Is It Really Possible to Change Careers?
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com
You want to change careers - brilliant. Go You!
So, before you dive into your career change 'why', 'when', where', and 'how', before you begin putting together a strategy and a plan, I have a question.
Do you believe that finding a meaningful, fulfilling career is 100% possible… for you?
Why am I posing this (possibly very irritating) question about something you probably take for granted?
Because, to borrow a phrase from Preston Pugmire, coach, podcaster, musician and TED talker, "Mindset is more important than strategy."
In this thirteen-minute TED talk, Preston Pugmire describes the kind of solid self-belief, he believes is key to achieving whatever matters most to us.
'Hmmm…. " I hear you say, 'Not much of a revelation there – of course, I've set my mind on changing careers, why else would I be disappearing down a gazillion Google rabbit holes gathering oodles of information? Why else would I be talking to happy humans doing great jobs if I didn't want what those lucky ducks have got?'
OK, I get it. Good on you for gathering data and doing due diligence around great jobs that grab your interest. But can I still ask you? 'Do you believe that finding your next brilliant career is inevitable for you?'
If you're 100% fine with the 'i' word I just used, then 'Yep', your career change mindset is in great shape.
But if you're not. If hearing 'inevitable' in cahoots with 'career change' sparks something between a twinge and a tsunami of self-doubt, read on.
Check your career change mindset
Preston Pugmire outlines three stages of evolving self-belief.
Stage 1. 'It's possible … for someone else.’ (For example, those 'lucky ducks' you mentioned earlier, the ones with the enviable jobs.) Hmmm. Looks like you could use help to investigate some limiting beliefs that may be holding you back.
Here you go. 5 Tricky career change assumptions you need to test.
Stage 2. 'It's possible for me … but how?' Overwhelm and analysis paralysis can hit you here. Here's how to deal with that. Breaking out of analysis paralysis helps you accept the obvious but unnerving reality that 'you don't know what you don't know' and 'you can't be what you can't see.' How to fix that? Get curious and try these: 6 Ways to turn career change interest into action.
Stage 3. 'It's inevitable for me; now let's find the steps.'
If you believe in your bones that making a successful career change is inevitable, then you've secured your self-belief. So now, strategy can happen, or, as Preston Pugmire puts it, it's time 'to find the steps.'
4 Steps for activating your career change mindset
Here's his four-step plan, plus a catchy acronym (FACT) for activating your 'it's inevitable' mindset. Let's apply it to changing careers.
Step 1. Focus on your wins
Because in career change and life, it's way too easy to overlook them in favour of focusing on the gaps, not-so-good outcomes and getting-it-right-next-times. Preston Pugmire suggests listing 20 wins. Give this a go. Don't limit yourself solely to career change project wins; add things from everywhere. It sounds straightforward, but it can be tougher than it seems and very revealing about how you define, rate and record your successes.
Photo by Tirachard Kumtanom on Pexels
If your career change wins list looks a little … listless, maybe that's because you're hanging out for the huge wins. And for sure, there'll be some of those – a breakthrough job offer or an out-of-the-blue lead that unleashes a whole new direction. But while you work on and wait for these giant leaps forward, there's value in clocking up the small wins – the ones that come from small steps. The cold call LinkedIn message that got a response, the courage to front your first coffee-fuelled, career change conversation with the friend of a friend.
Got room on your list for more small wins? Here's why taking small, intentional steps is a smart move for career changers.
Step 2. Ask useful questions
Here are four good ones to ask yourself first and trusted others later.
Top tip: Substituting 'you' for 'I' helps bypass your logical thinking brain long enough to give your gut and intuition time to have their say.
1. What can and can't you control?
Clue: Can't – whether other humans will take time to help (usually they will!), whether someone will reply to your message asking for a career chat on LinkedIn, whether your boss will agree to let you go part-time…and so on.
Can – how you respond to wins, windfalls, shortfalls, knockbacks, dead ends and dead good happenstance opportunities.
2. What's holding you back?
Photo by Leeloo The First by Pexels
Clue: Listen out for limiting beliefs, and ranting inner critics. Feeling freaked about finances, frying pans and fires (swapping one job you hate for something much the same), or falling flat on your face? Have a read.
Have a question or three? Book a free chat.
3. What resources are you not using, YET?
Clue: Note down networks you can tap into, then tap the resource of 'you.' List the skills you love to use but often don't. Why is that? Spotlight your career wish lists and preferences - ideal working environment, purposeful work you'd love to do, ways you want to make a difference. Focus on things that will give you a sense and shape of what a new career might look like.
4. When should you make the change?
In a tangle about timing? Try one of these 4 Ways to fine tune your career change timing.
Once you've practised some great big useful questions on trusting others, move on to one of career change's most useful (slightly scary at first) real-world adventures - structured, career change conversations with near or total strangers. Here’s how.
Step 3. Coach – get one
I did make me smile when Preston Pugmire had this on his list! Short of making a shameless plug for getting inspiration, guidance, cheerleading and rock-solid accountability from a career coach like yours truly. I'll just point you at this guide to finding a compatible one.
Don't want to go it alone (smart move!) but not up for coaching either? Here are seven ways to ask kind humans to support you.
Step 4. Take things off your plate
Getting your career change mindset working and believing 100% that you will do it takes a ton of anxiety off your plate. Phew! But there's still a lot to do, and you're managing the 'suck of the new' in what Brené Brown aptly calls 'a F&^*king First Time (FF T). Want more on FFTs and keeping a whole heap of career change plates spinning? Here are 5 Ways to build your career change confidence.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Pexels
Talking of confidence, which can be fragile when you don't yet know what you want or where to head. Aimless lurking on LinkedIn and endless scrolling on job sites are two time-wasting confidence sappers you can take off your plate. Swap these activities for real-world exploring to figure out who you are, what you want and what will work (and what won't.). Get up from your desk and make career change happen.
Spilling the career change beans to your nearest and dearest is one pressurising task you can take off your plate, until you're good and ready to reveal some or all of your project. Not everyone needs to know about it, in the nanosecond after you decide to change careers. Wait until you've got some runs on the board and real momentum. Then you're set to handle the range of startled and startling reactions your career change bombshell can evoke in people who care about you and want you to be both safe and happy.
When you are ready to do the big reveal, here are 8 Cool ways to tell family and friends you're changing careers.
Another thing you might take off your plate is an overly serious approach to changing careers. Of course, you've embarked on a great, big, transformative adventure, so take that seriously, but yourself? Not so much.
Why? Applying a light touch and adopting a playful mindset can help keep you energised, optimistic, and, most importantly, kid-level curious. Swap stifling, outcomes-focused seriousness for a 'let's see where this goes' sense of play and watch what happens. Chances are, you'll find the brain space and bravery to try new things and the smarts to smile and move on from stumbles and stuff-ups.
Give it a try - 5 Seriously good ways to be a playful career changer.
Getting your career change FACT(s) straight
If I could wave a magic wand and gift my career change clients one thing, it would be self-belief. Because things only ever work if we believe in them. I may not have a magic wand, but I can help you magic up a bone-deep belief that a brilliant career change is inevitable … for you. And I'll work with you on the practicalities (and fun) of putting that powerful mindset to work to make your meaningful career change happen.
Not sure your career change is … inevitable? Book a chat.
Hi, I’m Jo Green, a Career Change Coach.
I help thoughtful professionals who feel stuck or unfulfilled in their work find a clearer direction and move into work that feels meaningful and aligned with who they are.
Since 2016 I’ve supported hundreds of people to reshape their careers – whether that means changing roles, starting something new, or finding work that contributes more positively to people or the planet.
If you're thinking about a career change and want structured support, you can learn more about my career change coaching here.
Or you’re welcome to book a free 20-minute consultation to talk about where you’re at and whether coaching could help.
