These leaders communicate their professional calling and challenge you, leaving you with important thoughts and ideas.

How do they make the less advancing professionals feel? Do they get inspired and intrigued, or do they get provoked by thecuriosity, ambition and willingness to move beyond the comfort zone? Are other professionals in fact projecting their own shortcomings and fears when trying to talk the never-settling leaders out of their unrealistic pursuit of their BIG WHY?

When I meet people who are stuck professionally wanting to explore their options, we often discover a number of limiting beliefs that are causing them to “settle.”

One common belief is that it is too late to pursue what you have not yet accomplished professionally:

• “I invested years and tons of money in my education. I would be stupid to throw it away.”
• “I am too old to redirect my career.”
• “I cannot jeopardize the lifestyle I have created for myself and my family.”

Never-settling leaders confidently share that they are going to pursue their own mission, and step into the bigger shoes of their future selves.

Another common belief is that we have to fit the expectations of others:

• “Why would you do that instead of retiring with a nice pension?”
• “Why would you do that as you could just live off of your significant other’s income?
• “Why would you do that when you already have a good job?”

Never-settling leaders act confidently and are grounded in their conviction to pursue what they need and want to accomplish for themselves.

Let me introduce you to some of the advancing leaders in my network who moved beyond these limiting beliefs:

Per Frykman is a passionate pioneer and author within the area of individual reputation management, influencing trends and developing tools to unleash the true potential of professionals.  After decades of continuous development, he is transparent about his expectations for himself despite the fact that most other leaders his age have considered retirement for some time:

“I want to challenge you to take your professional reputation to a new dimension and stand out as unique. My ambition for you as an entrepreneur or consultant is to help you promote the things that are crucial today to attract new, exciting and profitable customers. For you as a leader I want to bring out your unique qualities, the things that already work for you – to be inspirational when attracting customers, investors and new talents. I want to bring everyone to the next level by making them understand the exceptional power of their professional reputation.What really keeps me going is the possibility to be on the edge with interesting people and exciting ideas to find ways for everyone to utilize their full potential.” – Per Frykman

Sarah Schwab is a passionate content creation coach, helping entrepreneurs to build content using creativity and self-expression to transform their business and life:

“My husband makes good money and we have a family. I feel pressure to be the typical ‘doctor’s wife’ or ‘stay-at-home mom,’ or maybe just to get a ‘normal job.’ But I can’t do it. It would be easier if I could, but I can’t. Starting a business has been an ambition of mine as far back as I can remember, and I feel most like myself when I am working in alignment with my passion. I also love my family, and it is important to me to keep both things in my life and try to balance them. I don’t know if such balance is possible, but I have to try.” – Sarah Schwab

Alyssa Jade McDonald-Bärtl left an advancing corporate career to embrace the role as a passionate chocolate maker and social entrepreneur, and she became the change she wanted to see in the world:

“It’s about mission, and realizing that the standards only exist if you accept them. Therefore, if you see a change that you want to happen, then it becomes your mission to achieve it, and you don’t settle until that occurs. It’s not about perfection, because that’s not attainable. It’s about showing up and doing your best, and from that, change will occur and changes will show up. But you have to show up.” Lyss from Blyss

The common denominators for these three Advancing Leaders are a clear calling and a passionate drive for what they have not done yet in their professional lives. Are you slightly provoked because you are wired differently? Or do their stories resonate with you and inspire you to envision yourself as an Advancing Leader, pursuing a purpose and experiencing even more meaning in what you do for a living?

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Virtual Leader Conference 2014: “Empowering the Advancing Leader in You”

If you like this topic, you will love the Virtual Leader Conference coming up September 15-21, 2014 where Per, Sarah, Alyssa and 20 other Advancing Leaders and experts are sharing their passion and success strategies in pursuit of their next big thing to empower other Advancing Leaders. You are welcome to join us on demand and free of charge via http://vlc14.katycaroan.com

The post The Inner Drive: Why Advancing Leaders Never Settle appeared first on Katy Caroan.

Many professionals I talk to externalize the opportunity and do not assume the role as an Advancing Leader worth following. Very few are ready to define their own BIG WHY and share it with the world. I recognize the struggle as it took me years to define my own BIG WHY and make it visible to others.

I sometimes refer to my own breakthrough by using the analogy of salmon swimming upstream to spawn. The salmon battle their way upstream through difficulties convinced that this is the right thing to do to secure their offspring. It makes total sense if you are a salmon.

I always believed that I was a salmon and did my best to contribute by going upstream to optimize the spawning experience.

After returning from a year’s sabbatical from corporate I gradually realized that I in fact was a cod fish and that my BIG WHY was grounded outside of corporate, playing by my own rules. By changing directions and going down stream, I have given myself permission to align better with my BIG WHY.

Let me introduce you to another cod who has inspired me and continues to inspire an increasing number of followers. My client was a full time regular employee as an in-house graphic designer for many years.  Her responsibility was to generate ideas and develop graphic design elements online as well as offline. By nature, she was always looking to become masterful and build new skills to expand her contribution to her employer.

While there, she took numerous initiatives and invested significant amounts of her time and energy in building skills within strategic brand management and interactive design. She realized how things were related to each other and that the true effect was found in a holistic approach. She felt a huge responsibility to transfer knowledge to management and made many attempts to influence the direction and decisions. The response was low at best and her frustration grew as she knew she could add tremendous value if permitted.

Her “cod moment” was when she realized that she was in fact assuming a passionate but ignored “Brand Manager” position, with no mandate to act according to her strong beliefs. She recognized the huge potential for others in combining the strategic, tactical and operational elements in her area of expertise.

Today she is on a mission in her own business to help corporations and entrepreneurs embrace branding challenges successfully.

She provides her services in 3 different languages, her customers are located in an increasing number of countries, and she is soon to launch her own packages online, making her content available to professionals anywhere. Her BIG WHY is contagious as she plays by her own rules and always educates her stakeholders and customers in branding matters.

Professionals who share their BIG WHY with the world often make leaps in their professional lives and attract more of their ideal customers. When educating their surroundings, their BIG WHY in business becomes contagious. By playing small and ignoring your cod moment, you are doing your ideal customers a disservice.

Have you already had your own “cod moment” to help define yourself as an Advancing Leader? Or do you feel like you are swimming against the current? Feel free to share below!

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Virtual Leader Conference 2014: “Empowering the Advancing Leader in You”

The post Lead By Aligning With Your BIG WHY appeared first on Katy Caroan.