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Get Coaching

There will be times when you're unsure about your career direction or your career choices, or you just need a reality check on what you're doing with your life. That's a good time to sit down with your friends and get some coaching. Find a comfortable, quiet place and ask them to tell you how they see you professionally. What are your strengths? When they think of you or talk to other people about you, what words come to mind? Conversely, what are you not good at?

Remember, these are your friends. They love you. They're the ones who will always give you an honest assessment, who'll be there to tell you what you need to hear—even if it isn't what you may want to hear. Your job is to listen and be open-minded. These people love you holistically—for the good person you are, despite any silly or irritating habits you may have. If you approach this process with humility and as a learning experience, you may be very pleasantly surprised by what you will learn. Your friends know you. Take their advice seriously, and then follow it.

I began my teaching career many years ago at UCLA Extension. Before then, I had never thought much about teaching, but I quickly found that I loved it. I continued teaching there once a year, but never considered education as a career option. I was working in digital media, and teaching was just something I did on the side, for fun. Then, in 2000, the dot-com bubble burst. My consulting work in digital media dried up. A friend who had known me for awhile and seen me teach suggested I look into being a college professor as a full-time career. My first impulse was to say no, but she finally convinced me—or maybe I slowly realized—that teaching was a viable career option, and I began pursuing it. In a sense, she understood me better than I did. And I was smart enough to surrender to her better perspective and prescient advice.

I'm still a college professor. I have what I wish for you—work I love that I'd do for free, but that I do so well that people pay me a lot of money for it.