14/04/2023
Are you a risk avoider or a risk taker? In the search for career happiness, it’s important to find out. Many clients I work with become paralysed when thinking about changing careers. Take Kate, a successful account director who was the epitome of corporate success. Well respected in her company, good at what she did, she was loved by her clients and on a great salary. Kate, however, had a secret: she was unhappy at work.
All her life she had climbed the career ladder, making compromises to get to where she was – and now she no longer wanted to do what she was doing. She had fallen into her job after university and found she was good at it, but never questioned the direction in which she was travelling. Now she felt trapped by her success because she was scared: scared of change, scared of the financial implications of changing jobs, and scared of what people would say if she gave up her successful career for something she couldn’t even yet name. Most of all, she was scared of what would happen if she did nothing.
Kate is not alone; academic research levels people take one to two years before making a career change. That’s a long time to stay in a job you don’t enjoy.
So what is holding back people like Kate from finding career happiness? It is likely to be one or all of the following:
Feeling too comfortable
If you’re good at your job and well paid, even though your heart might not be in what you do it’s easy to put up with things and just continue on the treadmill. However, there is a long-term cost to this approach. As your dreams of doing something you enjoy get further away, you will become more dissatisfied with your job and your career confidence will decrease.
Loss of identity
Work gives us a sense of identity. We define ourselves by our work: “I am a lawyer/doctor/teacher/senior manager.” This means it can be daunting to think about changing what we do, particularly if we have invested a lot of working years or study in obtaining that identity.
Fear of making the wrong decision
Clients often say to me: “What if the new career is not right for me or is worse than what I do now?” These thoughts can be paralysing because, without a crystal ball, it is impossible to know the answer.
There are no guarantees when you change career but to find work that is meaningful and engages you, you have to take a risk. Understanding how to manage and mitigate the risks is the key to moving forward.
Original Article: The Guardian
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