store and buy bins to put in the drawer. The next day I may allot a small amount of time, like 20 minutes to sorting my black socks and putting them in a bin. The next day I move onto the white socks for 20 minutes. And the process continues with these small blocks of time until I have a completed product. Then I reward myself with something I enjoy. It could be as small as a cup of coffee and a magazine. This process of breaking tasks into small bits works for all projects; big or small projects and home or career projects. In next week’s blog, I will be discussing how to organize your time to achieve those larger career goals.

Do you have a question for Laura? Email her at:Laura@corelifedesign.com

Laura Tirello is a Life and Career Coach.  Her company, Core Life Design, works with people who are looking to find their highest potential both in their careers and personal lives. She helps her clients develop a life plan for success and create a balanced life. For more information about Laura and her life coaching business, visit corelifedesign.com or email Laura at Laura@corelifedesign.com.

Enter the Young Money/Core Life Design CONTEST! WIN A FREE SESSION WITH LAURA!

Life & Career Coach Laura Tirello has generously offered Young Money readers the chance to win a free life coaching session. All you have to do is answer this question: What is the craziest thing you’ve done to reach a goal?* Email your answer to Laura@corelifedesign.comand she will choose one random winner at the end of the month.

The winner will receive a 60 minute coaching session from Life and Career Coach, Laura Tirello of Core Life Design. The session will be conducted by telephone at a time agreed upon by the winner. The session will focus on an area in the client’s personal or professional life in which they are seeking improvement. The client will be coached through their particular issue and given tools that may help them continue to create successful outcomes in their personal and/or professional life. The winner will also receive an email summary of the session from Laura Tirello.

You have until June 1 to enter. Winners will be notified by email by June 5. Include a working email address with your answer.

*YoungMoney.com reserves the right to publish your answer. You may request to be kept anonymous.

Many clients tell me about fears of many varieties. Some of my blog readers also write me about the fears that they have. I hear about fear of success, fear of failure, fear of life in general. What all of these fears have in common is that they turn into a real fear of action. This can be a dangerous place if you seek to make improvements in your life.

Fear is a natural reaction, it happens to all of us. It is an innate protective mechanism in humans (fight or flight), but it goes into overdrive at times which is not healthy for our general well being and decision making process. I, like everyone else on our planet, have a lot of my own fears. But what I’ve learned is not to resist them. I look at them carefully and see what they mean. Then I seek evidence from the world around me that they can be conquered.

I look to people who have been there and have made it out to the other side. This week I found myself caught in fear. I looked back to the familiar words of the late Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch. In his famous “Last Lecture” he spoke a lot about taking risks. He said, “Remember brick walls let us show our dedication. They are there to separate us from the people who don’t really want to achieve their childhood dreams. Don’t bail.” If you want something bad enough you’ll find ways to get past the brick walls. However, if you give into your fears, you have created brick walls around your hopes, dreams, and ultimately, your potential in life. You need to find ways out of what you perceive as an obstacle; using faith and inspired action, you can push past a brick wall.

During an interview, two of Pausch’s students said the most important thing Pausch taught them was when you have a choice between a sure thing project and a riskier project where the outcome is not immediately clear always choose the riskier of the two. Why? You will get a bigger reward from a riskier move. And if you don’t you will certainly learn the most from the experience.

Pausch also emphasized that failure was always a learning experience. Failing or doing poorly at something is often the best motivation to move onto something greater that can become a success. It all comes down to how you choose to look at it. If you can detach from the outcome and just allow yourself to experience it, good or bad, you will always come out better for it. Fear won’t let you detach, that’s why you feel “stuck”. The more you detach from the outcome the freer you will feel to experiment, learn, and succeed.

Do you have a question for Laura? Email her at:Laura@corelifedesign.com

Laura Tirello is a Life and Career Coach.  Her company, Core Life Design, works with people who are looking to find their highest potential both in their careers and personal lives. She helps her clients develop a life plan for success and create a balanced life. For more information about Laura and her life coaching business, visit corelifedesign.com or email Laura at Laura@corelifedesign.com.

Enter the Young Money/Core Life Design CONTEST! WIN A FREE SESSION WITH LAURA!

Life & Career Coach Laura Tirello has generously offered Young Money readers the chance to win a free life coaching session. All you have to do is answer this question: What is the craziest thing you’ve done to reach a goal?* Email your answer to Laura@corelifedesign.comand she will choose one random winner at the end of the month.

The winner will receive a 60 minute coaching session from Life and Career Coach, Laura Tirello of Core Life Design. The session will be conducted by telephone at a time agreed upon by the winner. The session will focus on an area in the client’s personal or professional life in which they are seeking improvement. The client will be coached through their particular issue and given tools that may help them continue to create successful outcomes in their personal and/or professional life. The winner will also receive an email summary of the session from Laura Tirello.

You have until June 1 to enter. Winners will be notified by email by June 5. Include a working email address with your answer.

*YoungMoney.com reserves the right to publish your answer. You may request to be kept anonymous.

Q: I have always known what I want to do with my life. I used to wake up and start working and I was having my share of success. But, then I made some mistakes. I lost a lot of things that I care about. Now, I’m having trouble getting myself to do what I need to do. Why is this happening? How can I get myself motivated again? –S.

A: Hi S., I understand your confusion and frustration at this point in your life experience. However, you have given me evidence that shows at a certain point in your life you were motivated and successful. The reason I reiterate this is because it is proof of a positive reality in your life.

I am not sure what kind of losses you have incurred in your life, whether they are financial or personal, but they seem to have affected you deeply. You are attaching to these losses and they are creating beliefs about yourself that are contributing to your current lack of motivation. You need to get clear on your thoughts about your experiences and look at these thoughts very carefully. Find the hidden beliefs and question them. Find evidence (as I did above) that disproves the negative self talk about your accomplishments. As long as you hold onto these limited negative beliefs you will keep yourself stuck. You can start to change your situations through actions but not until you gain clarity on your thinking. Actions that come from a grasping or anxious thought will result in more of the same frustration you are already experiencing. Actions based on clear thoughts will enable you to get more positive results in your life.

I also wanted to say something about success and failure. You can not let failure or fear of failure cloud your judgment. On the road to success you will encounter some failure, but if you allow each failure to be a roadblock you may not find true success in your endeavors. Virtually every successful person I have talked to or read about has had their share of failures. It’s the way that you handle them that determines your future success.

To the person who submitted this question: I would love to help you gain more insight on your issues in a more confidential setting. If you would like to discuss your issues further please e-mail me directly at Laura@corelifedesign.com.

Do you have a question for Laura? Email her at:Laura@corelifedesign.com

Laura Tirello is a Life and Career Coach.  Her company, Core Life Design, works with people who are looking to find their highest potential both in their careers and personal lives. She helps her clients develop a life plan for success and create a balanced life. For more information about Laura and her life coaching business, visit corelifedesign.com or email Laura at Laura@corelifedesign.com.

Enter the Young Money/Core Life Design CONTEST! WIN A FREE SESSION WITH LAURA!

Life & Career Coach Laura Tirello has generously offered Young Money readers the chance to win a free life coaching session. All you have to do is answer this question: What is the craziest thing you’ve done to reach a goal?* Email your answer to Laura@corelifedesign.comand she will choose one random winner at the end of the month.

The winner will receive a 60 minute coaching session from Life and Career Coach, Laura Tirello of Core Life Design. The session will be conducted by telephone at a time agreed upon by the winner. The session will focus on an area in the client’s personal or professional life in which they are seeking improvement. The client will be coached through their particular issue and given tools that may help them continue to create successful outcomes in their personal and/or professional life. The winner will also receive an email summary of the session from Laura Tirello.

You have until June 1 to enter. Winners will be notified by email by June 5. Include a working email address with your answer.

*YoungMoney.com reserves the right to publish your answer. You may request to be kept anonymous.

Enter the Young Money/Core Life Design contest!

Life & Career Coach Laura Tirello has generously offered Young Money readers the chance to win a free life coaching session. All you have to do is answer this question: What is the craziest thing you’ve done to reach a goal?* Email your answer to Laura@corelifedesign.comand she will choose one random winner at the end of the month.

The winner will receive a 60 minute coaching session from Life and Career Coach, Laura Tirello of Core Life Design. The session will be conducted by telephone at a time agreed upon by the winner. The session will focus on an area in the client’s personal or professional life in which they are seeking improvement. The client will be coached through their particular issue and given tools that may help them continue to create successful outcomes in their personal and/or professional life. The winner will also receive an email summary of the session from Laura Tirello.

You have until June 1 to enter. Winners will be notified by email by June 5. Include a working email address with your answer.

*YoungMoney.com reserves the right to publish your answer. You may request to be kept anonymous.

In recent blogs, I’ve discussed the idea of turtle steps with my readers. Turtle steps is the idea of breaking your goals into very small “doable” achievable pieces; pieces so small they are easy to accomplish. However, each step leads to a very big goal getting completed. Some of my clients have resistance to this idea, they want it all and they want it very quickly. When the “all” doesn’t happen quickly, they are frustrated.

Last week I had the pleasure of hearing Penelope Przekop discuss her book Aberrations. I read the book and found it to be not only well written, but a true example of many of themes I discuss with my clients and readers. It is the story of a young woman who has struggled with a disability and a host of limiting beliefs that have kept her stuck in many areas of her life. Before I expand on the challenges of the main character Angel, I want to mention the book’s author, Penelope Przekop. When I read the book I was immediately struck by the beauty of Mrs. Przekop’s writing. I imagined her sitting down and effortlessly writing this magical prose. When Mrs. Przekop spoke to the book group she mentioned that it took her 10 years to write this book. She is married with children and was working as well as finishing a master’s degree during this time period, so she had to put the book aside for a period of time.

This is a prime example of what I have been trying to share with my clients: most things will not happen immediately. It takes time and persistence. It takes the faith that the small turtle steps will lead to a finished product. Too many people give up on their dreams too quickly. There will always be obstacles, big and small, but if you keep a clear vision of the endgame, you can achieve your ultimate goals.

Aberrations is the story of a girl named Angel Duet, who suffers from narcolepsy. Besides having this life altering disability, she is also experiencing difficulty growing up without a mother and living with a father who is still suffering from the impact of losing his wife. Angel closes herself off from the world and to any intimate human relationships. She believes she can’t be “normal” and avoids opening up to people. She seeks out situations where she can not thrive as her true self and hides behind her narcolepsy, instead of facing her limiting beliefs about human relationships.

The story evolves from Angel’s painful past, into a discovery of truths about her life and beliefs that eventually free her and allow her to experience great happiness—the happiness she always wanted but had locked herself away from. I have mentioned that a part of being successful in your personal and career life is about really being true to yourself and uncovering those beliefs that are holding you back from what you want in life. This is not easy and is something we all struggle with, it takes work. But if you don’t get some clarity on the limitations you’ve created, you will bring those beliefs into all areas of your life.

I have clients and readers who struggle with limiting beliefs and wonder why they keep slipping backwards, struggling to get forward movement. Please check out my Q&A on Thursday. I will be discussing a blog reader’s questions regarding her difficulties achieving what she wants from life.

Enter our contest! All you have to do is answer this question: What is the craziest thing you’ve done to reach a goal?* Email your answer to Laura@corelifedesign.comand she will choose one random winner.

The winner will receive a 60 minute coaching session from Life and Career Coach, Laura Tirello of Core Life Design. The session will be conducted by telephone at a time agreed upon by the winner. The session will focus on an area in the client’s personal or professional life in which they are seeking improvement. The client will be coached through their particular issue and given tools that may help them continue to create successful outcomes in their personal and/or professional life. The winner will also receive an e-mail summary of the session from Laura Tirello.

You have until June 1 to enter. Winners will be notified by email by June 5. Include a working email address with your answer.

*YoungMoney.com reserves the right to publish your answer. You may request to be kept anonymous.

Do you have a question for Laura? Email her at:Laura@corelifedesign.com

Laura Tirello is a Life and Career Coach.  Her company, Core Life Design, works with people who are looking to find their highest potential both in their careers and personal lives. She helps her clients develop a life plan for success and create a balanced life. For more information about Laura and her life coaching business, visit corelifedesign.com or email Laura at Laura@corelifedesign.com.

Q: In Tuesday’s blog you talked about how everyone needs a Plan B, a business or venture to create personal revenue. What do you do if you don’t how any ideas for a Plan B? How can you figure out what you want to do?

A: The most important thing is to not pressure yourself into figuring out what you should do immediately. Pressuring yourself into something will make you grasp at anything and grasping is never a good way to present yourself—especially when trying to sell a product or service. If you appear desperate, people will decline your services. Think of the annoying telemarketers who keep you on the phone after you have insisted at least three times that you are not interested!

Instead of putting pressure on yourself to figure it out immediately, clear your mind and relax. From that space, make a list of any ideas you’ve had over the years about your business or career. Spend a half an hour googling some of these ideas. If nothing comes up, chances are there isn’t a market for it yet, which could be both good and bad. It is a unique idea, but therefore a more challenging venture. If some hits come up in the Google search that show similar products or ideas, this indicates that there is a market for your idea. Then you can decide if you want to try marketing this immediately, or research it more and see what your option are. “Play” with the idea at first without a hard commitment, this will allow you make clear decisions about what you want to do with the idea.

Do you have a question for Laura? Email her at:Laura@corelifedesign.com

Laura Tirello is a Life and Career Coach.  Her company, Core Life Design, works with people who are looking to find their highest potential both in their careers and personal lives. She helps her clients develop a life plan for success and create a balanced life. For more information about Laura and her life coaching business, visit corelifedesign.com or email Laura at Laura@corelifedesign.com.

For months I have noticed other bloggers and columnists writing about the horrible economic situation our country is facing. I have consciously avoided the topic, because frankly I was tired of hearing about it every time I turned on the TV and I figured my readers were as well.

Then, last week I happened to be staying at a hotel and a USA Today was dropped outside my door. I went to the money section and at the bottom I saw this survey question: “Are you happy being an entrepreneur in the current difficult economic situation?” 88% of entrepreneurs responded that yes they were happy with their career choice despite economic conditions. Surprised? I actually was not. The lesson to be learned here is that staying in your cubicle or other unhappy work situation does not equal security or happiness. When you break out of the “fear” mode and venture out to create your own career security it gives you a higher level of confidence, you have created a mindset that can weather any storm.

This is not to say that entrepreneurs and other successful people don’t have fears. Everyone does. But they have learned to work through them and at times use them to their advantage.

So instead of holding on tight to your job because “it’s a job” and letting it paralyze your thoughts; imagine for a moment that it did go away. What would you do? Where would you go? Who would you be? It’s important to look at your worst case scenario and frame it as that “a worst case scenario.” Then you can learn from it. Holding on tightly to fears of losing your job immobilizes any action you might take. So look at the fear, see where it’s coming from and what it’s telling you. I have mentioned in previous posts about becoming clear on your vision for your future. Becoming clear about your fears and defining them will help you move past them. If you are not aware of the fear, you become stuck in it. We often look to find evidence that our fears are reality and take actions based on that. Look closely at the evidence you are using to build your fear based worse case scenario.

Then create a Plan B. I’m not suggesting quitting your job immediately. I am suggesting taking small steps towards creating a side business or venture that may help you weather an economic storm. In time, it may become something much bigger and you may be one of the 88% of entrepreneurs who are happy right now. Taking action will give you a sense of power against the overwhelming fear that is gripping many people in this current economy.

Do you have a question for Laura? Email her at:Laura@corelifedesign.com

Laura Tirello is a Life and Career Coach.  Her company, Core Life Design, works with people who are looking to find their highest potential both in their careers and personal lives. She helps her clients develop a life plan for success and create a balanced life. For more information about Laura and her life coaching business, visit corelifedesign.com or email Laura at Laura@corelifedesign.com.