Episode 116: Fulfilling Careers with Tega Edwin

We are diving into a topic that longtime listeners know we are passionate about here – which is fulfilling careers. We’re digging into how to find one, what it looks like, making decisions for yourself to move closer towards one, and why they’re so elusive in the first place. If you’ve read our book Career Clarity, you definitely know that this is an area that we care a lot about. 

This is an area where so many of us want a fulfilling career and yet feel woefully unequipped to find it. How do I know what I want? How do I know what’s going to feel good? What if I have a dream for where I want to be yet when I actually get there, it doesn’t feel the way that I wanted it to feel?

So if any of those are questions that have been coming up for you, waking you up in the morning and keeping you up at night, you are going to love this episode of the podcast. Dr. Tega Edwin, an award winning career development researcher, educator and speaker, is joining us to discuss.

Want to learn more about our strategic framework for successful career change? Download The Roadmap to Career Fulfillment ebook right here!

Show Notes:

• Her Career Doctor
• Instagram: @HerCareerDoctor
• LinkedIn: Tega Edwin 
• Fulfilling career guide
• Roadmap to a Fulfilling Career eBook

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Transcript:

Lisa Lewis Miller  0:04

Welcome to the Career Clarity Show. If you want to create a career path you’ll love you’re in the right place. I’m Lisa Lewis Miller, career change coach, published author and your host, and each week we’ll bring you personal transformation stories, advice and insights from experts about how you can find a more fulfilling, soulful and joyful career. Welcome back to the Career Clarity Show. I’m your host Lisa Miller and I am delighted that you are with us today. On today’s episode of the Career Clarity Show, we are diving into a topic that longtime listeners no we are passionate about here, which is the filling careers. Today’s episode is going to be all about how to find one, what it looks like how to make decisions for yourself to move closer towards one, and why they’re so elusive in the first place. If you’ve read our book, Career Clarity Show, you definitely know that this is an area that we care a lot about. And it’s an area where so many of us want a fulfilling career. And so many of us also feel woefully unequipped to find it. How do I know what I want? How do I know what’s going to feel good? What if I have a dream for where I want to be? And when I actually get there, it doesn’t feel the way that I wanted it to feel. So if any of those are questions that have been coming up for you, waking you up in the morning and keeping you up at night, you are going to love today’s episode of the podcast. On today’s episode of the podcast I am bringing on an expert on career fulfillment. Dr. tager Edwin takea is an award winning career development researcher, educator and speaker. She’s the owner of her career doctor where she helps women who are unhappy at work get clear about who they are so they can find a fulfilling career and job search with confidence. Before starting her company, she worked as a career counselor for one of the largest Career Service Centers in the nation. And in addition to her work as a career counselor, Dr. Edwin currently uses her PhD in counselor education as a professor to train future counselors in a large research university. Dr. Edwin is a licensed professional counselor and national certified counselor, a certified salary negotiation facilitator, and developed her unique flipped triangle model for career decision making that we’re definitely going to talk about in today’s episode. So, Dr. Ortega, welcome to the Career Clarity Show. Thank you for having me on. Hey, Lisa, I’m looking forward to talking with you. Well, I feel like you have spent so much time academically and professionally sitting with these questions about the filament, what does it look like? How do you find it? That I just I can’t wait to pick your brain on it. But I feel like the natural starting point is what got you interested in this?

Tega Edwin  2:58  

Yeah. I’m like, every time I get that question, I always wonder where should I start. So this started with my own journey where I was before getting into counseling, I was doing more healthcare work, like healthcare researcher, and I’m gonna make that part of the story very short, I was unfulfilled, I was unhappy, it did not align with who I was at all, it sucked. And I, one day just realized I did not like being unfulfilled. I remember saying to myself, I’m miserable. But I know that God did not create me to be miserable. So Something’s got to give, which then required me to kind of take a step back, which I’m sure we’ll get into my kind of what led to my framework. But in doing my clarity work, I realized that counseling was the path for me. And so I transitioned into being a school counselor. And that was where my first love for career work in general started. So as a school counselor, back then I worked in Colorado, where you are now and that’s where I used to be. I worked for a district that was a paid by performance School District. And that just means that we got paid based on how our students performed. And so for me, as a school counselor, one of those metrics was our student’s career knowledge. And so I was sort of forced at that point to help my students with their career development. But in doing that, I found my love because I realized that helping them explore career work, career development, even at the elementary level, was a way for them to really spend time on themselves by kind of connecting with who they are the different ways that they’re intelligent, the things they find cool and interesting, and how that connects to the world of work. And so I just saw the kids light up because we weren’t doing this is no, not the teachers. I’m a teacher right now. But we weren’t doing like the science or the math. It was very much self work. And they really enjoyed that. And so during that process, I realized very quickly that I wanted to go get my PhD back then I thought it was because I wanted to better support school counselors. But I also knew I wanted to research career development. And so in that during my PhD time, my research work was in career development in K 12 schools. But that was also when I started, I founded my first role as a career counselor. And so I worked for a career counselor then, which was that transition from school to career and felt even more deeply like as I was researching it. But now I was working with a different demographic college students and sometimes community members, like alum of the school, and just seeing people seem similar to the kids, but in a different sense, light up when they figured out what was supposed to happen, what they thought was supposed to happen in their career where they finally figured out, this is my path. That was just very fulfilling for me helping people because career I found, it’s a weight for a lot of people. It’s the weight that is often unspoken. What am I like you those questions? Is that what am I doing with my life? Who am I? What does this look like? And so I say, that’s how I fell into the career world. And I haven’t looked back since then.

Lisa Lewis Miller  5:48  

I have never heard anybody come into the career world through elementary education before. So I really have so many follow up questions for you on that. What does that even look like when you’re you’re speaking with a six or a seven year old? and having them sort of forecast forward? What the grown up version of themselves and might be curious about or interested in?

Tega Edwin  6:13  

So at the elementary level, they’re not. They’re not quite forecasting? Yeah, well, they are. It’s weird. So yes, I’m going to do some of the research is going to come out. So what this research shows is really by fifth grade, students have already determined what career paths are available to them, based on what they’ve seen in the world. So for example, the little Hispanic girl who lives in a Hispanic community, if she never sees a female police woman, in her mind, she can never be a police woman. If she never sees a Hispanic doctor or accountant. in her mind, she could never be a doctor or an accountant, because she hasn’t seen herself represented. So by the end of fifth grade, they go through a process that we call circumscription, it really just means they have eliminated a whole host of career options, based simply on what they see in their environment. So at that elementary level, the work really is just exposure. So like in the kindergarten, we’re just reading books about, you know, workers in the community. But then maybe in third grade, it’s more bringing in a diverse group of workers in a diverse group of roles to expose students knowing fully while they’re dependent on the neighborhood that you live and work in, they might not get to see people who look like them in higher prestigious jobs. And I’m doing air quotes right now, because prestige is variable. But also prestige is one of the ways in which students eliminate some roles by they think, Okay, this is above my prestige class, so I’m not even going to shoot for that job. So at the elementary, it’s very much more, we’re just doing exposure and broadening their horizons so that they don’t eliminate options based simply on what they’ve observed in the world.

Lisa Lewis Miller  7:48  

That’s fascinating. Oh, my gosh, I wish our podcast listeners could see my face. But Jacob was saying that I feel like I was just watching my jaw drop more and more and more. And it’s incredible, because I you know this because you have conversations with adults much, much more these days. But there’s so much of the anchoring, of what we can and cannot do what we can or cannot be what is or is not available to us, that often we as coaches sort of tried to support people with very much in a hearing now modality of that is available to you. That’s possible, why don’t you try a test to see if you can find that, by understanding that there are roots in the little version of each of us, is an incredibly important connection. And I mean, my goodness, if that doesn’t indicate how big of a difference privilege can make in economic and social mobility, and creating the kind of equitable society that I think we all hope for. That doesn’t show it. I don’t know what would, right. That’s fascinating. So as you continue on your research work about K through 12, and career ambitions and aspiration, what are some of the things that you were seeing change and evolve over time? In my clients, or in the work itself? Let’s do yes, yesterday.

Tega Edwin  9:21  

But also, we’ll start with the client. What I very quickly realized, because I’m not I’m talking to you, I’m realizing I’ve gone sequentially, right, I went from k to 12, to college now to fully adults, the lifespan in the career work, but and I think that’s how God wanted it because that has all helped me see how things build. So when I was working as a career counselor in a college campus, I was very quickly able to see how a lot of my clients came into college. Not ready. They just had these misconceptions about the world of work, one of which was something like you know, a lot of them will think things like I need to pick the perfect major for the rest of my life because this major will determine this one job and I’m going to do this one job. I always say you leave 20 years until you retire or you die yet. That’s what people believe. But that’s not how the world works. But no one is really educating people on that career process. And so that was one thing I saw in the in that I would say 1416 range. When I say 14 is like after 12th grade, we go 3040 it’s, you know, college age. But then in adults, I see some of that continue where, because no one ever, the way I see it is no one ever sat you down to teach you how to select the career, I see that a lot of the clients I’ve worked with people who engage with my my content, they very much have carried these misconceptions on into adulthood to where they’re in an unfulfilling career. They know it sucks, and it’s sucking the life out of them. But they have no clue how to get out of it. Because no one has taught them what that looks like. I mean, realistically, the question I was asking my audience is, who at any point in your life ever sat you down and said, this is how you pick a career? My guess is for most people, the answer is nobody. And so those misconceptions lead into now these adults that we have who are unhappy in workplaces, which also then leads to higher levels of work stress, which is a whole host of other physical and mental health outcomes. And so that’s the transitions I see over time is that those misconceptions carry on very much into adulthood. That being said, in terms of the work itself, I’m seeing now. And now in terms of when we’re recording this, we’re still in the midst of a pandemic. So even now, now, as opposed to just generationally now more than ever, people are hungry for fulfillment. People are hungry for meaning, especially when I’m a millennial. So I think especially millennials, the one who comes after before, after millennials, that Gen Z, they are just like living life. They’re so bold, and strong and fearless. I’m like, man, hats off to you all. But what I’m realizing is more and more Millennials are they want to, we want to step out of that trope of you stay in this one job for 20 years, even if it’s sucking the life out of you until you retire and die. So that yearning for for fulfillment I’m seeing it’s causing people more people to question the status quo of career, also causing them to want to break down barriers that society has tried to put in place, right? Oh, I’m a woman. So I can’t mean construction. No, you’re not gonna tell me that I’m gonna go like, let’s see more more people trying to push back on that. And so that’s a trend like a shift I’ve seen where that’s a great thing. But then it also means that the people that I think millennials would normally have turned to for advice in other areas of their lives, which are baby boomers and others don’t understand that desire. And so I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve had, who say no, I said, I wanted to change, but they were like, at least you have a job, just stay there. And you know, it’s stable. It’s like, you’re talking to the wrong people, they don’t understand what do you mean, by fulfillment in their day and age, they work to put food on the table, bn, they don’t understand what you’re saying fulfillment that’s not a priority, they worked hard to give us the privilege to have that priority of fulfillment. And so you also have to watch them who you have those conversations with, because your privilege of choice can show and I will talk about how in careers, not everybody has the privilege of choice. And so if you’re talking to someone else who doesn’t get that privilege of choice, they will very quickly shut down your desire for fulfillment and you’re pursuing fulfillment.

Lisa Lewis Miller  13:23  

Wait, okay, so let’s dive into the privilege of choice and defining fulfillment, because I think that both of those conceptually, are sort of anchors to the work that you and I do. Mm hmm.

Tega Edwin  13:34  

Yeah. So I talk about the privilege of choice when I work with my clients. And just I think, also from the research in the sense that not everybody has that privilege. There’s a huge group of people population, we think of sex, race, gender, who are working a job just to take care of their family, they don’t have the luxury of saying I want fulfillment, because they they’re working two, three jobs just to keep the light bills on, they’re working three jobs just to feed their kids. So this whole talk about fulfillment for them as a luxury. It’s like, what do you mean fulfillment, whoever is going to hire me, I’m going to work because my kids need a new coat for the winter. And so when I come across someone who has that privilege of choice, right, you have the luxury of being able to say, I don’t want to be miserable, I want to choose something fulfilling. And you don’t leverage that privilege. It hurts my heart quiet, if I’m being quite honest. Because it’s like there are people out there who literally don’t get a chance to live in the way they want because of systemic barriers that are keeping them from that privilege. And so when you have the opportunity to say, Hey, I can apply for a different job. I can ask for a promotion, I can navigate into a whole new industry, but you don’t leverage that privilege. I feel like you’re doing the world a disservice. You’re doing yourself a disservice First of all, but the world because I think the world would be better. If more of us, more of us. Were walking They live in fulfillment. Which then brings us to the second thing of fulfillment. Honestly, I think fulfillment is subjective. But ultimately, the objective definition I like to give is, especially as really so fulfilling career is one that allows you to fully use and express your abilities, your characteristics and your personality, a place where you can honestly be authentically you, and feel like you are walking and live in on purpose. That’s how I define fulfillment. But that’s the objective. Now everybody else has to go define everything else for themselves. What does purpose look like for you? What are your characteristics? What are your abilities? What are your personalities, that’s the self work that needs to happen. But on the objective surface level, I think fulfillment is when you are working in a role. That legit random moments, you look up and like, dang, I love my job. That’s the format.

Lisa Lewis Miller  15:56  

I think that’s such a helpful frame for fulfillment because I think if we tried to put some really specific language to it, like well, fulfillment is working six hours a day and having a commute that’s only two miles long. And if we if we tried to put it into a box, it would inherently be unfulfilling or unsatisfying, because everybody defines it differently. But when you define it as the the feeling, the feeling of looking up from your desk, and exhaling, and thinking, wow, or the feeling of being authentically you, and feeling like you don’t have to put up a whole lot of barriers or, or do like code switching to a point where it feels really oppressive. And you can just share who you are and what you think and your ideas and have it be heard and respected. Like those those feelings, those experiences feel like they’re a lot easier to put your finger on. And I think to the point that you just made, the path that you need to take to get to fulfillment then becomes a uniquely personal journey of definitions. No, what what are my personality characteristics? What are my values? What are my needs, and use those as the stones that pave the pathway to be able to step into something that feels authentically you and like it lights you up? And where you know that you are not wasting the potential of your privilege of choice? Yeah, there have been so many juicy truth bombs that you’ve given, even in these past couple of minutes. Like we could just wrap the podcast right here. There’s been enough Mic drop moments. That’s amazing. But I feel like the next area of exploration just based on everything that you’ve shared is. So let’s say somebody listening to this, and they say, All right. Dr. Edwin, I want to find myself a fulfilling career. And I want to feel I’ve you’ve just outlined that I need to define a lot of things on a personal level. How does one go about doing that? If somebody has bought in and they want fulfillment? What are the first steps you’d recommend? 

Tega Edwin  18:14  

Mm hmm. The first step, which I think you would appreciate, Lisa is clarity. You have to get clear about the way I work who you are, right. So a lot of people in my experience, like Oh, I hate my job, Okay, I’m gonna go look for a new job. And you want to just jump from one job right into the next one. But the problem is that with that multiple, multiple, but the first is, you don’t even know what exactly you don’t like yet. And so if you just make that jump, I promise you, the chances are very high that in six months, you’re going to be unhappy again. So you have to take a step back once you realize, okay, I’m not happy, I want fulfillment, I need to figure out what’s next. You have to start by getting that clarity. And this is where the first part of my framework comes in, where you know, I use a call it the visa Career Clarity Show method where you have to clarify your values, your interest and your skills. And then and only then do I believe you can find your aligned careers. And so that’s that taking a step back is checking in with yourself and connecting insane. Okay, let me figure out who I am. What do I want from the world? What is the impact I want to make in the world? When this sounds morbid, but when I die, and they write my obituary, what do I want them to say about me? Like who have I been? What is the life I had lived? And then once you have clarified all that, the next question is, okay, how can I leverage the world of work to make that impact? So I often tell my clients, you don’t want to find a job, and then try to fit yourself into this box of a job. You need to create your box first by figuring out who you are. And then you find a career that fits into your box that you have created. So you have to create the block as opposed to fitting into somebody else’s. And so that’s the first step. get really clear about who you are, but also get clear about what you don’t like about the current role. Is that their relationships with your co workers or with the your manager or with the company? Is it the compensation is the commute? Is it the type of work you’re doing? Is it where you’re working the environment? Is it the hours? What are the specific things that you recognize are making you dissatisfied, which of your values are being violated in the current role that you’re in, because that’s often a sign of the the source of dissatisfaction is something that is important to me is being violated. And that’s why I’m no longer fulfilled. And so once you have that clarity, then you can start figuring out how and where you would fit in the world of work.

Lisa Lewis Miller  20:40  

I love that. And I feel like when you were talking about your obituary, anybody who’s gone through the Career Clarity Show program is probably smiling and nodding their heads because we do a an exercise, that is from a book called Living foreword by Michael Hyatt and Daniel harkavy. Where you write your, you pre write your obituary, like, Well, what do you want it to say, and it’s this, you know, this age old truth of beginning with the end in mind. And if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. Like, let’s define what you’d love to be able to say that you’ve accomplished, so that the reverse engineering of the steps becomes really clear and really self evident on how to get there. And even if that, that ultimate goal and dream of where you want to be evolves and shifts over time, if it’s rooted in your values, and your interest and your skills, just like you were talking about, it’s unlikely that it’s going to feel wildly unfulfilling and wildly off the mark, you might learn more about yourself as you go and course correct. But it’s going to be a good methodology, and a good mental model for thinking to figure out where to make your next move. Well, so let me ask you this, I want to hear about the flipped triangle model for career decision making. Because I feel like once you map out your clarity, and get a sense of these different component pieces of who you are, and how to draw that box of who you are. So then you can find the careers that fit into it, there might still be a number of careers that seem like they might check the boxes. I know sometimes, an old mentor of mine, Jenny Blake talks about this exercise that she does called the sliding doors careers, where she talks about if you could imagine yourself doing something completely different because you had woken up in a different circumstance or seen a different model of something when you were young. What might those other sliding doors careers look like? And I can imagine for somebody listening, when you’re contemplating what’s next, you might be picking from a buffet of different options that seemed like they might check the boxes, and they might be a good fit. How do you support people with the decision making piece and the discernment piece? Once you’ve evaluated who you are?

Tega Edwin  22:58  

I think that’s where the alignment comes in, which is so there are two questions there. Right, because you talked about the flip triangle, but then that last question that so I’ll start with the last question and go to the the flipped triangle model. So I think the way you figure out from your buffet is really the whole purpose of getting that clarity, the whole purpose of figuring out who you are, is because you’re creating parameters to evaluate any potential for fit for fit. any of my clients will tell you, I don’t believe in the idea of a dream job. I always say the dream job is like a dream, man, it doesn’t exist, there’s going to be something you don’t like 20% of it, 10% of it, there’s no dream, I believe that we all have multiple careers that we can potentially be successful at the key is making a choice. And so that’s where the alignment part comes in where Okay, now that I know who I am, some of that stuff. So like the interest, the way you talk. So the interest in the skills, help you figure out the exact types of roles that you’re potentially interested in doing. The values help you figure out what kind of industries you want to go into. And so if I would make that concrete, for example, someone who’s interested in maybe design and technology and creativity might decide, Okay, you know what, based on what I know about my interest, graphic design, sounds fun, I want to create graphics, I want to use tech to do that to be creative and just spread my creative genius. That’s my interest in the skills I want to use might be, you know, the Adobe Suite, and, you know, brainstorming, envisioning like a campaign, but then drawing out the things like those are my skills I might want to use. Now, almost every industry out there has a graphic designer, from finance, to entertainment, to education to health, but being a graphic designer in any of those industries is going to feel very different because of the values right? So if you’re someone who values, job tranquility, then a high paced superfast working environment might not fit for you. So maybe finance is not going to be the right industry for you to go into. And so the whole point of the clarity that you use these pieces Have yourself to now create your potential you actually. So you have that big goal, let’s say you know you you’re going to the master’s degree a buffet example. Maybe you went into the grocery store and there are all these ingredients. But then your information about yourself helps you pick what cuisines you want. Okay, now maybe I’m only going to go to where the Asian you know, groceries are and then maybe some of the Indian things but maybe some Mexican food right if I’m sticking with your buffet. So now we’ve eliminated maybe like burgers and Nigerian food because I’m Nigerian, like, we’ve eliminated all that. So now I’m saying okay, it’s taste buds. how spicy do I want it? Right? So I might not do some of the Mexican foods, right? So it’s you kind of you take this big world of work where there are literally hundreds 1000s of jobs that new jobs are being created daily because of technology. You call it down with what you know about yourself to a small, more manageable handful. When I work with clients, we start with three, we don’t do more than three, and then you evaluate those. And really, if you have done the work, and you’re really clear about who you are, ideally, any of those should have an 80% chance that you will be absolutely fulfilled in them, like you know that 80% of the time I will be fulfilled. When you go through and do the clarity, you’ll be able to call it down even further to here’s the one that I think I can guarantee a 90% fulfillment. And I like to leave a you know, two to 10% error, because there’s always going to be parts of any job you don’t like, if it’s the meetings if it’s the presentations, something. And that’s just normal. But I think that alignment starts the clarity is what you use to find and figure out okay, in this buffet, what do I want to eat? What do I want to pick? And so that’s I’ll say that?

Lisa Lewis Miller  26:41  

Well, I think that’s a brilliant analogy. But now you’ve got me wanting to talk about the flip triangle model.

Tega Edwin  26:49  

So yeah, so the flip triangle. And so you know, because this is audio just to kind of describe it to you all, it’s two triangles with the first triangle is upright, and the second triangle is upside down. That’s why it’s called the flip triangle of career decision making. And the first, each triangle, you know, represents a phase in my process. The first phase is the discovery phase. And the second phase is the attainment phase. The discovery phase is where we’re doing everything we’ve talked about up until this point, Lisa, right, you’re discovering who you are the values, the interest, the skills, the alignment, it’s almost like you’re setting, the reason why this triangle is upright is the basis broader. And so your values form that broad Foundation, that’s the foundation of who you are, that should base in that we go upwards to the point of the triangle where we narrow it down that buffet that you were talking about and pick our potentials. But then the other part of the triangle, the flipped, one starts broad and goes down to be narrowed because it’s an upside down triangle. And this is the attainment phase. And this is where, because we’ve done the clarity work, we now know who we are, and the kinds of career paths we potentially will find fulfilling one on the next point is to job search. And unfortunately, most people start in this phase, which is why they get frustrated, because they’ve missed a whole chunk of things. But now this is where Okay, now you need to attain that fulfilling career, you’ve discovered what your options are. Maybe you’ve picked one, you’re thinking, yes, this is it. Now I need to attain it. And so now we’re now back to going broad, because the broader part of the triangle is at the top. And this is where we’re searching. So we’re actually engaging in the search of trying to find, okay, I know that graphic design will potentially be fulfilling, but now I got to find a job. And I got to look at things based on like my demographic, my geographic location, etc, etc. But they were coming narrow. So we start with this broad search, and we come down till we find that job, which is the application. So the other side is the Sims, I call it The Sims job search framework, where we start with the search where we’re looking for the roles, engage in intentional networking, that’s the I, the M is where you market and applies. Because when you’re marketing yourself in applying for potential roles, and the S is really secure and plants. So you’re securing the role, but also planning for success. Because I believe job search goes on to the first 90 days on the job, it doesn’t stop once you get the job, you have to plan for 3060 and 90 day bench success benchmarks. And so that second part is the is the attainment phase. And really, for me, I created the framework because I believe these are based on my experiences and the research I do. These are the foundational it really breaks down into eight steps that you need to follow each time you’re trying to make a career decision. But it’s a model that you can use over and over because it’s not a one and done. You might find that fulfilling career, your job, you do it for five years and you wake up one day like I’m not happy again. And guess what, that’s perfectly normal. You evolve and change as a person for the job that’s fulfilling has to evolve and change too. And so you go back to the basics and start with that values again and go through the cycle.

Lisa Lewis Miller  29:53  

I think that emphasizing that you don’t get off this ride, that it’s a cycle that you will keep going View is so, so important because I think that a lot of people who put a lot of pressure on themselves, I’m calling you out specifically, if you are a closet perfectionist, get into this this mind trap, I have to find the one right perfect job for me. And once I do, I can exhale. And then I will just be there for the rest of my career and the rest of my days. And that hope, totally understandable where it comes from, right, we want to be in control, we want to control the chaos around us. And it also totally denies something that is true for so many of us, which is that we’re motivated by learning and growth and challenges and solving new problems. And it is difficult to be learning new things and solving new problems every single day if you are in the one single track or one capacity for the rest of your days. So managing the paradox of you both want to find a place that you can land and feel really good and show up authentically. And also remembering that that is unlikely to be forever, is a really interesting, and I think healthy and important set of truths to hold at the same time when you are navigating towards fulfillment in your work. Definitely, yeah. Take it This has been so wonderful. And so life giving and so exciting to have this conversation with a fellow peer in this space. And I think you’re dropping some fabulous knowledge bombs. And I’m wondering if there was one piece of parting advice. One thing that you could tell people who are on a journey towards more fulfilling work and exercising their privilege of choice, but are feeling lost or feeling confused or feeling scared? What do you feel like people need to hear most

Tega Edwin  32:06  

Just one? The foundation of what I would say to start is your desire for fulfillment has to be greater than your fear of failure. For a lot of us, it’s the fear of failure that keep us from trying to make that transition. And if you’re allowing fear to keep you stuck, then you don’t want fulfillment bad enough. So that will be the first step. Also, you know, caveat, knowing that navigating fear is a process is soft, work with a professional to help you go through that. But just know that you have to come to the moment where you decide, I don’t want to let fear keep me stuck anymore, I want to be fulfilled more than I’m afraid of being, you know, or failing or not being successful. So I think that actually would be the I can do I can leave it at just that one. Everything else follows from that.

Lisa Lewis Miller  33:02  

I think that that’s, that’s a brilliant piece of advice. And I think that your point about getting some support with working through the fear is so important too. Because if you are listening to this right now, and your fear feels bigger than the desire to move towards fulfillment, or they feel like they’re equal, but you can’t get the the desire for fulfillment to be bigger than the fear. It doesn’t have to be your destiny, you’re not broken, you’re not going to be stuck forever. It is a really normal and really natural to have fears come up in this process. You know, just like, take it you articulated with the fear of failure, or if you’re not being successful, but there’s also fear of success and what changes in your life, if you are you’re effective at your transition. There’s the fear of the social consequences and ramifications of making a change. You know, there’s there all kinds of fears of judgment, fears of losing access to privilege or to class structures.

And you have more control over how you relate to those fears and how much control those fears have over you and your decision making power then it feels like so being willing to talk to somebody, whether it’s a friend, whether it’s a coach, whether it’s a counselor, to take I love that you have actually worn multiple of these hats, so you’re able to support people in lots of different ways through fear. Fear doesn’t have to define you and define the available options, possibilities and choices in your life. So noticing that fear balance is so important.

Tega Edwin  34:39  

Yeah, I did just remember one of the other things I was gonna see me ask the question that you just jog my memory when you said that there was a thing I liked because when you think about that fear and keeping people stuck, a mindset shift that I think can be helpful. And one thing I like to say often is remember also that your job or your career is not a life sentence. So you have the right you also know tree, you’re not planted in one place, do you have the right to move to transition to change whenever you’re ready to. And I think sometimes a lot of people don’t realize that they have that, right because they can switch careers like that is a thing that you can do. But um, if you need more convincing, the research shows that the average adult has three or goes to three different careers, not jobs, careers in their lifetime. So changing is perfectly normal. So don’t let also the fear of change keep you stuck.

Lisa Lewis Miller  35:31  

That’s such a good truth bomb. I knew that never was something like between seven and 11 jobs. In your career, I didn’t realize there are three separate careers on average that people go through. Oh my gosh. So if you’re listening to this, and you have been sitting on the bed, wondering and worrying about making a transition, shoot, you might be overdue. Fire just time ago. It’s like a carton of milk that’s been in the fridge a little too long. Like if you’re past that expiration date, and you smell that thing and it does not smell as fresh. It is time you can throw that in the garbage can you could step into something new. I love it. I’m mixing metaphors. I love that I love that analogy. We need to start using that as well milk, throw it out. I’ve gone through every possible food analogy that we could use for conversation. Thank you for rolling with that. Now, Dr. Edwin, if somebody has been listening to this conversation and has just been eating out of the palm of your hand and loving everything that you’ve been sharing, and has been fascinated and wants to learn more and hear more about your body of work, where can they keep in touch?

Tega Edwin  36:46  

Yeah, I would say the two best easiest places to find me one my website her career doctor calm, and Instagram I spend more time than I should really on Instagram, but I’m at her career doctor on there also. If specifically you’re ready to find fulfillment and you’re wanting to work together, if you go to find your fulfilling career.com that’s my signature group coaching program where I walk women through the work we talked about a finding yourself and finding online careers. So those would be the places that I would say to find me.

Lisa Lewis Miller  37:17  

Awesome. I love that. And I was joking with Tega right before we hit the the record button that I there are two people who I think I re blog and share their content on social media more than anybody else. One of them is Dr. Jasmine escalera who was a person on the Career Clarity Show earlier this year, and we can put a link to her episode in the show notes. But today, guys, the other one, if you see a fabulous, beautifully designed Instagram post that I every sharing is probably hers. So thank you so much for the brilliance that you share on social media and the brilliance that you shared on the Career Clarity Show today and I hope you’ll come back soon.

Tega Edwin  38:00  

For sure I just say when I would love time. This is the stuff I love to talk about. We could talk for like two hours. Thank you for having me.

Lisa Lewis Miller  38:13  

And that’s a wrap. Let us know what you thought about today’s episode. leave us a review on Apple podcasts because not only can your stars and words help us find great guests and topics to feature on future episodes. Your input also helps other people find the resources they need to discover the work that lights them up. And make sure to check out my book Career Clarity Show finally find the work that fits your values and lifestyle. For the link to order it go to GetCareerClarity.com/book. And don’t forget to get your other tools resources and helpful goodies at GetCareerClarity.com/podcast. Thanks again for joining us for the Career Clarity Show today. And remember, if you don’t love your work, we should talk because life is too short to be doing work that doesn’t light you up. Talk to you next time.