Employement - New Year New Career

New Year New Career

BY AMALIA CHILIANIS

As you edge closer to the beginning of the new year, it’s natural to start thinking about the year ahead. While an arbitrary line in the sand, the new year brings a sense of hope and optimism, a time to think about what you want to change for the year ahead. A time to dream of new beginnings, a fresh start or gratitude for what you already have but some areas of your life that you still want to improve. Often one of the things we hope to change most is our career. However, you hesitate or have doubts, because you’re not sure how to make a change and if you do make a change, you want to make sure that it’s a positive one. As well as meeting your fundamental need for an income, your work can be enjoyable, provide for great satisfaction and can positively impact your happiness and wellbeing. The good news is, you are likely more ready and able to make a change than you think. So, if you are so inclined, put change career at the top of your New Year’s resolutions then use my five tips for successfully changing careers.

1 Pause & Reflect Hopefully you are taking some time out over the holiday period. Whether you aim to make a significant change in what you do for a living or just a small shift, like same job new employer or same employer different role, I highly recommend you take some time to pause and reflect. If you look back on your working life so far, have you just gone along for the ride? Have you ever had a real break to stop thinking about pressures, expectations, judgements and responsibilities? You might intuitively know this to be true, that it’s often those times when you are not thinking about a problem or a challenge that solutions come to you. I highly recommend starting a meditation practice, but if this is a step too far for you, at least take time out for focused attention. Reflect on both the good and the bad elements of your career so far, what’s worked well, what hasn’t and write down why.

2 Work and Life priorities Work and life are inextricably linked, so embarking on a career change should include building a picture of what you want from both your career and the other priorities in your life. I recommend identifying a set of ingredients that you want in key components of your life such as physical health, relationships, home, emotional wellbeing, career, finances, passions & hobbies, spirituality and community. Reflect on these as they are for you now, and then how you would like 17

them to be in the future. This helps you create goals and also informs the career direction and decisions you make. For example, if you want to spend more time with your close relationships, then pursuing a career change that sees you working long hours consistently is likely to ultimately be unsatisfying.

3 Expand your options Satisfying work can provide many benefits, such as opportunities to learn, to build relationships, enjoyment, sense of achievement, sense of belonging and an ability to contribute to something greater. Think about what you want work to be and do for you? While you may set a specific overarching career goal, there are multiple ways to achieve that outcome. Expand your options of the types of jobs or industries you can pursue. Think of it like a gold, silver or bronze medal. All are great achievements but at varying levels. For your gold version, what would ideal look like, if you could have everything you want? For silver, take it back just one step, a compromise that would still provide for a great option, and then again for the bronze version.

4 Strengths + Capabilities You may already be familiar with your strengths, the things you are good at, that energise you and you find yourself drawn to activities that use them. Using and developing your strengths at work can result in greater enjoyment, better performance and provide you with more energy and vitality. When you add understanding your capabilities to your strengths this gives you your greatest leverage for change and can help you advance or completely change careers in a way that best sets you up for success. Your capabilities are your people and technical skills and your knowledge. Similar to your strengths, you are focusing on the skills and knowledge you are both good at and enjoy.

5 Growth There are not too many missteps or wrong moves from a career perspective if you are focused on what you can learn and gain in experience. Even terrible experiences can help you grow; in fact, it’s possible that we advance and grow more through challenge. In pursuing a career change think about whether you will continue to learn and grow. A satisfying career needs some challenge. If something is too easy, it will likely be boring. Therefore, regardless of whether it’s a small shift in career or a complete change, you need to learn new, or improve on existing, strengths and capabilities and adopt an attitude and belief that with effort you can grow.

Changing career brings variety, increases experience and learning, keeps you engaged and can have positive benefits for your happiness and wellbeing. The keys to making a positive career change are to pause and reflect, pursue a change that works with your priorities in life, to expand your options of what will provide for a satisfying change, use the combination of both your strengths and your capabilities for your greatest leverage and focus on growth. You have a wealth of unique strengths and capabilities already and while it may seem like a daunting journey, starting with these five tips will see you well on your way to a New Year New Career.

About the Writer

Amalia Chilianis is a coach with over 25 years of corporate experience. She is a courageous leader and an encourager of others who is determined that the next 20 years of work and life will be different to the last. Her book Work-a-holistic, A practical guide to changing your career is available now on Amazon and other online retailers. Visit her website for the links and more information. www.amaliachilianis.com

"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do and how you do it" Maya Angelou

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