I’ve finally landed in the 21st Century and this is my first blog. My kids are proud of me and I’ve gotten out of my own way enough to finally do this.  My intention as I start this next stage of my career and life as a Career Management Coach and a part-time blogger is to remind myself, as I remind others, that “Life is a journey, not a destination”.  If it isn’t satisfying, fulfilling, fun or however you define what makes life special for you, find another journey.

96,750. That’s the average time we spend working in our lives if we work 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year for 43 years—assuming we work 9 to 5 with an hour commute, an hour for lunch and 2 weeks’ vacation a year.  It doesn’t include time we spend checking and responding to emails at night or on the weekend.  It doesn’t include the work we take home because we didn’t get to finish it in the office.  And, it doesn’t include the time we spend in the silence and dark of the night thinking about our deadlines, our ideas—good and bad or office politics.  I don’t know about you, but a 9-5 week, 96,750 hours, would have been a semi-vacation for me when I worked as a lawyer. Upon reflection, I know that I would have liked to know earlier some of what I know now.

So many of us started working when we were young and didn’t have a clue what was going to keep us satisfied for over 96,000 hours, or even what would make us happy for a week or two.  Certainly some of us got lucky and found jobs we loved (and in many cases, still love), but so many of us—myself included—looked back at some point and realized that we are in soul-sucking, energy-depleting careers where we spend way too much time feeling drained, guilty and not doing our “best” work—either in terms of quality or substance.

My name is Barbara Kessler and I’m here to say that I’m thoroughly enjoying my encore career as a Career Management Coach working with women who are like I was–professional women who are unfulfilled in their current career or women who want to return to the workforce after opting out to raise their kids.  I worked for 30+ years as a businesswoman, lawyer and working mom and I want to share some of what I’ve learned along the way. This is now my life’s journey and I hope you will join me.  I look forward to hearing what you have to say.