The Key to a Successful Career Shift: You Are the Hero of Your Story

No matter how it shakes out, we all have to take responsibility for managing our careers. In my resume and counseling practice, I routinely see clients who need to make changes in their professional lives.

There are many people who want to cross this bridge to the other side; however, career changes cannot be made in isolation. In fact, when we make a change, we need to consider the context of our personal life and overall life goals.

One of the considerations in making a career transition is to take a close look at the practicality of making the move. Three top practical matters to consider are:

• Money: Can you financially make the move?
• Lack of up-to-date skills: Is an advanced education required?
• Mind-set: Can you come to terms with taking the risk or coming to terms with your divorce, a spouse that passed away, your age or an illness?

Two additional factors that need to be considered are your resources (support people, available money, physical space, networking groups, your personal agility and ability to learn) and limitations (family, lifestyle and financial obligations, work hours, travel requirements, disability and health issues).

And finally, stop and reflect on your most important values in addition to the practical considerations, resources, and limitations in your life. As Meryl Streep once said, “We are the choices we make.”

Feeling good about your work is central to life, but overlooking these details could lead to even more heartache. A successful career shift requires careful thought, due diligence, and thorough research and reflection. Applying these core principles and practical considerations will help to ensure that you reach your goals as you set on a new course of action.

No doubt there are many tough career stories in the naked city. In fact, I interviewed a close family friend yesterday about how he became the hero of his story. I have to tell you that I was completely moved by his brutal honesty in discussing being fired four times over the course of his career.

Mind you, I am not talking about downsizing or the company going offshore; I am speaking about being let go for politically incorrect behavior on the job. What’s even more remarkable is the fact that today this individual is an out-and-out complete success in his given industry.

Clearly, there was a pattern that bounced this guy from multiple companies in manufacturing, retail, real estate, and the medical industry. There’s an old adage that says, “If you don’t learn the first time, the lesson will be handed to you again and again until you do learn.” And, that is in fact what occurred in this instance.

Resiliency Plays a Huge Role in Determining our Future Careers

Several career theories also promote that making appropriate career decisions increases self-confidence. That seems to make complete sense. However, the paradigm shift will only happen if we take time to assess ourselves. This concept of self-assessment also holds true for determining next steps in our careers or exploring new career options.

When I interviewed this close family friend about his career failures and successes, the compelling evidence of accepting his faults was undeniable. Further, the very essence of his catastrophes had to do with political incorrectness for the most part, but that wasn’t all he uncovered when he drilled down on what happened some 25 years ago.

Among his insights, he concluded that taking ownership was critical to both his career and personal development. Blaming others and not accepting responsibility for his actions and behavior did not alleviate the problem nor help him get to the next level—he had to dig deep inside to uncover what went wrong.

After digging deep into his personality and character, he realized he wasn’t a manager of people because his expectations of others trumped his own. Therefore, although he enjoyed helping people, he would use his drive to genuinely help others and focus his skills and expertise on primarily being responsible for his own production.

He also adopted the following maxim from Neal Boortz: “The revered 40-hour workweek is for losers. Forty hours should be considered the minimum, not the maximum.” You don’t see highly successful people clocking out of the office every afternoon at 5. The losers are the ones caught up in that afternoon rush hour. The winners drive home in the dark.”

These words crystallized and reaffirmed everything he felt about what it takes to become successful. Keeping in mind the Boortz quote and correcting his “fatal personality flaws” gave him a stronger pathway to achieving his career goals. He instilled a belief that success comes from hard work and a commitment to excellence in whatever he did. He never wanted to be at the top of the list when it came to layoffs, so he began a path of distinguishing himself coupled with a “no option to fail” mentality. Therein lies his formula for success as it stands today.

When Life Gives You Lemons …

I think the importance of learning lessons from our experiences—both personal and professional—relies on deliberate contemplation. In fact, understanding our lessons requires us to reflect (without a cell phone or TV in the background). The question begs itself to be asked, “Do you stop to reflect on your experiences to gain insight or do you just simply move on?”

Undoubtedly, life will hand you setbacks. It will sometimes hand you a card that you never expect, can’t anticipate, nor wish on any one of your enemies. I sincerely believe in being a realist and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, but you could also take a page out of Steve Jobs’ playbook:

Getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”

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