the danger in should

This week I had a wonderful opportunity pop up for me - completely unexpected, very flattering and definitely interesting. An opportunity to enter the Academia world and to teach a course on how to build a coaching business. It would be at a well regarded university and inside of a continuing education coaching program that I know and have a lot of respect for (not where I studied). It's not in LA so it would require some travel on my part and it's not the type of thing you take on for the money as money's not what education is built around nor does it offer much of it, but it was something I was sure to enjoy, would feel a great sense of reward from, would look great on my professional bio, would open new doors, etc etc. So I had lots of reasons for why I should take this opportunity.

But then when I stepped back and asked myself what is it that I want - my vision for my company - and what have I been so focused on building in these last two years - in addition to other aspects of my life that I want to ensure I protect, I began to feel a disconnect when considering this opportunity. And yet despite that I still debated and talked it through several ways with family and in my own head trying to wrestle down the right decision for me. And it wasn't until a few days passed that I caught myself - all the reasons why I felt I should take this opportunity were exactly that - things I thought I SHOULD do vs want to do. I could see the upside potential of this and the intangible gains but I could also see how far off course it felt from where I currently am and where I see myself going. And it was in that moment that I realized my very first instinct was right on and it wasn't until I allowed all the "shoulds" to fill my brain that I found myself in a debate over the decision. Once I realized that, put the shoulds aside and just asked myself - what do I want to do and what feels right for me right now based on my vision and my goals. In that moment, the answer was very clear.

What things are you debating right now? And rather than trying to weigh all the options, step back from the decision at hand and ask yourself what do you want, what are your goals and vision for yourself in the near term? Once you answer those - let them guide you. It's about knowing who you are and what you want and the rest can just fall into place as it aligns to you.