If you’re feeling that tug of “It’s time to do something different,” it pays to spend some time sorting through whether you are best served by a job change or a wholesale career shift. As you might imagine, the two paths are radically different in scale, scope, timing, effort, and risk.
For many of us, the idea of an encore career is an appealing fantasy that never grows closer or more tangible. At least part of the problem for why we remain locked in place stems from our attempt to answer the wrong question. Try a simple reframe of the question, "What do I want to be when I grow up?" to open the floodgates of ideas essential to help us move from fantasy to reality. We have some great design thinkers to thank for this simple, powerful reframe.
There's a process to reinventing your career. Unfortunately, for those who like things nice and tidy and linear, the process regularly involves pivoting and back-tracking plus the occasional unanticipated course correction. And while there's no straight line or stage-gate process, the general flow of your career reinvention work eventually passes through these six steps.
No job is perfect, however, when you manage to align your sense of purpose with a cause that brings this purpose to life, the work can be exhilarating at times and enjoyable all of the time. If time is running at a snail's pace and there's no joy in the work, it's time to pursue a reset.
We all intuitively know a toxic workplace is bad for our health. Jeffrey Pfeffer's latest book, Dying for a Paycheck, offers some data to back this claim. And while some may benefit from job change, others are motivated to reinvent their careers as part of saving their health and lives. This articles shares some of the insights gained in working with multiple career reinventors.
There's a well-known mind-body connection when it comes to exercise. The hard work of career reinvention is helped considerably when you commit to a parallel activity of physical transformation
For many mid-to-late career professionals, the lure of doing something different is strong. Unfortunately, the barriers in our minds are often stronger. A critical success factor is giving yourself permission to reinvent your career. Once you eliminate this hurdle, the process is navigable.
For too many experienced professionals, the later stages of their careers feel more like prison sentences than rich opportunities to learn and grow. Yet, investing time to rethink your personal purpose and cause through the lens of your experience, can set the stage for the most productive, rewarding portion of your career and life.
For most people, the idea of reinventing themselves in their careers remains a fantasy. However, for those who do move from fantasy and ideas to actions, the career reinvention process is filled with obstacles to be overcome. Here are 5 big lessons learned from some successful career reinventors:
The idea of reinventing yourself in your career is intimidating and even overwhelming. Yet, a disciplined approach to navigating this journey will help you mitigate risk and gain traction. The six stages of career reinvention provide a framework to help you get started on this important journey.
