How to Change your Career
/The feeling of being trapped in a job you don’t want to do is a very overwhelming and blocking feeling.
Change is rarely a single distinct event. The change process usually begins when you move from being unaware of something being wrong to gradually becoming aware of an unhappiness and a change that you want to make happen in your life.
If you are feeling stuck, trapped, restricted: pay attention to that feeling. It is trying to tell you something. Try asking yourself what is happening for you here and what can you do to relieve it?
Take time for yourself
It is tempting to always want to be somewhere else but it is really important to focus on what is going on for you and to develop a response to that in the here and now.
I believe there is always a solution and that there is real power in clearing an hour of your day to focus and to clearly articulate to yourself what is going on for you and how are you experiencing it.
Look at your whole life. Look at how you spend your time. What qualities in yourself are important to you? What are the supports and interests that sustain you? Outside of the personal elements of your story, what are the systems that are holding you back. Are you blaming yourself for feeling a certain way when there are other factors (such as time shortages, financial hardship or a toxic boss) that are having a negative impact on you.
Making changes needs to wait until you have defined what is causing you stress and suffering.
Explore how much you want to change
Think of dropping a pebble into a pool of water and the ripples it causes. Sometimes a small change can have a very big impact. Be honest with yourself so that you can more closely define what you are looking for. Career success and career contentment are very different things.
Are you suffering from a lack of meaning or are you experiencing daily stress that a change of context (such as a change of team, of leader, or an adjustment to your expectations) would improve. If it is a problem of burnout, explore whether this is a repeating pattern in your life and whether the changes that you need to make are in how you respond to stress, rather than allowing this pattern of burnout to continue to follow you into a new role.
You need to define what this change means to you so that you recognise it when it happens. Try to define what would help you to feel a little bit better. Hopefully you’ll gain insight from that.
Make a decision on what you want
At this point it can be helpful to broaden your thinking. Do you want to change your job or do you want to change your relationship with your job? Allow yourself to daydream. What subjects did you like most in school. What did you want to be when you were a child and what does that tell you about yourself?
Would you feel happier in your job if it was meeting more of your needs, and can you reconcile those needs at work without making bigger changes. For example, if you are experiencing a lack of control in work, is there an aspect of work that you can request to coordinate or manage, to meet that need for control without changing the entire context.
What would happen if you got involved in projects or causes that reflect your interests so that energy flows back into you. The more practical the better.
Defining what is causing your distress is not easy to do alone, which is why I believe career guidance can help you build the life you want.
Act on your world so that it better matches what you want
It’s time to take action when you decide that there is a definitive change you want to make in your life. Once you know what you want, then break it down into steps. What do I need to put in place to make it happen?
When planning change, it’s important to know how far into the future you can see. If you can only see the short term, plan only for short term change. However, if you have decided where you want to be in 5 years, then set that goal, and break it down into stages with milestones along the way.
As you contemplate change you will come up with arguments against yourself. You may experience ambivalence where you counter the reasons to stay unchanged in your career (the hassle, the fear the risk) with potential benefits of change. The way to combat that is to ask yourself honestly, what are the good things about changing, and what are the not-so-good-things. And which do I want most?
Life is a complicated compromise between what you want and what is enough.
Setbacks are as human as you are
If you are changing and able to maintain that change consistently, well done. Your goals are clear to you and your steps are achievable.
If you are changing and experiencing a loss of motivation or a setback, be gentle with yourself. Setbacks are part of being human. Ask yourself what has worked so far and what can you learn from that?
How can you raise the quality of your thoughts again? How can you prevent your energy from continually flowing away from you? What has worked in the past and what does that teach you? Don’t be hard on yourself, long term change takes a few cycles before we get it right.
Perhaps bring the plan for change back to little changes and leave the bigger changes until the timing is right.
I am sure there is one thing you can do this week that can take you a step in the right direction.
