How to Stop Avoiding That Career Change

Big changes in life can be pretty daunting and that’s why many of us put them off for as long as possible, even if they’re potentially very positive changes. One particular area this applies to is your career. When your job is not doing it for you, whether that means you’re not being challenged, not earning enough or simply not doing something you love, you crave change. But you can only make a change to your career by forcing yourself into taking action. So many people put off that big career change for as long as possible if they feel it’s something that’ll be scary or risky in some way. But you’ll never hit your heights or even realize how much you can achieve until you put yourself out there and really push ahead with that career changes you’ve been mulling over for a while now. We’re going to talk in depth about how you can stop avoiding a career change and actually make it happen if you feel that this is something that would be right for you going forward. So read on now to find out more and hopefully motivate yourself into changing your career for the better.

Honestly Review Your Current Situation

First of all, you should have a long hard look at your current situation and assess it. Is your career really working out for you? Are you feeling fulfilled each day when you go to work? If not, doing something about it and making a career change is a real option that should certainly be considered. There’s no need to accept second best in your career so if your current path isn’t making you happy or challenged or whatever you want your career to make you feel, be honest about it.

Ditch Your Fear

The thing that holds most people back from changing their career is fear. And that’s totally understandable because fear in life is always a huge deterrent, and in many ways it’s good to be scared. We fear things in order to protect ourselves from danger. But those natural instincts can also stop you from doing things that are actually going to be very positive for you in the long-term, even if they’re pretty daunting now. If you want to move forward, you have to leave that fear behind you and embrace the change.

Find a Degree You Can Complete Flexibly

If you’re needing to study in order to gain qualifications while you carry on doing your current job, it’ll be vital to find a degree that can be completed flexibly. Anything from a business course to a criminology degree can be completed flexibly or possibly even online. Finding that kind of course that can fit around your current schedule and that allows you to carry on your job and earning a living until you’re qualified can make a big difference to you. It’s definitely something to look into and explore if this sounds appealing because it could be just what you need.

Ask Yourself What the Worst That Can Happen Is

One way to dispel any fears you might have is to sit down calmly and ask yourself what the worst thing that could happen is. When you do this, you force yourself to realize that actually a lot of the things that you’ve been fearing and worrying about are not all that significant after all. Facing the worse case scenario (which isn’t even likely to happen anyway) puts everything in context and shows you that changing your career isn’t really that scary or risky at all in the grand scheme of things.

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Compare Where Your Current Career Might Take You With the One You Actually Want

Everyone wants to have a positive, upward career trajectory. So if yours isn’t quite going the way you want it to right now, you should think about comparing your current path to the alternatives. If you can see a potential career change that you’re interested in that will have a positive career trajectory, compare it to your current career trajectory. Where is your career taking you? If the answer is nowhere fast, you should push yourself towards that change that you’ve been thinking about for a while.

Think of How Fulfilled You’ll Be

Fulfillment is a big deal when thinking about your career. Your job is the thing you spend most of your day doing, so you want to make sure that it’s something that you enjoy, something you feel fulfilled by and something you feel challenged by. It’s a simple case of comparing your current levels of fulfillment to how you fulfilled you feel you would be if you switched to another career that you’re interested in. Of course, this is a gamble because you can’t predict the future.

Set the Right Example for Your Children

Your children want to see their parents doing something that makes them happy. And you’ll set the right example for your kids if you do something that actually means something to you. If you play it safe and stay where you are, you’ll set the wrong kind of example. If you would want your kids to follow their dreams and do what their passionate about, you should live by the same principles yourself. It’ll show your kids that there’s nothing wrong with aiming for what you want to do in life.

Talk About it With Your Partner

If you have a long-term partner, it makes sense to talk this through with them. They’re going to be impacted by your career change as much as you are, especially if you have shared finances and obligations. If they’re willing to support you in your career change, it will be a lot easier for you to go ahead with it. That support from the people around you means a lot when you’re going through big changes in life, no matter what they are. So sit down with them and discuss it as openly as possible.

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Don’t Listen to Naysayers

If there are people around you trying to dissuade you from making a change without actually explaining why they feel that way, you should probably just ignore them. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with listening to other people’s points of view because this allows you to get new perspectives, which can be helpful when you’re not quite sure of what to do next.

Work Out How Your Earning Potential Might Improve

How much money you earn obviously matters. For many people, it’s the only thing that motivates them to get out of bed. But if you want to do something you love, maybe you don’t mind being paid slightly less to do it. That’s something for you to decide for yourself. But make sure that you sit down and work it out. If your earning potential could improve, you should go for it. But if not, make sure that it’s at least sustainable for you from a financial point of view.

Talk to Other People Who’ve Been Through a Similar Career Change

There are probably lots of other people who’ve been through a similar career change to this one before. You should take the time to talk to people who’ve done that if you know any. They can give you some insight into what to expect and what it’s like to go through all that. You’ll also have a chance to learn from their mistakes rather than having to make those mistakes yourself. The more you know going into this career change, the better it will be for you.

Look Forward to Challenging Yourself

The best thing about changing your career is giving yourself the chance to challenge yourself like never before. If your current job is dull, boring and easy, you should go ahead and consider a change because it’s important to test yourself and push yourself at work each day. When you don’t feel challenged by your work, you end up cruising on autopilot and that’s never enjoyable. Look forward to going to work each day and being confronted with a new and interesting challenge.

Just Make it Happen

Finally, you should just push ahead and make it happen because you can sit around and wait for things to happen or talk about the changes you want to make for years. But if you never actually do anything about your situation or change your career, you will be stuck in the same situation for a long time. Nothing happens until you want change badly enough to force it through. Without that forcefulness, you’ll never make things happen or achieve the things you want to achieve in life.

A career change could be precisely what you need most of all right now. If you’re sick of your current career path and feel like it’s taking you nowhere fast, you can only change all that by taking action. So if you feel a career change is in order, stop putting it off and simply go for it.