Career change isn’t just about completely changing your career, you can also transition to a new way of working in your current career. I know this is possible because I have done it myself with my HR career; looking at what wasn’t working for me, what I really wanted to be doing and taking the steps to change that.
Look at what you do outside of work:
At an event I attended last year I spoke with a man who was feeling unfulfilled at work as he wasn’t using his creativity. We discussed options for him and on reflection he realised he used to have some hobbies which were his creative outlet but life had taken over and he no longer did them. He decided to start doing some of them again and see if this helped his creativity void. Don’t forget what you do outside of work can have a positive impact on your work.
Revitalise your work life balance:
Is it your work life balance that needs changing? Consider each of these with your work:
- Do you always respond to messages on phone at any time of day?
- Do you struggle to take all your holiday?
- Are you always the first in the office or logging on and last to leave or log off?
- Do you find it difficult to say no to more work?
- Do you do the work instead of delegating despite having a competent team to support you?
- Do you eat at your desk and never have a proper break during the day?
- Do you attend every meeting you are invited to.
In other words you find that the work is managing you rather than you managing it. Does this sound familiar?
There could be many reasons why your career isn’t fulfilling your needs right now and with a few tweaks you may be able to change how you feel in your career.
The 5 Steps to Changing your Career without Changing your Career:
- Awareness – this is such a key step and enables you to really work out what the specific areas of challenge are. Do a checklist similar to the one for work life balance above. What different challenges do you face? What isn’t working for you? What is missing for you?
- Prioritise – if there are a number of areas dealing with them all at once may feel overwhelming so decide which one would have the biggest impact for you when you can improve it?
- What’s the vision? For the one you want to change what does success look like when you have changed it? How do you want it to be? How do you want to feel? What will it look like?
- Break it down – break down the stages from where you are now to where you want to be. What’s the first step you can take to make the change? Take it one step at a time.
Rinse and repeat for each of the points on the checklist, taking it in priority order
- Support – consider what support you may need and where you could get it.
If you are looking to make changes within your career but are unsure how to do this please contact me for a free call to discuss your next steps and find out if my career change programme is right for you to help you gain clarity, focus and motivation.
The information contained above is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this blog are not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents of this blog. Professional advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from taking any action as a result of the contents of this blog. Claire Bolsover disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this blog.