How to overcome the career change overwhelm

It’s one thing knowing you want to make a change in your career, but it can be quite another thing actually doing something about it. It can feel extremely overwhelming, as unless you have already got it all worked out it can feel impossible to know where to start.

And here’s the thing – when something feels huge and insurmountable our natural reaction is to file it in the ‘I’ll deal with that tomorrow/when I have more headspace’ pile and, well, it just stays there.

It’s my mission in this blogpost to help you break the process down in to smaller, progressive steps so that you have an action you can take TODAY, as the best possible thing you can do is just start!

Start with what you do know

Whilst you may not have all the answers, you will certainly have some of them. Start by making a list of all the things that absolutely have to be there in your new role/career. Then make a second list of all the things that you most definitely do not want there. Think of these are your deal breakers. You can then write a third list of the things that you would be willing to negotiate on. 

Although you might not have a crystal-clear idea of the exact destination, you now have an idea of what you want it to look like.

Identify what makes you brilliant and unique

When we are unhappy at work, or have been away from work for a while, it can be very easy to lose sight of who we are and what makes us brilliant and unique.

One way to help bring this back into focus is to create a career lifeline.  It’s an exercise that prompts you to reflect back on your career to date to identify themes, patterns and natural strengths.

Take an A4 piece of paper and plot on a timeline from left to right each of the roles you have held and for each one, make a note of the things that were the positives of that role and also noting any elements that were more negative. Once you have completed it, look back at the periods when you were most happy, fulfilled and working at your best, as well as noticing the times when things were perhaps not so great. Use this information to identify what you would like more of in the next phase of your career.

Interrogate your options

This is the explorative part of the process. Take the time to write down ALL of the different roles or options that you are considering – all ideas are valid here. 

Once you have them in front of you, take them one by one and interrogate them.  I mean really interrogate them! What draws you to the idea, how do you feel when you think about doing this role, what barriers are in the way of achieving it, how might you overcome them and does the role align with your deal breakers lists?

Is there an action (or actions) you can take to progress any of these pathways? What can you do TODAY?

Start conversations

What you might have unearthed in your interrogation is some gaps in your knowledge. Some of these might be able to be filled by good old Google, however a much more powerful tool to tap into is to start conversations with other people to fill these gaps. Do you know anyone who can help you develop your ideas further or introduce you to someone who can?

If this feels a bit outside your comfort zone, start by just having a conversation with a friend or trusted colleague about your ideas and see where it leads. Think of a person you can message right now.

Make a plan

Now here is the crux – to make the changes you want to make happen you need a goal, and to achieve your goal, you need a plan. Spend time working out the outcome you want to achieve and by when, and then work backwards. 

What are your major milestones to get there? Take your first milestone and break that down into smaller tasks. The smaller the better – so small it’s impossible not to achieve them. Finally prioritise that list with the things you can do RIGHT NOW at the top.

Bam! There is your first action waiting for you to take it. 

What if you need more help to get started?

If, after reading this, you are motivated to make a change but know you’d like some help to get started and, more importantly, stay on track, then I have the perfect offer for you.

At the end of February, I start the next cohort of my group coaching programme – Relaunching Brilliantly – and it’s designed specifically to get you laser focused on the changes you want to make and help you get there. Imagine how you will feel at Christmas having clarity of what you want next and being well under way to achieving your goal.

You can find all the details of the programme here