I believe that work should be a reflection of the LIFE you want. Instead, I see many people pick a career and try to plan their lives around it. There is a lot of fitting and squeezing that happens during this process, but it usually ends in failure.

A few years ago when Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman divorced, the cover of People Magazine had a quote from an interview with Nicole. As it turns out, their careers were just too stressful to be able to fit each other and the kids into their lives all at the same time. I'm wondering if someone somewhere along the way has explained to the kids that they lost out over their parent's jobs.

Why do we continue to plan our careers and then fit our lives around them? Would it not make much more sense to plan our lives and then plan our careers to fit into our ideal life?

I think so, and that is why each of my Life & Career Coaching clients focuses on setting goals in six areas of their life before working on number seven, which is to plan their career.

Do you live just for your career or does your career exist to support the life you have designed? This is a very important step to take and should not be taken lightly. Visit