APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | AMAZON | STITCHER
Now, I talk a lot on this podcast about uncovering your passion and purpose that will bring you the career and life you want and also how you can create a strategy and plan to make it happen.
But then you need to act on that plan, alongside the job you already have and depending on how long you have given yourself, it could be 6 weeks, 6 months or 6 years before you actually escape your corporate job and make that dream career happen. I’m not going to lie to you, you won’t be full of drive, optimism and excitement all the time!
So, you need to prepare and tool up in advance, so you can face anything that comes your way! Here are my 5 tips to keep you motivated, energised and on track while you work towards your dream career and life!
FIND YOUR TRIBE
You really need people around you that will be your cheer leaders and help you celebrate when you reach your milestones, and also give advice, support and motivation when you are doubting yourself and your plans. So find and surround yourself with people who are on the same career change journey as you who can empathise with where you are at, or people who are ahead of you on the journey that can mentor you and share their experiences. You also need to have people to learn from like thought leaders or influencers who know more than you about how to change career and make it a success. Finally, a great option is having a career coach. If you don’t want to invest in a 1:1 coach then look for group coaching opportunities where the cost is split or join a paid membership which is lower cost but you will be connected with people in a similar stage to you and tools and techniques on how to keep motivated and take action will be shared with you, a more DIY option as it were.
SHARE YOUR PLANS
There is no point in having a plan to change careers, if you don’t tell anyone about it! I know, you may be nervous it won’t happen, or it will be delayed and then you’ll be embarrassed in front of your friends and family. But you have to make this real. If it is something that people know about, it makes you accountable, you know that people will be expecting for things to change, for you to move forward with your plans, so it's a whole lot harder to let them slip or to decide not to go ahead because of fear, doubt or just having so much to do.
So tell your family and friends about your plans, not in a ‘I may do this one day’ way but ‘I am doing this’ and I am doing this in 6 months or 12 months or 5 years or whatever timeline you have decided on. If you are confident and clear about what you want to do they will support you. And even if they don’t you’ll know that it’s going to happen.
It is really inspiring and momentous to set your intentions verbally. By speaking about them you are sending a message out into the world that it will happen.
Don’t be shy, go out there and tell your friends and family what you want to do. Don’t keep it a secret!
CELEBRATE YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS
If you have created a project plan to help you make your escape to a new career happen, you will have set milestones or mini goals. So celebrate when you reach them! This is where your supporting tribe will come in, as they will really ‘get’ why you are so excited to have reached a small goal and will want to celebrate with you.
So when you’ve completed that course you needed to take, or saved the amount of money you need to make your escape possible , or have written your new cv or joined a new facebook group of career changers. Make it a big deal! You’re closer than ever before to loving what you do every day, to having more time for your family or to making a difference in the world.
Buy yourself a little gift, have a glass of champagne with your friends, or just give yourself a well earned day off, whatever makes you feel like a winner, go for it.
KEEP YOUR ‘WHY’ FRONT & CENTRE
You need to keep reminders of why you are making this change in your face everyday!
When you make the decision to go for this new career and life that it brings you, you will have all your reasons spinning in your mind. They give you the motivation and strength to do the work to make your escape happen. But like anything, if you don’t remind yourself of what you are aiming for and why on a regular basis, those reasons can fade in your mind and the more pragmatic, daily concerns can take over and you start . So you need to find ways to keep reminding yourself what it is all for, why you are taking the time on top of your job to find a route away from your current path to a new future.
So set your phone screen saver with something to motivate you, it can be words like maybe your next goal, or pictures like of a place you want to live or something you want to get (if you have lifestyle financial goals) or it could be a photo of a business card with what your titles will be in your new career, or it simply could be a photo of your family if your aim is to spend more time with them. Whatever will motivate you, make sure that you are reminded every time you pick up your phone. If you don’t want colleagues to see, you could be a bit more subtle but make it meaningful.
Another thing you can do is to set reminders for yourself. These can be for your bigger goals, so for example when you want to have handed your notice in by or smaller milestones like when you have set yourself up as a sole trader or when you have finished the course that will allow you to start applying for roles in your new career specialism. You can also set reminders for those blocks of time in your week when you have committed to work on your career change project. Now I always recommend using a project management system for your career change project. Because you can set up reminders in this and assign goals for yourself and keep track of your career change just like you would any project you work on in the corporate world. I personally use Asana, but there are a lot of systems out there.
The next one people can get a bit uncomfortable with because it seems a bit fluffy, but there is evidence to suggest that visual reminders are very effective in helping you achieve success. So I really recommend creating a vision board to hang on your wall in a prominent place so you can see it everyday. A vision board is a collection of images or words that represent your goals. You can use photos, or cut images out of magazines or even draw or paint pictures that reflect what you are aiming for.
But, if having something so visible to everyone is uncomfortable then instead have a vision book, you know, like a scrapbook, that you look at on a daily or weekly basis. Just make sure not to leave it in a drawer or in a bookcase! Put it where you will be reminded to look at it, like on your bedside table or a coffee table near where you sit to relax.
KEEP FOCUSSED & BE PATIENT
Finally, keep focused on one goal at a time and be patient. When you want something so much, it’s natural to feel impatient and want it to happen now. So when you're planning and working towards your career change, it can be frustrating not to be there already. You want to be in that future, and have that new career and life now. I get it! Particularly when you are miserable in your current career, but even if you are ok with what you’re doing now it can be tempting to always want to be at the finish line, when you've only just got off the starting blocks.
Just remember, that everything you are doing is leading you to that end goal, even if it does not feel like it yet. Everything you learn, every system you get to grips with, every step you take towards your goal is all building towards that new life you want.
It’s like the story of the stone cutter, who hit a stone 100 times and then on the 101st time it finally split. It was not the 101st hit that did it, it was all the 100 before it which allowed that final stroke to break through. All your work will be worth it and you can enjoy that final hit when everything falls into place.
THE BOTTOM LINE IS..
The difference between a successful career changer and one that never makes it, is their ability to deal with the time between deciding they want to change and actually taking the leap. The successful career changer, is resilient, is positive, they believe in what they want to do and also understand that they will have down days. How they react to those times, when it all sounds like a bad idea, really makes the difference.
So who will you be? Will you be the dreamer who talks a lot about wanting to do something different but never goes for it, or will you be the one who turns their dreams into reality and is ready to do whatever it takes to make it happen?
