This week, Samantha talks with Dr. Alyssa Adams, clinical psychologist turned intuitive business coach, about exploring yourself.  Samantha and Alyssa met each other on a “speed networking” event and since then, Samantha has wanted to have her as a guest to "flush out" her journey.  Alyssa and Samantha talk a lot about being shockingly honest and how a person who decides to do something outside the box can embrace that journey.

Alyssa got her doctorate in clinical psychology and went the “traditional” route for a while, but then she found herself burning out.  She was doing a lot of clinical work and was exhausted from that.  Then, she took a position as the director of integrated health, but she was working constantly and burned herself out even more.  Then, she left that job and went to a leadership/administrative role in the same company to take a step back from client-focused work, but it brought a whole new set of complications.  Eventually, she came to a “career impasse,” which led her to coaching.  This got her back into the client-based environment and allowed her to work her own schedule.  

She started learning to love all of the different aspects that come with coaching and with being an entrepreneur.  She needed to learn sales because she had no sales background.  As she got into that, she started to realize that there was a helpful aspect to sales that she could really connect with; that she could provide people with something that they needed.  

People get stuck in these boxes that we make for ourselves.  If you do these specific things, you’ll achieve this stuff that you believe you want.  But what if that’s not what you want?  You need to be aware of when you’ve taken on an identity that doesn’t fit you.  Let’s say we’ve achieved what we thought we wanted to achieve.  Then what?  Alyssa would argue that you need to “let yourself explore.”  That you need to shift to a new excitement by exploring what excites you.  You are then paying attention to the parts of you that have been ignored for a long time.  People tend to litigate and then re-litigate with themselves to keep going in the direction they’re going.  What if you decided to pick a “thing” and that was the “thing” that you would work towards your entire life?  Is that realistic?

Alyssa goes on to say, "Most people are not paying that much attention to me or what I have to say."  There’s freedom in that mindset which allows us to just be out there and be ourselves without having to worry about what other people are thinking.  Everybody has their own thing going on in their head.  If we do get into these patterns about how we talk to ourselves and think about ourselves, we just need to notice it and it’ll break those thoughts up and allow us to explore more.

If you’re ready to take a “next step” into doing something a little bit non-traditional, Alyssa says that it will depend on what that “thing” is, but the first step is to explore what it is that you want to do and why you feel that pull.  Take some steps to get some clarity to understand the “why” and then take action.  The process is iterative, according to Alyssa.  If you can do the “thing,” you’ll get a lot of information back from that which will help you adjust and become better.

If you want to learn more about Dr. Alyssa Adams, you can find her at:

Web: dralyssaadams.com

IG: @dralyssaadams

Podcast: The Uncommon Couch - found on your favorite Podcast platform