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Pianist and DMA, Juilliard School
I initially began coaching because my boyfriend, a big fan of Astrid's, saw that I was confused about a lot of things regarding the direction my life was taking career-wise. He purchased five coachings for me for my birthday with the caveat that nothing was binding and that I could opt out any time if I felt uncomfortable. From my very first session, it was clear that Astrid is one of the most insightful and generous people I have met. I walked into this session last fall, thinking that I had come to a dead-end in my music career and that perhaps I would benefit from heading in a new direction. After only a couple sessions, I renewed my sense of love for music and began to see possibilities for myself that I never dreamed of. Astrid is extremely dedicated and focused in each session. One major breakthrough I have had is the idea that being authentic is a major value for me and that I have spent so much of my life trying to please others or do activities I feel like I "should" do. I feel like I have blossomed in so many ways this year, taking on creative projects that I might have been cautious of before, meeting incredible colleagues, and being excited about the future instead of fearful of it. Astrid has a great gift of seeing the beauty in each person and allowing their strengths to come through.
— JC, New York, NY
Composer
Astrid has turned around the way I look at my career in the most extraordinary way. I used to think that the professional part of what I do was very separate from the creative and deeply personal aspects of being a composer. Going after professional opportunities to get my music out there felt to me like a very daunting task--one that I found a little distasteful because it felt like "selling myself." Astrid really helped me realize that building a career has to come from the most genuine part of myself--in the same way as building a piece. With this understanding, the professional world looks much less scary to me now, and I'm able to reach out to my professional network with the courage of my conviction, and with the kind of personal investment and care that makes professional experiences deeply meaningful. Career building is about believing in what you do, and its validity; it is about communication and courage. It only works if it feels true to who you are.
With her supportive and positive attitude combined with her incredible sensitivity and intelligence, Astrid has created for me a wonderful safe space to discover how I want to develop my goals from the inside out. I have found in her a true kindred spirit as well as a powerful ally and coach.
—Hannah L,. New York, NY
Attorney and ??????
There seem to be an infinite number of resources available to people looking to make career changes these days, and I think I looked into most of them before I met Astrid. Numerous books advised me to do what I loved. That sounded good, except that I didn’t know what I loved. A career test provided some insight and long lists of possibly compatible jobs, but ultimately directed me to do what I loved - back to square one. Another career coach, dispensing with frivolities like love, laid out a practical approach to a career path that objectively made some sense, but I knew in my heart that I would hate it. I felt deficient for not knowing what I loved, unreasonable for rejecting a sensible path that didn’t appeal, and in general, completely hopeless about my situation.
When I began coaching with Astrid, I was struggling with a strong feeling that there was some ‘perfect’ thing out there for me to do, if only I could think of what it was. I had a vague idea that finding the answer would involve going through the racks of possible jobs and holding each one up in front of the mirror to see if it might fit, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that we would take a more bespoke approach. There would be no squeezing me into a readymade career in this process - instead, we would be focusing on my strengths, values, work style, etc., to think about what might be right for me. Astrid’s willingness to cheerfully abandon any exercise that wasn't working for me kept me comfortable with everything we did, and helped me to get the most out of the process.
The work we did helped me to form a foundation for understanding why certain things, career-related or otherwise, are a better choice for me than others. With Astrid’s warm encouragement, I have also started to reconnect with the creative, less self-limiting side of myself that I feared was permanently lost. I feel more like myself than I have in a long time, and I have a career direction that I am looking forward to exploring. This may or may not turn out to be the ‘perfect thing‘ that I was looking for, but I no longer feel the pressure of that search; rather, I am hopeful that by taking actions that are consistent with my character, staying open to the possibilities that arise with each action, and correcting my course as necessary, I will enjoy the process just as much as whatever result I reach. I am grateful to Astrid for helping me to readjust my direction and my outlook, and I highly recommend her services to anyone who feels lost, stuck or anything less than wholeheartedly enthusiastic about what they are doing.
— Andrea K., New York, NY
Cellist and music entrepreneur
A good friend recommended I see Astrid because I was stuck. Stuck. Stuck. Stuck, and suffering. She has helped me parse through all the detail in what seemed panoramic hopelessness. She has worked in a distinctly different way than my psychotherapist, more pragmatically, and the combination of the two ... has been, for me, very effective. I have made tectonic shifts in the way I see myself, my place in the world and how I move through it. There have been some very painful changes and realizations, but most important, I have found a source for joy, hope and energy, undiluted by difficulties, so that I actually feel better, and stronger. This is my testimony to Astrid.
— TM, Rhode Island
Educator
Astrid Baumgardner is a true facilitator, and in that capacity she has guided me to discover the values and deeply held beliefs essential to my happiness and fulfillment in the workplace, wherever it may be....Through our coaching sessions, I was able to draw out and fortify my self-confidence, without which my ambitious relocation would not previously have been conceivable. When you are determined to strive diligently for change in your life, Astrid will be there to help you to create a roadmap to navigate and overcome every obstacle you encounter throughout your life-altering transition.
— MH, New York, NY and Tokyo, Japan
Know Your Values: The Key to Great Decisions and Positive Motivation
I am a big believer in the importance of knowing your values and aligning your life in order to honor those values.
What are values? Quite simply, the principles by which you live your life: authenticity, courage, fun, relationships, personal growth, service or spirituality. Each person has a unique set of these principles that define you and tell you what is truly important to you. In effect, values are the essence of who you really are: i.e., the core to your authenticity.
To find your values, jot down the principles that you hold near and dear to you. (You can get a copy of my values assessment tool by clicking here and joining my email newsletter list). See if you can come up with your top 10 values and then narrow the list down to your top 5. If you have done this exercise before, try it again and see if your values have evolved in some way. As we grow and change, this is often reflected in our values. I can tell you that in my own personal growth, creativity, authenticity and autonomy are values that I did not even know that I had when I graduated from law school. And the more I grow, the more deeply felt these values are to me and the more I strive to bring my life in alignment with them.
Why are your values such a critical component of your authentic success?
Because knowing your values can put you on the right track by helping you to make the right decisions, as well as provide you with a source of positive motivation.
Great Decision-making
By knowing your top core values, you can begin to filter choices and make decisions that reflect your heartfelt principles. In fact, great decisions often reflect our top values. And on the flip side, decisions that leave you with a pit in your stomach often mean that you were ignoring your top values.
Think about the times in your life when you faced a big decision: going to graduate school, moving to another city, getting married, taking your first job. Many people struggle trying to make the “perfect” decision. Often, had they thought about the values at stake in the decision and choosing the option that honored their top values, they would have had a much easier time. Read my recent blog post on great decisions vs. difficult decisions where I share the experience of a large group of graduate students and how their important life decisions reflected their values. The ones who honored their values felt great about their decisions. Those who ignored their values felt a pit in their stomachs and a great deal of stress.
Values as a Positive Motivator
The other reason for knowing your values is to help provide motivation from a positive source.
If you make decisions based on your values, you are creating a sustainable foundation from which you can draw upon in the future. Each time you make a great decision, think about what values were at stake and how you arrived at the decision. Consider how confident you felt when you honored your values in making that decision. Celebrate that decision! And remember those values and your confidence the next time you are faced with an important decision. It will help you to build upon your past successes. This, in turn, reinforces your confidence in yourself and your gifts.
And learn from those “bad” decisions. If you extract the learning and consider what values you did not honor, chances are that you will do things differently the next time. In that light, your earlier decision really was not a bad decision because you learned so much from that experience. Again, it is a way to use values as a positive motivator.
Many people think that the best way to get things done is to come from a place of fear. The belief is that without the fear, they will not get their work done. It gives them an adrenaline rush and then they scurry to get things done.
Yes, as a motivator, fear can get you “results” but there is a lot of negativity associated with it. Because fear as a motivator takes its toll on you. It creates enormous stress. Each time you approach a task with fear as your motivator, it is as if you have to start anew. Instead of building on your successes, all you remember is the stress and the fear. You can read more about why fear does not work as well as values for motivating great performances by professional musicians.
So next time you are faced with tough choices, reflect on your values and see how you can use them as a positive motivator to get you closer to the success that you are looking to achieve!
© Astrid Baumgardner 2011
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I would be delighted if you should wish to reprint (for free) any part of this article in your newsletters, blogs, websites, and message boards. Please include the following attribution:
Astrid Baumgardner, JD, PCC is a professional life coach and lawyer, Coordinator of Career Strategies and Lecturer at the Yale School of Music and the founder and President of Astrid Baumgardner Coaching + Training, which is dedicated to helping musicians, lawyers and creative professionals take charge of their lives and experience authentic success. In addition to her work at YSM and her individual coaching practice, Astrid presents workshops at leading conservatories and law firms on topics including Career Planning, Goal-Setting, Time Management, Dynamic Communication, Conflict Management and Personal Branding and Networking. She is the author of numerous articles on the various aspects of how to achieve and live authentic success.