In this episode, Sarah walks you through a simple but transformative process: a 15-minute quarterly career review. If you’ve been feeling stuck, off track, or overwhelmed by your career goals, this episode is a must-listen. With practical prompts and mindset-boosting tips, you’ll learn how to reflect, refocus, and re-energise your career journey—all in under a quarter of an hour.

Show Notes:

00:00 – Welcome & Introduction

Sarah introduces the podcast, its mission, and why it’s vital for women in leadership to take time for career reflection.

01:30 – Why You Need a Career Review

How a 15-minute check-in can stop your career from drifting and help you stay intentional.

02:50 – The Struggle is Real

Acknowledging how busy jobs and lives make it hard to prioritise career development—and why it’s still crucial.

03:40 – The Benefits of Quarterly Reviews

Clarity, confidence, goal-setting, and recognising what’s working (and what’s not).

04:50 – Step 1: Create Space

Ideas for when and where to do your review—whether it’s at your desk, in a café, or on your commute.

06:00 – Step 2: Reconnect to Your Goal

Whether you set a goal in January or not, now’s the time to reflect on what you want this year.

06:45 – Step 3: Ask Yourself Key Questions

What went well?

What could have gone better?

What have I learned?

Who did I enjoy working with and why?

What still needs to happen?

08:45 – Step 4: Refocus Your Energy

Use the review to shift your energy and attention toward what matters most in the next quarter.

09:15 – Step 5: Boost Your Motivation

Tips for creating a compelling “towards” goal vs. a reactive “away from” goal.

10:30 – Use Visual Anchors to Stay Focused

Examples of using images, words, or symbols to stay connected to your goal.

11:30 – Celebrate Wins to Build Confidence

Why celebrating your progress helps balance your mindset and boost your belief.

12:30 – Check Your Mindset

Noticing negative self-talk, managing blocks, and staying positive.

13:00 – Stay Accountable

How regular check-ins or support (like a coach or accountability buddy) help you stay on track.

14:00 – Recap & Final Encouragement

A summary of the process and encouragement to book your 15-minute review today

Useful Links

Sign up for Weekly Career Inspiration

Learn about Leadership & Advancement Coaching Programmes

Book a Free 121 Clarity Call

Join The Love What You Do Facebook Group

Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn

Rate & Review the Podcast

If you found this episode of Unstuck & Unstoppable helpful, please do rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

If you're kind enough to leave a review, please do let Sarah know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: sarah@careertreecoaching.co.uk

Welcome to Unstuck and Unstoppable,

the podcast for ambitious female

2

leaders who want to create more impact,

income, and influence in their careers.

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feel connected to their passion

and purpose, but without

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selling out or burning out.

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I'm Sarah Archer, a leadership coach

and career strategist, helping women

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like you thrive in leadership roles

while staying true to your values.

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I'm the founder of CareerTree

Coaching and have over 15 years of

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coaching experience and significant HR

leadership experience to share with you.

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I know as a female leader it can

be hard to find time to focus

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on your career aspirations.

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The day job can be all consuming.

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Plus, no matter how senior you are,

there are always going to be times

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when you feel stuck, when you have

self doubt, or feel like an imposter.

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And that's where unstuck

and unstoppable comes in.

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Each week I'll be sharing practical

strategies, insightful interviews and

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inspiring stories to help you boost

your confidence, lead with purpose

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and achieve sustainable success.

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If you're ready to stop playing

small and unlock the incredible

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potential you have within you and feel

unstoppable, you're in the right place.

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Let's get started.

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Welcome to episode 26 of

Unstuck and Unstoppable.

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I'm really pleased you're here.

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Now, today we're talking about

career reviews and I'm gonna talk you

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through how you can do a 15 minute

career review to get your career

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back on track, and I recommend that

you do these every three months.

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This is something I do for myself in

my business and I also encourage my

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clients to do it because it helps

you manage things intentionally

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and consciously because otherwise

things can just drift, can't they?

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We wanna be proactive and this will

help you maintain that intentionality

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and that proactivity in your career,

because otherwise, if we don't, then

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we go onto autopilot, don't we?

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We might have hopes and

aspirations for our career.

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We might want a promotion or a

new job or to change sector or

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change career or bring in more.

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Challenge or stimulation or creativity

into our role or create more flexibility.

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But if we don't move it forward,

if we just have it on the horizon,

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but without any specific movement

towards it, it's gonna take

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longer and longer to get there.

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But I do acknowledge that in a busy world

with busy lives and busy jobs, it is hard

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to keep your eye on the ball around your

career development and career advancement.

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It can feel like another job that you

have to do or another thing on your to-do

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list, and we don't want that to happen.

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It is challenging to find the

time to focus on your career,

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particularly when you've got a really.

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Full on job and full on life.

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You can definitely find 5, 10,

15 minutes to do what I'm gonna

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recommend you do on a quarterly basis.

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Because we can all find that amount

of time in our day at some point.

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And if you can then link it to

where you want to be, that increases

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your motivation to find that time.

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Let's talk about why we need

to do these mini reviews.

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What's useful about them?

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And like I said, it, it helps you keep

on track or get back on track if you

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haven't got to where you want to be.

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It also helps you.

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Create goals that are more bite-sized.

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Because if we have that overarching

12 month goal for our career,

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which is super important, that can

feel a little bit overwhelming.

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But if we break it down into quarterly

goals and we're reviewing them and

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setting them each quarter for ourselves

or goal, it doesn't have to be more than

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one, that can just feel more manageable.

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It can help us.

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Reset things.

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If perhaps where our , overall goal has

changed it can also boost our confidence.

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And I'm gonna talk about that in a minute.

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And also identify any gaps that we

need to plug that might have appeared

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since we set our original goal.

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And also allows you to engage in some

reflective practice and reflective

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practice is useful throughout your career.

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And also, especially if you are a leader.

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It's a really great thing

to be able to engage in.

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So creating time and space

for that is really helpful.

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And allows you to refocus your

energy for the next three months.

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Because that's gonna be super

important in making things happen.

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We can look at what we need to keep our

energy high to achieve what we want to.

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So there's lots of powerful why we need to

do this to create this time for ourselves.

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Let's think about how

then, how do we go about it.

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And I have to say nothing I'm

gonna share with you today is

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rocket science, but it gives you

a framework for your career review.

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The first thing we wanna do

is find a bit of quiet space.

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So remember, we're only talking about

five to 15 minutes depending on how

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laser focused you want to be on it.

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That might be booking a room for

15 minutes for yourself if you're

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at work, or if you're getting

in a bit earlier than normal.

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Just before you dive into.

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The emails and the doing of the

day just to give yourself 15

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minutes before you start the day.

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Or if you are at home, you've got

your commute time when you can use

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for this session for yourself, or

you might choose to use your commute.

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If your commute is amenable to having

that thinking time and you've got

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a notebook, you can just jot things

down and catch it on your phone,

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then that might be a space to do it.

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Or you might want to think, I'm

gonna go out for my lunch hour.

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I'm gonna go and sit in a cafe and

just have some time to myself or

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do my thinking as I'm walking in a

park, or somewhere that's gonna give

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you that space, that perspective to

think about your three month window.

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Then the second thing we want to

do is to reconnect to the goal that

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we set ourselves at the beginning

of January when everything was

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feeling possible , what was the

goal that you set for yourself?

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Was it around some sort of development

that you wanted to have in your career?

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Was it about getting to that next level?

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Was it about changing something

in your career, whether that's

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your industry or organization, or.

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Your type of work or was it about some

stretch goal for yourself in terms of what

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you're doing, a piece of work that you

really wanted to work on, or projects, or,

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as I said, more flexibility or creativity

or something different in your career.

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So reconnecting with that goal.

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, if you didn't set a goal

at the beginning of.

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January, then it's an opportunity to

think, what do I want to achieve in

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the next nine months in my career?

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So being aware of what your

overarching goal is for the year.

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And then we want to ask

ourselves some good questions.

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That's things like what has gone

well in the last three months?

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Really focusing on the things that you

have done that you did manage to achieve,

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that you did enjoy that, were real

positives in that three month window.

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But then also thinking about

what could have gone better.

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So noticing.

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Okay.

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Maybe I couldn't say yes to that

particular opportunity because of X or Y.

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How could I do that differently if the

opportunity comes up again or I didn't

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have any time at all to focus on my

career because of the workload or

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something came up that wasn't expected.

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What could I do to create space

for that in the next three months?

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Noticing the things that

got in the way for you.

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And then also looking

at what have I learned?

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What have I learned about myself on

a personal level, what have I learned

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professionally over the last three months?

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Because you will have learned something.

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There will have been challenges,

there will have been opportunities to

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notice people who are inspirational.

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There'll be the opportunity

to have taken on possibly

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something you haven't done before.

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Thinking about what it is that you've

learned and then thinking about the who.

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Who have I enjoyed working with

over that last three month period?

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And why?

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Because it's always useful to

notice the why, because then you can

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think about how you can bring more

of that into the next three months.

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Were there particular

colleagues or clients or peers.

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Or people above you, below you

that you really enjoyed working

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with, and what was it about them and

their energy that you want to engage

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more with in the next three months?

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And then the final question in this mini

review is what still needs to happen?

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And this is a really important

question to be answering because

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it's gonna help you focus.

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For the next three months.

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What still needs to be in my plan

for the next three months to move me

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closer to where I ultimately want to be.

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And this is also a chance to refocus

or rejig what we're going to pay

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attention to in this next three months.

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Because it might be that things

have shifted a bit for you.

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Being clear about what still needs to

happen in the next three months, which

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gives you then a bit of a plan then

we want to think about how we can

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increase your motivation, because

obviously motivation is important

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at making our goals a reality.

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I've got a few different ideas

about how you could increase your

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motivation for the next three months.

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The first thing would be to check

out your goal and make sure it's a

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towards goal rather than away from goal.

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Because towards goals are much more

motivating and away from goals can tend to

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push us into a knee jerk reaction, which

isn't always then the right solution.

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So the problem, towards goals , are

things like I want to be a.

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Head of communications in a FinTech,

managing a small team of five people

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in the next six to nine months.

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The more specific about a

goal we can be, the better.

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Really making sure your goal is specific

and it's a towards goal and you are

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excited about that, towards goal as well.

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And in a away from goal

is something like I.

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I really hate my job.

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I need to leave and get a new one.

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Or my boss is making my life a nightmare,

or the culture's changed and I just want

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to have something different in my life.

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But obviously that could push us

to taking a role then that isn't

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right for us because we just want

to escape our current situation.

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If you noticing you've got an away from

goal, then make sure you're changing

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it into a towards goal because that

will also increase your motivation.

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Then something fun that you can do

around your goal, and this can be

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either for your longer term goal or it

can be for your next three month goal

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is to think about an image, a word,

a screensaver, something that will.

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Signify your goal to you that you

can have on your desk or on your

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phone or somewhere that you can see

regularly, because if your goal is

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sitting in a drawer in a notebook,

it's gonna be easy to forget it.

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I had a client who, she was a head

of communications and she was setting

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herself a personal development goal,

a leadership goal in that she wanted

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to be more, resilient in her meetings

with the board, with the senior leaders.

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She wanted to be able to be more

challenging and to protect her

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team and her area, and, be able to

direct the communications from that

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senior team in a more effective way.

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And so her goal was about

doing all of those things.

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And she chose to have an image

which was of a historical figure.

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And she chose Bodea.

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She wanted to take the traits from

Bo Sierra about being a strong woman

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who had, you couldn't do your own

interpretation of Bodea, but, had a clear

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vision and a clear pathway and was able

to fight for what was important to her.

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And so she could then channel

her inner Bodea when she went

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into these meetings with the board.

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It's noticing what is gonna work

for you that's gonna really connect

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you to the goal that you have for

the three months, or the overarching

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goal for the next nine months.

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Then we also want to

celebrate what you have done.

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When you did your review, you

noticed what had gone well.

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Celebrating that because a, it's

important to celebrate what we have

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achieved, but also our brain needs four

positives to balance out one negative.

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It will help you to counteract those

thoughts that might be about, yeah, but

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I haven't done this, or I've still got

all of these things on my to-do list.

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So celebrating what you have done

will give you a confidence boost.

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Which leads me onto my next thing,

which is about your mindset because

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motivation and mindset are as important

as the specifics of your goal.

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Checking in on your mindset and

noticing when you're thinking

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about your three month or your nine

month goal, what are the thoughts

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that are coming into your head?

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What are the blocks or confidence

issues that are presenting themselves,

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or, if you're feeling anxious

about it, what is that about?

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And then having strategists to manage

those blocks is super important.

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So you are going into the three months or

the nine months with a positive mindset.

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Thinking about your method

to keep accountable.

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So booking in, obviously these reviews

every three months is one way of staying

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accountable, but also thinking about

other ways that will help you stay

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accountable and make sure that you

are on track for these career goals.

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With one client that I'm working

with at the moment, we have 15 minute

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weekly accountability sessions where

we really focus on what she has.

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Set herself for the week and how

she's got there and what she wants

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to set herself for the next week.

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And she has made so much progress

in the last three months because

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she is really benefiting from

having that specific accountability.

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Thinking about what it is that you

need in order to stay on track.

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Let's do a mini recap.

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We've thought about why giving

yourself the gift of 15

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minutes to do these reviews.

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We've talked through the how, the

kind of questions you need to answer.

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Ask yourself in the review.

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And we've also thought about how to boost

your mindset and given you some ideas

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to think about that could keep your

motivation, sorry, not your mindset,

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your motivation and your mindset high.

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I hope that's inspired you to

go off and book some time to

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do your mini career review.

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I'd love to know how you get on.

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Do let me know if you've found it a

helpful process and you're going to book

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it in for the next three months as well.

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I do offer free career breakthrough

calls if you think you need some

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help with moving your career forward

this year to achieve your goal.

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Do message me if you think that would be

something that would be useful for you.

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Thank you so much for listening

to this episode of the Unstuck

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and Unstoppable podcast.

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I have lots of free resources you

can access on my website, ww.career

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tree coaching.co

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uk, and I'll also put

links in the show notes.

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If you found this episode

helpful, then please subscribe

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so you don't miss the next one.

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And please do share it with a

friend and leave me a review

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and I will personally thank you.

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Remember, you're capable of

more than shine brightly.

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Lead boldly and unlock the

extraordinary potential within you.

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Be unstoppable.