Career Change Ideas

Career change ideas: When you were at school and you were seeking a career, were you too encouraged to see what was out there and try and fit yourself into that box? Do you still hold the belief that career change ideas are outside of you? Do you believe hat an opportunity will drop right into your inbox and you’ll apply and “Hey Presto!” Promotion, increased salary and, status will be yours. Oh, and you’ll be happy, all the time, too!

Or do you take a more proactive view, open your laptop & trawl the internet? In seeking career change ideas, drive yourself half insane by exploring ALL the possibilities? And do you feel nourished by this experience? I never did. I felt drained and disoriented and disillusioned.

So my suggestion is that you bring your career change explorations closer to home. That instead of looking ‘out there’, instead you turn your attention inwards. This way you can examine what you already have. My guess is that you are no longer 14 years old and choosing you GCSE options. My guess is that you are also not 16 and choosing you a Levels, or 18 and choosing your degree… my guess is that if you are reading this post, you are a fully fledged grown-up.

Being a fully fledged grown up may bring it’s own challenges in that we may not fit the Media’a image of youthful beauty. The benefits of being grown up FAR outweigh that minor detail. Being grown-up We have experience of life and work. We have knowledge of consequences. We have a wealth of skills we have refined during our journey. We have opinions and values that inform our choices. We have the knowing that we can not only survive, but also benefit from, ‘wrong’ choices. We know this information because we have already done so.

We will also have discovered work environments and professional behaviours that we do, and indeed do not like. We will be cognisant of our own skills and capabilities, we will know that we can be versatile enough to apply these in differing combinations to move between differing professional identities. We may even know if our professional purpose. That thread that holds our whole professional lives together.

The irony is, that we may not yet know that we know all of this, but we do. If we just take the time to be self reflective and curious, we will uncover these layers of self-knowledge. When you know yourself you can then find the role ‘out there’ that fits the real you. This is the way to find a good match, where you do not have to bend yourself entirely out of shape to fit in their box. This entirely by-passes the need to squash yourself into any mould that is not you. This entirely bypasses the need to be stuck where you are awaiting that magic role to fall into your inbox. This entirely by-passes the need for soul destroying internet searches. You will instinctively notice the right role when you see it.

Have a really good kick about with you own ideas before looking outside of yourself. This is a really proactive exploration of career change ideas. “Know thyself” first and then see what ideas and roles fit you.

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