Greetings!

Last week, Business Week featured my personal (and professional) story and my book Breakdown Breakthrough in a powerful piece about "Career Women in Midlife: Sadder and Sicker" by Michelle Conlin (great writer!).  She discussed the national phenomenon of midlife career women "breaking down" (as I characterize it) in their professional and personal lives.  It's official - while women have been making herculean efforts over the past twenty years to achieve professional success and maintain a healthy, happy, and satisfying personal and family life, it's simply not working.

I found this article (and the fact that it was published in Business Week), very validating and legitimizing of what thousands of women are experiencing (but feel isolated, confused, and afraid to admit it).  The current corporate career model doesn't fit, our intractable gender roles aren't working, and a satisfying life for many isn't achievable in the current way we have framed it.  It's time for a "reset."

Solutions, or at least new suggestions, for addressing this major life dilemma, are just emerging.  My book Breakdown Breakthrough is a beginning, and there are other programs, organizations, communities, blogs, and publications entering the scene to help.  But we need much more.  I believe we need a real breakthrough movement, and now's the time.

What's the first step?  How can we start our own breakthrough?  I suggest this: Stop in your tracks and assess how your life is going. 

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Answer these questions honestly:

1) Are you fulfilled and satisfied with your life choices?  

2) Do you feel good about yourself, your life, and where you are going?  

3) Do you trust you have what it takes to continually create a satisfying life of passion, power, and purpose? 

4) Do you feel in control or an out-of-control victim of what's happening around you?
 

If you answered "Yes" to these questions, then you are moving in a positive and satisfying direction.  Kudos to you, because today that is no small feat! 

If however you answered "No" to any of them, your life is asking you to step up to embrace change.

Regarding your career, if you're stuck and overwhelmed, please don't just "job search."  Don't follow tactics and strategies if there's no power behind them.  Begin now by making a full assessment of where you've been and where you long to go, and what makes you special and unique.  Take my free Career Path Assessment, to get your juices flowing. 

People ask, "In these crazy times, should I be focused on my pocketbook or where I really long to go?"  I say focus on both -- do what you need to stay afloat, but also plant the seeds for your long-term visions to become a reality.  Just doing one without the other is a recipe for misery.

For real help, you need real honesty.  And for a great life, it takes great risk.  I hope you'll join with me in creating a breakthrough movement - in your life, and for others - all of us who want a different, better way of being, living, and doing.  The time has come! 

Thank you, as always, and wishing many happy breakthroughs

Kathy

P.S. Below is an article on the vital importance of self-care in times of turmoil.

What Do You Mean You're Taking a Walk? Aren't You Supposed to be Job-Hunting?

• Are you in career transition, or recently unemployed and not sure what to do next?
• Conflicted between following your heart or your pocketbook? 
• Need clarity about next steps to maximize your marketability, networking success, and communicating your specialized skills? 
• Longing to start your own venture but not sure if the time is right or how?
• Just plain stuck?...

Get guidance that's different from all the rest.  Kathy is a true "breakthrough" coach (she "wrote the book" on it) and knows that straightforward networking and job search tactics and strategies simply won't work unless there's power and confidence behind them.  Get moving toward your breakthrough today, and learn how to get more powerful and confident in your decisions, choices, and actions. 

Each week:
We'll discuss your key career challenges, and explore new strategies to break through them.  In each call, Kathy will also discuss one key strategy to breaking through career crisis, based on her yearlong research study, and her book Breakdown, Breakthrough (see www.breakdownbreakthrough.com). 

Bring your current work-life challenges to the call, to receive effective on-the-spot coaching tips, tools, and insights for moving forward with new confidence and clarity. 

Register Now!
This Career Breakthrough Teleclass is $49 per session, and presents powerful tools and tips for overcoming the 12 "hidden" crises professionals face today.   Come weekly and/or when you need specific breakthrough advice.

Advance registration for each class is required.  First session is Friday, April 3rd. 

When:
Begins Friday April 3rd, 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm, EST

Thereafter, sessions will be held weekly, Thursdays, 1:00 to 2:00 pm, EST. 

Where:
Your telephone

Cost:
$49 per session 
 
To register and for more info:
Contact Kathy Caprino at Kathy@elliacommunications.com or phone (203) 249-7405. 

Join Kathy in her new
Career Breakthrough Teleclass