It’s easy to think a new job will solve everything, but reflecting on who you are first will improve the chances of that happening.

Walking up the slope, I was looking ahead, scanning the rough spot where I knew a tiny flower was growing. I’d found the little everlasting daisy years before, and every time I’d walked this track since, I’d looked for it. Surviving the hot dry summit year after year, it was clearly a tough customer, and I was keen to check on its welfare.

Such a tiny, wizened thing requires close inspection and a lack of haste to be truly appreciated. I was walking free of any commercial commitments – finally – and I was taking all the time in the world to look at the favourite things I’d skirted over during my client walks. I felt completely like myself again.

Being a full-time hike-fitness trainer and guide didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped, but it had other unexpected, positive outcomes that have had a lasting impact. Prior to this, I’d been guessing at what would make me happy, without stopping to really understand myself first. My “failure” let me discover things about myself that have become guideposts in my career and life. Here are the lessons I’ve taken from this experience.

Work on yourself, first

I’d convinced myself that if I was a personal trainer and hiking guide, combining my two favourite pastimes, then life would be perfect. The truth is, though, the reasons I was unhappy at work weren’t easily fixed by my new choice, and if I’d stopped long enough to reflect on this, I might have gone into it differently. I’d fallen victim to “grass is greener” syndrome, where I built up this job as the answer to everything, without acknowledging it’s a little bit about me too.

Your happiness is your own responsibility and it’s continuously evolving. If you’re confident in who you are you can keep adapting and make good choices.

Identify what’s transferable – really   

I realised I am a coach at heart. Encouraging and supporting people is the most important skill I have taken into the rest of my career. At its essence, it’s what got me into fitness training, but happily, it also led me to career development as a profession. I had innately recognised the helper part of me, but had focussed on the context of fitness, which put me in an industry that wasn’t right for me. Taking a step back, I realised it was this that was driving me, not fitness. Transferrable skills drive career adaptability, and luckily for me, I recognised this one in myself. In our heavily qualification-oriented world, it’s easy to think you have nothing to offer without the right piece of paper, but that’s never the case. Take some time to really get to the bottom of your skills.

Be less judgemental and let your strengths stand out

I’m a curious cat, and previously I’d chastised myself for being distractable and lacking commitment. These things aren’t untrue, but my roving eye for other interesting things is an extremely useful habit as a career practitioner. Deep down, it started from my unacknowledged gut instinct that I was in the wrong job, but it became a source of fascination for me to find out what other people did for work. In the process of all these conversations, I was gaining a lot of new information to store in my data banks.

That same curiosity has been present throughout my life and it’s what has made me an avid lifelong learner, an ideas generator, and a great fit for the careers industry. By finally acknowledging my curiosity, I’ve been able to recognise it as a strength.

Reconnect with your younger self

I love writing. I always looked forward to writing the newsletter for my training group. Engaging this skill again tapped me back into a version of myself that I’d left behind as a 19-year-old, when I impulsively changed out of my English major into a Business degree. I’d deeply enjoyed writing since I was a child but had ditched it at uni to do something ‘sensible’ that I thought would give me better job options (it’s a great anecdote for my work, incidentally). Through my newsletters, it had all flooded back to me.

People often discount their childhood pursuits as unimportant but reconnecting with them can remind you what you did before you had to worry about money, what you did with your time purely by choice. It can highlight old strengths that can be renewed; new career paths you hadn’t considered; or perhaps a long-lost pastime that can better support your wellbeing. All these things are extremely valuable.

Recognise your values

I cemented some values through this experience. Nature is important to me. So is genuine connection with people, positive framing, and building people up to be stronger versions of themselves. These things are my foundation, along with creativity, autonomy, collaboration, and learning. I know this now, in my bones, rather than simply saying the words. I’ve put them into action and felt the fit lock in; I’ve worked against them and felt it grate. Knowing your values makes all the difference.

Everything is a lesson

I listened to Brene Brown talk with Dan Pink about his book on regret. One of the things people regretted most in life was not making a bold decision, instead choosing the safe option. I can confidently say I did this, and I have no lasting regrets about it.

In the final throws of my business, it would have been easy to start feeling like it had been a mistake. When things don’t go the way you plan, it doesn’t have to be waste of time if you put effort into learning from it. I was able to learn so much about myself, with a clarity I couldn’t have gained through simply talking and planning. Knowing is in the doing, and sometimes it’s the only way you’ll find out for sure. Your choice then becomes between taking the risk (noting you can mitigate its scale), or whether you can live with not being certain.

For me, I don’t regret my foray into fitness and guiding. I did some cool things: two overseas trips and a guided climb of Mt Bartle Frere are still things I look back on with great satisfaction. Taking older women on hikes that they would never ever have considered doing before, and seeing their confidence grow in the process was wonderful to be part of. I made a lot of friends, enjoyed amazing views, and had some memorable wildlife encounters, not to mention a lot of fun. Through it all, I learned a lot about myself and know so much more for next time. Best of all, I’ll never have to ponder that pesky “what if…”.

Doing this on your own can be hard, sometimes you can’t see in yourself what others can. If you’d like someone to help you work this out, get in touch today.