I keep this little statue on my book shelf, and as you can see she's looking out at the world in which I live. I bought her many decades ago when I was making changes in my life and it suited my mood at the time. Contemplative.
Today, I was looking at it again and realized that it's just as relevant now as it was earlier in my life and career. So I moved it from a lower shelf to give it pride of place on the top shelf to help me focus on what I'm going to do next.
Every now and again we should all pause and make sure that we're on the right track. That time seems to come for me about every five years. And now is the time for me to decide whether I should make another change.
The question I'm considering is whether there's a future for PhD Coaching. My last blog considered whether I might be replaced by AI, and you can see I decided NO: https://www.phdcoaching.ca/blogs/phd-coaching-blog/can-i-be-replaced-by-ai
But that doesn't mean to say that there are no changes to be made in my coaching practice. How can I help more people? Should I be using my time more effectively? Is there a different audience I want to reach?
As I think about these things, I have to emphasize that I love working with the PhD and Master's students that are my clients now, and all the graduate students who have appreciated my help in recent years. And they seem to love me right back:
https://www.phdcoaching.ca/pages/my-testimonials
So I'm not planning to give up on any of them or stop sharing the expertise I've built over reading hundreds, maybe even thousands of dissertations. But AI has changed the landscape and I've declared on my LinkedIn profile that I'm looking for a way to pivot: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7192611777677873152/
Please do two things. Send a comment because I'd love some advice.
And stay tuned.