Episode 22 What's on your career bucket list?

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Welcome to Unstuck and Unstoppable,

the podcast for ambitious female

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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 22.

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I'm so glad you're here.

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And today we're talking

about a really fun topic.

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What is on your career bucket list?

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Today's topic , might seem a bit

of strange concept, but we have

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life bucket lists, don't we?

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We have a list of things that we want

to either do or achieve or learn or

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experience before, usually a certain date.

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So either a milestone birthday.

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Before we might feel

we're too old to do them.

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And they range from jumping out of an

airplane, swimming with dolphins to,

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I don't know, doing , an Iron Woman.

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There can be a whole range of

different things, can't they?

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When I was younger, I definitely

had things on my bucket

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list that I've achieved.

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I wanted to travel.

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So I went off around the world for

14 months from India to South America

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in my twenties, which was amazing.

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It's definitely on my

bucket list to travel.

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And, I still have things on my

bucket list often involving travel.

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I want to go to Machu Picchu and,

climb the trail and see the ruins.

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There's gonna be a whole variety of

different things on your bucket list.

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And the same thing for your career

bucket list, because that gives us

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a lot of excitement and motivation

when we're thinking about things

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we want to do in our lives.

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So we don't have any regrets.

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We can apply the same

concept to our career.

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And think about what in our career do

we want to have experience or had the

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opportunity to do or to be or to learn

so that when we get to the end of our

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career, when we retire, we can look

back and feel actually yeah, I did

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all those things that I wanted to do

and I don't have any regrets about it.

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And you can maybe think back to

your earlier career and think, okay,

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what was on my bucket list, even if I

wasn't conscious about it, what was on

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my bucket list earlier in my career?

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And I know when, with my career

when I worked in hr, I definitely

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had HR director on my bucket list.

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It was something that was

really focused I wanted to do.

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I wanted to tick it off and actually,

once I achieved it, I then changed career.

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It was definitely a pivotal.

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Point for me.

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And I also had a particular

organization that I wanted to work for.

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So when I came back from traveling,

I'd made a decision to leave the

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corporate sector and work in the

voluntary sector and working for

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Amnesty International was just.

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Top of my bucket list,

definitely where I wanted to be.

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And it's probably one of my career

highlights, the fact that I worked there.

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So I definitely felt that

was on my bucket list.

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And if it had taken me longer

than two years, I would've kept

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going until I'd achieved it.

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Now as a coach and a business

owner, my bucket list has been a

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bit different . But I've had early

in my business learning career, I

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wanted to do some national press.

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So I managed to work with the Guardian and

wrote articles for them and was on their

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q and a career panels, which I really

enjoyed and I feel proud that I did that.

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I also had on my bucket list

that I wanted to set up a group

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program, a group coaching program,

which I launched two years ago.

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That felt really good to get

that tips off my bucket list too.

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And I still have things that I want to

achieve or have on my bucket list now.

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I did some radio earlier in my

career, local radio where it

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was like a call in to ask career

questions and I really enjoyed it.

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I was very nervous, but

I really enjoyed it.

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Then when I did it for national radio,

it was a bit more nerve wracking, but I

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would love to do some more local radio

and have either my own show or certainly

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a slot where it's like a regular q and a.

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It might never happen, but it's

on my bucket list as something

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that I would love to do.

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I'd also love to be a master coach.

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I've got the hours, I've just got

to go through the accreditation, so

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that's on my bucket list, but for

everybody, it's going to be different

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because it'll depend on what you feel.

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Inspires you or motivates you.

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But it's different to your career plan.

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'cause your career plan's thinking about,

okay, the next one through five years,

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what are the skills I need to get?

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Where do I want to be?

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What kind of promotions am I looking for?

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Or how do I want to get those

experiences in my career?

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Your career bucket list is a

bit more, emotive, it's how it

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makes you feel is, makes you feel

really excited about doing it.

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Maybe it's something quite unusual

or stretches you so it could be

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those things that aren't necessarily

part of your job, but would make

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you feel, that you've achieved

something that you really want to.

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It could be, a bit like someone

of mine, it could be about maybe

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writing an article for trade press

being featured in trade press.

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It could be about working with early

career professionals in your profession

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and either mentoring them or being

involved somehow in their development.

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Maybe part of your membership,

perhaps if you've got membership body

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it might be you wanna be a podcast

guest, you love listening to podcasts.

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You'd love to be on one that

could be on your bucket list.

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Or it could be things like this part of

your job that you just really enjoy and

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you want to do it on a bigger scale.

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I.

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So that could be on your bucket list

or or it could be about designing

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a training course so you can

share your knowledge or becoming a

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more known subject matter expert.

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So really deepening your knowledge and

being known for that piece of knowledge

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in your organization or your industry.

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Or maybe, you wanna be a trustee or

a non-executive director or maybe

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a magistrate, something that's

career related, but maybe isn't

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part of your current profession.

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But, being able to identify what could be

on your bucket list is quite an exciting

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process because there's no pressure to it,

bucket lists are aspirational by nature.

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They're gonna give you a bit

of stretch, but of excitement.

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And there's lots of benefits

to having a career bucket list.

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Because obviously.

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Once you achieve things on it,

that gives you a huge amount of

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satisfaction to feel that you've

done that, you feel proud of it.

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It was part of your, your aspirations.

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Also brings you joy to do those things

because there's sometimes different to

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what you're doing on a day-to-day basis.

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We get so stuck in the doing

that we forget about the

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things that give us real joy.

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And so if we're doing more of those things

that are really exciting to us, that's,

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it only adds to our joy quotient, which,

with the current climate, we need as much

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joy as possible in our work and lives.

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It also gives you focus, sometimes in

our careers we can end up drifting a

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little bit or getting stuck, plateauing.

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So our bucket list can lift

us outta, that can give us.

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New directions to focus on and

it can also help us to get a bit

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more specific about perhaps the

journey to get to that bucket list.

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For example, with my radio show, which may

or may not happen the fact I'm doing lives

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, both on Facebook and on LinkedIn, I.

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It means that I'm getting more

comfortable with talking about my subject

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with answering questions or comments

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. And , getting more used to being in that

sphere so you know, it can help you.

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Stretch yourself on the journey towards

whatever the bucket list item is as well.

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And the more specific we are about what

we want, the easier it is for our brain

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to help us to achieve it, because then

consciously and unconsciously, we can look

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for the possibilities and opportunities

they're going to take us nearer to

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the thing that we actually want to do.

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Plus the biggie as well is that it really

motivates us, if we think about the

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motivation spectrum, we've got the away

from and the towards, and the away from

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tends to be pushing us to avoid pain.

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So that's maybe, a toxic boss or

an organization that we don't align

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our values with anymore or our job

that we've outgrown or a change in

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career, because we're not happy.

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So the away from often is a catalyst

for pushing us forward, but actually

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the towards is much, much more

powerful and motivating and inspiring.

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If we've got something that we are

moving towards it can really help us.

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Enjoy the journey, focus

more and want to achieve it.

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So to make it happen.

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There's lots of real positives and

benefits to having a bucket list.

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And then, you can add your bucket

list ideas into your career plan,

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which can sometimes, feel a bit dry.

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The bucket list can give your plan

a bit of sparkle, but without the

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pressure of, you don't have to

achieve these bucket list things.

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They're not.

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Integral to your job.

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They're like icing on the cake.

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But what might get in the

way of having a bucket list?

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Once we start to think about doing

things outside our comfort zone,

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'cause often our bucket list is

outside our comfort zone, isn't it?

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Swimming, the dolphins, sharks,

whatever, jumping at the plane, it's

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gonna be things that are going to be.

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Stretching us, and that's when our

negative bias in our brain can kick in.

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The negative bias is obviously there

to try and protect us from potential

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pain or vulnerability or rejection

or the things that could hurt us.

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And we then start to hear that internal

dialogue, that internal voice that puts

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doubts in our mind about whether we

could achieve that bucket list, not going

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on about my radio show, , my internal

dialogue might be who'd wants to listen

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to you and no one's gonna give you a slot.

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And that's never gonna happen.

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And it can just dampen that

enthusiasm and make me feel

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small, like I can't achieve that.

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So we have to be aware that it's gonna

trigger that internal voice and therefore

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we have to work extra hard to position it

in a way that actually it is possible and

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not let that voice, sabotage our attempts

, to try new things and do new things.

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I wanted to give you some ideas about

how you can create your bucket list.

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Very simple, but you need

to create some space.

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So obviously if I said to you

now at whatever time it is, think

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about the bucket list items.

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You are, you're at work, you're in the

midst of things, it's not gonna happen.

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You need to create a bit of space when

you can think about what you really

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want to add to your bucket list and

your environment's gonna be important.

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Making it, a space that you feel really

happy in, that you feel comfortable in.

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Things like smell can be important

when we're trying to be creative.

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So it might be, using aromatherapy oils

or candles to create the right ambiance.

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Citrus smells can . Stimulate us,

stimulate our creativity if we're

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feeling a bit overstimulated, maybe

lavender to calm down, but thinking

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about, creating the nice ambiance.

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Or if you're somebody who actually

thinks best when you are outside,

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maybe walking in nature, going

for a walk in the forest or.

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In, a park , or sitting in the

garden, the big coat on, obviously.

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Being in nature can sometimes

also help us to feel freer,

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to think about what we want.

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And then using some tools

can be useful as well.

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Sometimes if I want to create

the right environment for myself,

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I will use affirmation cards.

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I've got lots of different affirmation

cards, so I might give them a shuffle

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and pick one to just set the tone for my.

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Thoughts, or if you're somebody who likes

to talk about these things, maybe you

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could go out for a coffee with a friend

and you could each share bucket list

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ideas and bounce ideas off each other.

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Or, doing the same with your partner or

a colleague that you find very creative.

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But just thinking about

the best way for you to.

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Enable you to think freely.

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And then it's very simple

to ask yourself, what would

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I love to do in my career?

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If there was no barriers at

all, what would I love to do?

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And then just see what,

. Floats to the surface.

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And capture those, do a brainstorm,

capture different ideas,

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however crazy they might seem.

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Go a bit wild.

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Allow yourself free range.

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Think about what would I

love to do in my career.

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And then you can narrow it down to

things that you really want to do.

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Or if that doesn't work,

you could think back.

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Okay.

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If I match myself at 70 or 75, what

would I want to have looked back on

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and said I would've done in my career?

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. That I would feel proud of and see

what emerges, so you could try

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different questions to yourself.

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But obviously then once you've

settled on the ideas that you have,

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you're gonna make a list of them.

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You might have three, you might have 10.

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You're gonna add them

into your career plan.

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But remember the timescale.

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There's no pressure on the timescale.

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You've got your career

lifetime to achieve them.

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I'm still gonna be happy if I've got

my radio show at 70 as I am at, 55.

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, don't put pressure on yourself to

achieve it, but you can add the

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sparkle to your plan by thinking about

things that can take you closer to it.

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They're gonna be enjoyable as well.

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And also remember it could be an iterative

process, so it might be something you

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come back to and you refine or, do

again, particularly achieved everything.

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But you need to keep it visible.

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So make sure a list is, pinned up

on your notice board or you have

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a reminder that pings in for you

to check in with your bucket list.

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Don't just do it and then put

it in a drawer somewhere 'cause

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it's not gonna motivate you.

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I'd love to know your thoughts about the

concept of having a career bucket list.

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I do use it with clients

who feel a bit stuck.

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It can be really freeing exercise to do.

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And also if you've got things

on your career bucket list and

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you want to share that, I'd love

to know what's on your list.

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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 you know, shine brightly.

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Lead boldly and unlock the

extraordinary potential within you.

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Be unstoppable.