Changing Career Direction

It happens to the best of us. Waking up one morning, or many mornings for that matter, and realising the decisions that you have made in your career may actually no longer be the right one’s for you in the long term. How you handle such a situation is the point that may help to define career satisfaction moving forward.

We all start off with the best of intentions. We are excited, we are challenged by something new and different, and at the time we believe that we are on the right path to achieve our outcomes. But the reality is, things change, we change and circumstances change.

As a coach, I see many individuals that are at a cross road in their career. These individuals generally display a great deal of emotions including being scared, upset and highly confused. All of this stems from the prospect that maybe, just maybe, everything they have been working toward is not everything they thought it would be.

Have you ever sat back and looked at high value purchases the day after shopping and felt a stab of guilt. Did you really needed that extra pair of shoes? That fancy tie? Decisions in our careers may be no different to the decisions we make when out shopping. At the time they seem perfect, ideal, right, but when we get them home they may not quite be right. They may not match or they may not fulfill the complete purpose we had in mind for them.

Making career decisions can result in this exact same outcome. At the time they may be just right. But as the seasons change, our circumstances change and our needs change it may just mean that something else will need to change; something that we thought was going to take us to the very place we thought we wanted to be.

If you are at this cross road, or starting to wonder why you are no longer satisfied by the things that previously kept you happy, the first and most important thing that you need to do is to become comfortable. Realise that many people go through change at some point in time and it happens regularly. By doing this you will then look to what it is you may need to do next to work through this change.

Although you may not have all of the answers right now, or scared about what might be, when you accept that change is actually ok you will then be open to new ideas, new opportunities and the much needed support to help you redefine exactly what it is you are looking for.