More and more of my clients are very experienced coaches who have been in business for a long time and have reached a point in their work where it’s more than fair to say they have achieved mastery in their craft.

They coach with ease and competence, and their clients rave about how they help them.

Most people who are interested in the coaching field are naturally drawn towards learning and growth themselves; we are seekers at heart. So how does that desire for seeking square with someone who has already achieved mastery in their work? That can sometimes get a little tricky.

When coaches get to the point where they feel they could do their job blindfolded with their hands tied behind their back and still show up masterfully, two things are usually true. Their clients love the experience of coaching and it can start to feel a little rote to the coach.

As I often say, you can have the best Groundhog Day ever, but if you have it over and over and over again, it will become rote. That’s where the tension comes up for my clients: they love being masters at their craft, and yet, they crave challenge, excitement, novelty, and they hunger for more. They are seekers.

How to be a Master and Cultivate Challenge

On the surface, it may feel as though you’ve “arrived” when you have a full practice, you’re getting great referrals, and you’re making as much money as you want to make. But as seekers, we know on some level that there is no such thing as “arriving”.

When I talk to clients who have reached this point in their career, sometimes their craving for “new and exciting” pushes them to even want to quit. Their gut reaction is to throw the baby out with the bathwater. People have said, “Maybe I should just retire and do something else” when they’ve gotten to the place they’ve been working toward their whole career.

My question is, how can it be “yes, and”? How can you be the master and cultivate challenge, excitement, and novelty?

The good news is, there are answers to those questions, and they come from within you. When I work with clients in this situation, I always ask:

• If you were to look ahead 3-5 years and it were as easy as claiming it, what would you really want to be doing and being?
• What are one or two steps you could take today that will help create a stepping stone toward that vision?

Creating a 3-5 Year Vision

If I were to ask you to look ahead just six months and dream into how you want your business to be different, it feels so close that you’d likely mostly shift into your left brain and get practical. We often can’t put that part aside to let us really explore outside the boundaries of our business today. I like to look ahead 3-5 years because it’s far enough away that we can let ourselves dream into it without getting tangled into the question of “how”.

When I was an Executive at Getty Images (and PhotoDisc before it), we always made five-year plans. The hilarious part of it was that as we progressed and looked back on these plans, things always looked wildly different than what we had envisioned! However, we were extremely successful. What the five-year plan did for us was get us to dream into our future and get into action in a positive direction. The reality is that incredible opportunities showed up along the way that changed our trajectory but ultimately the question was always “does this get us closer to what we really want?” If we stayed attached to that five-year plan, however, we would have missed out many incredible opportunities that made us so successful.

A five-year plan gets you out of your practicality. It’s far enough in the future that you’re able to embrace the vision, explore what’s possible, and ask yourself what you really want. As soon as we get practical, the part of our brain that says, “that’s not possible” and “who are you to think you can do that!?” kicks in, quashing the magic of visioning.

Look for 1-2 Action Items You can do Right Now

One client I worked with was a senior sales executive who dreamed of having a training and coaching business. She enjoyed a lot of financial abundance in her role, and was very appreciative of it, but there was still a “throw the baby out with the bathwater” mindset. She said to me, “I should just save up money and quit.” But at the same time, that felt impossible to her. The key was to find the stepping stones. What were some stepping stones she could take that would help her get closer to what she really wanted?

Instead of quitting, she got additional training by attending coaching school, and raised her hand to do sales training within her organization. It was the perfect way for her to get experience in training in an area where she was already a master. It was also a stepping stone for her to become the coach and trainer she dreamed of being.

Once she took that step forward, making the pivot into a full time coach and trainer seemed not just possible, but also very do-able.

We all know a few courageous folks who have up and quit their job and started their business seemingly out of nowhere. That is a major pivot (although they may have been slyly taking stepping stones towards that all along). For most folks that shift needs to be well laid out. A successful pivot requires real strategy — getting clear on where you really want to be and outlining a solid plan to move forward.

The first step is getting clear on what you really want. Ask yourself:

• If it were as easy as claiming it, what would I want to be doing/being in 5 years?
• What is a stepping stone I could I focus on right now that gets me closer to what I really want?
• What are the two or three things I need to do right now to step onto that stone?

If you have hit that place of mastery in your business, this will help you create that “yes, and”.  This is a way to create the challenge, excitement, and novelty you crave, and this is a way to light yourself up while you’re also doing great work with clients. When you’re in the right energy, suddenly your work won’t seem so rote anymore because you’re coming to it from a different place.

This is a great way to make changes in a way that has you feeling confident and grounded in your path.

If you’re a coach who has mastered your craft, and you’re looking to up-level once again and fall back in love with your business, reach out. I’d love to talk.

And, please, share your thoughts!  I always love to hear from you.