Committing to change

If you're standing on the edge of a career shift or transition. 2 You're not alone. 3 According to major sources like Forbes, indeed.com, fast company, and numerous 4 others, more professionals than ever are considering a career change. 5 Some are being forced out of dying industries. 6 Others are seeing the writing on the wall and jumping ship before they get 7 forced out and many are feeling called to reassess their work and find something 8 that's more aligned with their values. 9 If any of these sound like you, you're in good company, but considering a 10 career shift can feel overwhelming. 11 Trust me. 12 I know I've personally been through several career changes. 13 So in this lesson, I'm going to teach you a few basic steps. 14 I've learned as a certified career transition coach and 15 multi-time career changer myself. 16 To help you avoid the common pitfalls and time-wasters of early stage career change. 17 These will help you commit to the change and feel confident moving into 18 a new, exciting phase of your career. 19 The first step is to make sure you actually need a career change. 20 If you're feeling unhappy in your work, it's important to decide if you 21 need a new career or just a new job. 22 Here's the difference. 23 If you're happy with the tasks you do and the responsibilities you have, but 24 you can't stand your work environment or your coworkers or your boss, then getting 25 a new job could solve your problem. 26 But if you're doing work that isn't consistent with your values, or if your 27 daily responsibilities have you bored or frustrated, or if you just can't 28 bear dragging yourself to work anymore. 29 That's when a whole new career may be the right solution. 30 Step two is to give yourself closure. 31 When you dedicate as much time as many of us have to developing our 32 careers, it's natural to want to hold tight to the skills and the knowledge 33 you've built up during that time. 34 But if you truly want a change, you have to initiate that change. 35 Many of my career change clients do this step one work of determining they want 36 a change, but then stay stuck focusing on all the skills from their old career, 37 instead of all the new ones they actually want to use moving forward, avoid this 38 by taking time to give yourself closure, reflect on all the reasons you're ready 39 to leave your old career behind and take time to recognize the things you want. 40 This will help you not feel so stuck in old thought patterns and be open to 41 creating new ones and finally embrace uncertainty many career changers. 42 No they're unhappy in their current situation, but feel too overwhelmed by 43 fear of uncertainty to take the next step. 44 It's important to understand that even after you've determined that a career 45 change really is the right next step. 46 And you've given yourself closure to move on. 47 You're still going to experience a great deal of uncertainty and that's okay. 48 Work on shifting your mindset. 49 So you start recognizing uncertainty as a harbinger of amazing opportunities, 50 not as something to be afraid of. 51 The mindset work in this lesson is exciting because it both refocuses and 52 retrains your brain to ultimately help you be more successful in your career change.