What's the story

This is not my first blog, or indeed my second, I think it is perhaps my third attempt at blogging. Why did I fail before? I didn't fail, I was just practising at fine tuning my success.
This is a blog about career and career development and staying emotionally intelligent within your job or as you search for your perfect job.

If you notice on my website www.denisekeenan.ie you will see that I have a range of skills on offer and I have combined these to present a healthier mindset approach to career and career development . Am I the expert? I guess I can only outline my own journey from leaving school aged 15 to where I am now, but I like to think that because of my journey I now have a healthier attitude to my own working environment and my life in general.

I grew up in Dublin in the 80’s, I was a’ too cool for school’ kind of girl, so I left the nuns behind and headed off into the world of employment. My jobs were many, ranging from working in a Radio Station, to working in a local shop and some bar-work, waitress, secretarial and hotel chambermaid work. Then I got married. Aged 24, I had my first child and a year of marriage under my belt and I was now a stay at home mam.

It was at this stage that I found education again, a different type of education, and without going into theoretical underpinnings, the education I was experiencing was a from the perspective of ‘Paulo Friere’. I loved it. I mixed in groups with like minded individuals, I found a tribe of people to connect with and to grow with. Within a few years, I was a qualified Massage Therapist with a three year old child, the education that I had received gave me the confidence to move forward and eventually set up my own business in Massage Therapy, although this was a long journey that took another few years.

In between these years, I was back working in hotels, I worked in a home for emotionally unstable youths, I worked in a factory on the production line, in retail and then back into office administration work in Sales and Marketing. At this stage I had another child and lived a highly functioning life, busy mother, dropping kids off left right and centre, collecting kids then collecting husband, a story that follows most of us around.

Then my husband became ill and was out of work for several months and the day he returned back to work was the day I handed in my resignation and decided to bite the bullet and set up my own business. And it worked. Within a few months I had retrained in Belfast as an On Site Massage Therapist, I bought a specially adapted chair, sent off a few letters and my first clients came knocking on my door.

I was an on site massage therapist for about eight years and I loved it. But the economy changed and my clients, who were primarily pharmaceutical, all dropped away. I needed to change my story again, and decided to bite that bullet once more and return to education full time.

So here I am ten years later, living in Kildare, two grown up children, a healthy husband (the same one) with a degree and a teaching post grad diploma from Maynooth University and five years of teaching under my belt.

I began my teaching career hoping to teach Sociology, a subject I adore, but the opportunity to teach Career Planning came my way. I took on the opportunity and now it is an area that I have developed to the point that not only do I work in a classroom environment, I also work in the corporate world, the public and private sector and have a range of private clients for consultation.

That is my story, in a very brief nutshell and as the blog develops I will touch on aspects of all of these mindsets that have been developed over several years. These mindsets are important to me, as they have allowed me to develop my career once more into a fresh and exciting journey. I am happy to share this journey with you and feel free to ask me any questions on all things career, healthy mindset and how the combination of the two creates balance in life.

If you need any advice on finding your own balance in your career and life then contact me www.denisekeenan.ie. Until next time.