Written by Jo Shambler, Career Management
I’ve recently been reflecting on the things that I have wished for in my life (big and small). Some of those things have happened and some haven’t. Perhaps in the back of my mind, I had a perspective that miraculously, if I simply wished for something, or wished for it hard enough, it would happen. I’ve often got hung up on putting emotional energy into the wishes that haven’t come true and were never likely to and here’s where my logical mind says remember “the late great Stephen Covey and his Circle of Influence” – I can’t control everything in my life.
And then on thinking about the “wishes that had come true” I reflected on why they had – what were they and what had I done to realise those wishes? It struck me that they were the wishes I had turned into goals. These were the wishes that I had tangibly and methodically taken action steps to turn into reality – to achieve those goals.
In my work as a career coach, clients say things like “I wish I was better at selling myself” or “I wish I was good at interviews” or “I wish I could figure out what I want to do” – these are the moments when I have the opportunity to help those clients turn wishes into goals and realise that if they want those wishes to come true, they have to work at them.
Rarely does life miraculously give us what we want. Sometimes it gives us what we need when it’s not really what we wanted or expected but the things that are really worth achieving will usually take a fair dose of hard work, self-reflection, determination, resilience and sometimes even courage. It may also mean we need to focus our energy on goals to make those wishes come true!
Joanne Shambler
Brisbane, QLD
Career Management,
