About

July 2, 2013

Hi! My name is Andrea and this is why I’m here:  I have done the same vague types of jobs since I was 15 years old.  I have sold shoes, cookies and hardware and was a union worker in a big box store a zillion years ago.  I “was” a United States Marine.  I’ve been the primary office worker or manager in a law office, an internet service, a regrettably shady personal injury clinic chain and a Chiropractic clinic that wasn’t shady half a dozen years before eventually owning my own private practice.  I have been a personal assistant/sanity-saver twice.  I have lived with and counseled at-risk girls on a ranch, and done hundreds if not thousands of hours of youth teambuilding and ropes course recreation.  I have a doctorate degree in Chiropractic.

And not one of these things reflect me more than very superficially.  Please don’t ask me to explain how I didn’t accept this and start the process to change it well before I was 40. I don’t have an answer for that.  What I do know, and am experiencing more and more every day, is that my creative, curious, analytical, observational and exploratory nature is my strongest suit and whatever my next incarnation I want those to be the core traits I get to use every day.

It is time for a change. I’m currently working in an unfulfilling position, in a very expensive but low paying career I never should have pursued, and it is time for a change.

So I’ve hired a career coach. Yay me! But not just any career coach because I do NOT like to do anything by the status quo rule book. Her name is Stacy and she’s turning out to be like my own Yoda (but prettier).  I’ve hired begged her to break me down from “above down, inside out” (a little Chiro reference there), layer by layer – through what’s proving to be a super fun exploration process – until we find out together exactly who and what I’m meant to be. What I’d be most happy doing with my life.

In hindsight… um. duh, Andrea. Why didn’t I do this 20 years ago?  The more psychologically sad question is why didn’t I know 20 years ago.   Hindsight.

Basically, I didn’t know any better. Despite all the costumes, I was raised and indoctrinated to be a rule follower (while being at my core someone who essentially cannot unquestioningly follow any set construct if it doesn’t make sense). Still, I did what the “American Dream” had taught me was the process. I got a job, I paid my taxes, got an advanced degree, opened my own clinic, succeeded clinically but not financially, and proceeded to flame out hard and not have anything even approaching the life I’d been raised to expect would just happen with hard work.

And I didn’t enjoy any of it. And I wasn’t happy. I’m not happy.  Hence the decision to recycle myself.

Starting now.

I started coaching in early December 2012, twice a month.  After 2 or 3 months the bright idea came up for me to blog the process I’m going through in career coaching.  It’s a great way to make sure I do my homework, and maintain accountability.  Also, I really like the idea that the work I’m putting in to this process is in one place where I can easily manipulate it.

In May I decided that I really wasn’t content with keeping my blog in WordPress.com, because I was aching for more freedom to play with formatting and design, themes etc.  I had no earthly idea what a plugin was, or how it differed from a widget. I know not the slightest thing about CSS coding, although I’ve since learned how to change the size of my widgets using it (wheeee!).  A small sort of accomplishment, all of this, to a twenty year old who grew up with an ipad glued to their butt, but for me all of this has been a new, frightening and such an exciting new adventure.

So please look around, there are mini-surprises everywhere (usually I’m the one surprised, but you never know).  If you have questions about coaching, please do ask! As for me and my fun journey…we’ll see what happens!

Here’s my unofficial anthem. Enjoy.    01 This Is the New Year (Glee Cast Version)

  Cheers! Please opine at will.  -A