In her recent post, Give Others the Opportunity to Help You on Women on Business, Bonnie Marcus writes about giving a workshop on Promoting Your Brand to Rhode Island Networking to Open Doors to Jobs.  Bonnie relates how everyone was interactive and helpful with the women who were focused on their target market; however, there was one woman there who was in "limbo" and didn't know what she wanted going forward.  Her needs were met with silence.  At the end of the articles, Bonnie advises, "If you are looking for new employment, be clear about what type of company you want to work for and what kind of position you are seeking."

Who needs help more than the woman in limbo?  The woman who feels confused?  Lost?  Unsure?  My reaction is from my own sensitivity to feeling in limbo and it's from my experience in being helped and helping others find clarity.

I need help when I don't feel confident; when I don't know what I want; when I feel confused.  The questions is, "can I be honest about where I'm at and what I'm feeling?"  I've been in that state for months.  Even now clarity is elusive so I've asked for help from professional coaches and consultants.

At first, I felt full of financial fear and desperate to find a job.  I began applying for every position that I thought I could do.  After a couple of weeks of anxious activity, I slowed down.  The key was that I was looking for a "job", not a "career".  I didn't need a huge salary; just enough to live.  I needed something to do for my mental health while I waited for my massage therapy license to be transferred from state-to-state and stabilized enough to refocus on my life coaching business.  I wanted structure and an opportunity to connect with other people so I could reconnect with myself.  The solution was to apply only to companies whose products I loved:  Starbucks, Whole Foods, Panera Bread and White House Black Market.

I look at this time of "limbo" in my life as research for finding focus and clarity once again.  Rather than looking for the answer to the "big problems" before me, I looked for the next step in that process.  What do I need right here, right now?  What's next?

What do you think? What do you do when you feel like you're in "limbo"? How do you help someone who feels that way?