Do you see Shades of Grey?

Are you seeing shades of grey or do you need to take off your blindfold first? Yes, Fifty Shades of Grey is everywhere… and I don’t just mean the Irish summer. Most of us see things purely in black & white terms. When I met a client recently for coaching, he commented on his choice of clothing, namely a smart business suit, minus the tie – he didn’t see the point of ties. He said that he was either at one extreme or the other, even in sartorial terms – always either in track suits or pinstripes – nothing in between, no half measures. His attitude to his role in financial services was also one of extremes – ranging from apathy to downright hatred of the job; having to crack the whip, feeling handcuffed and unsatisfied.
We looked at some possible areas where he could apply his management skills to other roles, and potentially changing career altogether to pursue his passions, one of which is in education. He saw many of these things as being far ahead – I asked him if it was possible to take small steps rather than a big jump. We identified some things he could do now to get some more insight into his possible options; volunteering, joining professional groups, networking etc.

He recognised that in many things in life, whether his wardrobe or his career, he saw things “only in black & white… no shades of grey”, in his own words, and that while he might have to retrain if he were to move into teaching in some shape or form, there were other smaller things he could do also in the meantime to move gradually closer to what he wants.
Lots of us do this – choose a single course of action, a set of sequential steps and feel that’s that. But maybe there are other things you could be doing to help you along your way to getting what you want. So do you see things as being black and white, good or bad, all or nothing? Maybe there are some incremental steps you can take to move forward and give you more satisfaction… in your career or whatever part of your life you want to rekindle the passion!