I’ve always had a passion for science and technology and found out early on that I was really good at it. Naturally I pursued the depths of technical excellence. I was 16 when I passed my CCNA, 19 when I did my CCNP, and only 22 when I passed the CCIE lab exam.

I was happy, excited, and proud to be a Systems Engineer (SE) in Sales at the world’s biggest networking company, and to use my technical expertise to help my customers. I loved my job.

Until I didn’t anymore.

Although I was a SE in sales and a CCIE, and despite having worked with some of the most recognisable brands in the world, it took quite some time (nearly 2 years!) for me to realise that’s not what I wanted to do anymore. To realise that my job wasn’t energising me or motivating me. To realise why I was frustrated with my career.

We’re all human after all, and it’s OK to get lost.

That brought me to one of the biggest shifts in my career – into teaching.

Working with early-in-career graduates as part of an internal Sales Associates Program, teaching and mentoring, allowed me to find meaning and purpose once more. I could still use my technical background yet was growing and developing a whole new skill set.

I learned that it’s OK to change your direction, even if you’ve reached a really high level of knowledge/expertise. And that changing direction can be extremely fulfilling and lead to massive personal growth (win-win!)

Sales Enablement teaching & facilitation carried me through nearly 7 more years and opened up many new doors and interests:

• I became a yoga instructor.
• I became a mindfulness teacher and started teaching it to other employees.
• I got really into Design Thinking and was even a mentor in a senior technical leadership development program.

Near the end of my time in corporate the internal politics started getting to me. Frustration started to set in once more.

Sensing this early on, I started exploring professional Coaching as a possible next step. I knew immediately that it was for me after a 3-day intensive training, the first of what would turn out to be many along the path to become an internationally accredited coach.

Let’s hit pause for a moment.

That was a BIG realisation and tough to accept after so much time and investment in pursuit of technical excellence. I’d had a very long and successful career all the while being technical. And to shift away from that, towards something so different and mostly unknown?

There was a voice in the back of my head yelling (screaming!) about how being technical was what I was best at, and about how it had always served me so well, and that I was crazy to even consider something else. (There’s a reason most people continue doing something they’re good at, even if they don’t like it.) But the reality was that it hadn’t always served me well. There were some major frustration points along the way and long periods of being unhappy. That voice, if you can relate, holds us back.

But, thanks to mindfulness and coaching, I’ve learned to listen to and trust my instinct. I knew that shift was exactly what I needed to do at that point in my career. And I’ll continue listening, and shifting, and evolving over the years to come.

It is possible.

I fundamentally believe that we all have the capacity within us to find meaning, motivation, and excitement in the work that we do.

Sometimes we just need a helping hand to get there.