Career Change Support
It is one of life’s supreme ironies - no sooner have we arrived at the place we aimed for back in our 20s, we start to feel like it is all wrong! In our 30s to 40s our apparently solid ground can shift, leaving a void. Issues arising at this time can feel intractable and more serious than before. As a career coach I have seen this triggered in several ways e.g.:
- Interpersonal, moral or ethical conflict with boss, colleague or company culture
- Change of circumstance, altering long-held plans or assumptions
- Crisis in wider life (bereavement, loss, mid-life, illness, family/child issues)
- Stress and burn out
- Stagnation
- "There must be more to life" or "Something important is missing"
- Priorities have changed and no longer fit current lifestyle
- Reaching an age where career paths to be followed ’some day’ seem to be rapidly closing.
Although successful, educated and proactive about managing life we start to see the dark end of the tunnel! Something has to change:
- by developing our leadership capabilities;
- removing restriction from our lives;
- spending more of our time doing what we love;
- knowing and getting appreciation for the value we bring;
- feeling supported rather than thwarted;
- developing and using all of our talents;
- living with greater ease and abundance, and knowing what we do counts.
For some, this ‘call to action’ cannot be ignored! Knowing what to do about it is sometimes less clear though. How do you make a move when you don’t know where or how? When you know what you want, how do you get over your personal barriers and actually do it? It is easy to feel stuck and to get to a point where you feel unable to take control of your situation.
So what is the answer? How do we become ‘unstuck’ and get moving?
Exploring options, and taking career and personal development into their own hands are whole areas of coaching for most people! However, the practical steps that I would recommend as a starting point are:
1. A self-inventory.
(See our starter pack for instance, which has some basic checklists for this).
Create a high level view of the life you would prefer to have. What challenges / issues / areas of discontent do you most want to resolve? What difference would you see in your life if you did this? What do you think your end-game is?
2. Know your saboteurs!
Common saboteurs that I see with clients are: fear of failure; lack of self-confidence; social anxiety; limiting beliefs about money to name just a few. We all have ’stuff’ that conspires to keep us stuck. (And I really do mean ‘conspire’ - we conspire with ourselves avoid tackling these ideas!).
3. Get the right support. e.g.:
- Books and other sources of information and ideas;
- A broad range of interests, experiences and connections for fresh perspective;
- A great coach who acts as mentor, sounding board, and to help me stay ‘unstuck’ so I reach my goal as quickly as possible;
- Programmes to provide training or qualifications (once I know what I am aiming for!)
By building your ’support kit’, tuning in to your most authentic direction, and working to resolve the barriers that step in your way, you are enabling yourself to take the first step across the threshold. By doing this with an air of curiosity, you will find that lightness and confidence starts to build in your daily life and work, and the clearer each next step will become.
When we hear the call to action, the thought of what might get involved can be scary: But it is actually this process of exploration which is the real journey we are being asked to make. Only this ‘inner shift’ provides us with the means to move to the next level in life and work. Once we begin this journey, we can enable ourselves to take real control of our future, and build the life we want.
Author: Alison Forbes, Ph.D.
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