Don’t Give Up!

By, Kathy Shabotynskyj & Nafije Prishtina

As we find ourselves at the epicenter of Covid-19 in the USA, we are sharing this experience with everyone else in the world. That is amazing all by itself. While we are all in this together, have you noticed how time is flying and standing still simultaneously? Inherently, we know time is marching on, but our individual and collective perception of time is certainly skewed. For me, and most everyone I know, life as we knew it has hit the pause button. We are experiencing something special and a new understanding of 24 hours in a day.  

Yes, we are facing uncertainty and challenges. I am finding an abundance of time, few professional demands and no deadlines. Being an extrovert by nature, social distancing is an added challenge. I’m squandering most of my time. Is it because there is so much time available? My intention is to be productive. That is not happening. The uncertainty may be a factor. But I am not giving up.

Let me step back only about 45 days. On February 25^th, the Democratic Primary candidates debated in South Carolina. That day I flew to NYC and was lucky to score a last minute free ticket to the live broadcast of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The show started at 11:30 PM, following the debate. There was no mention of Corona virus that night. There were no social distancing measures. There wasn’t a whiff of this gigantic threat pushing closer. Oh how unsuspecting we were just a few short weeks ago. 

What struck me that night was Stephen Colbert himself, answering an innocent-enough question from an audience member; “did you ever want to give up?” He explained that he in fact, had faced a situation that could be described as serious depression and an inability to work. What?! This successful comedian who followed legendary David Letterman doubted himself and his career direction? Yes, it happened to him. He almost gave up. When he discovered the part of comedy that he really loved doing, creating new comedy, he recommitted to his career choice. It sure has worked out! Since 2015, Stephen has been the host of this #1 show in late night offerings. His story that night hit me in the face like the 40 degree wind that escorted me home at 1AM.

Ever since hearing Stephen’s story about conquering his desire to give up, I wanted to write this blog. But when the quarantine started, my sense of time and deadlines evaporated. And in fact, delaying my writing is an example of giving up – sure I haven’t completely given up, but delaying my work is not consistent with my intentions.

We will all be coming out of our forced sequestration soon. I am recommitting today to my career goals and offer you a few ideas to help you make progress in your life and your career. 

·        Choose how you use your energy and use it to make incremental progress.

·        Daily, write down your goals and create a schedule to devote time to work on your goals.

·        You will need to build your time management skills and pay careful attention to   prioritizing.

·        Build your success muscles one sub-task at a time.    

·        Congratulate yourself for all progress.

·        Share your goals with your “people.” You can build support for your dreams among your family, friends and accountability partners. Offer to keep someone accountable for their goals while they keep you accountable for regular progress toward your goals.

·        Surround yourself with other successful people through Ted Talks, YouTube, podcasts, books and online resources. And the library when they reopen.

·        You might even want to create a vision board to drive your actions.

·        Follow daily rituals to support and reinforce your goals.

·        Before you sleep each night, visualize the goal as if it is accomplished and develop a connection with the feelings this accomplishment brings you.

You can accelerate your success by adding your feelings of the goal’s attainment. You will never give up when you can feel the success of attaining a goal. As sure as night follows day, if you continue to work toward your goals, you will be successful. You can conquer the world! 

When the economy restarts, we will all be sharing what we did to survive the pandemic. Use this time now to identify your goals and work toward completion and you will have something of real value to discuss, soon.

Life Coach Nafije’s Input:

Thank you, Coach Kathy, for your encouragement and great advice on how we can apply ourselves during these “on hold” days so we can be more prepared when the world and our “economy restart.”

For those shining stars who continue to spend time learning, reading and writing, giving up is not an option! Now, more than ever we need to apply ourselves to the areas of our life where we have full control. Remember that's RAINBOWS after the RAIN.  Take charge of your time and use your GOD GIVEN imagination to CREATE a new plan and/or enhance your existing plan. Giving up is not an option. ….we all get our hopes dashed sometimes but reminding yourself of your abilities will lift you up. Follow these suggestions and you will catapult yourself to a new day filled with unlimited possibilities for you to shine fully!

P.S take advantage of our 30 minute Complimentary Coaching via SOAR.com.

Career Coach Kathy Shabotynskyj: kathy@mycareerteam.com
Life Coach Nafije Prishtina: shinningstarscoaching@gmail.com