Tag Archive for: Career Transitioning

3 Common Reasons Why Your Career Transitioning Isn’t Working (And How To Fix It)

3 Common Reasons Why Your Career Transitioning Isn't WorkingAlexandra Humbel

Congratulations! You have decided to take charge of your future. You have what it takes to engage and thrive in a new professional development. So why are you feeling stuck and discouraged? Why is your project not coming to fruition? What happened to your once-unstoppable motivation? In this article, I discuss three common reasons why your career transition may not go as planned and what you can do to get back on track.

1. You lack flexibility

We never give enough praise to the virtue of having a plan and, well, actually sticking to it. I am a big fan of planning, don’t get me wrong. I just know that real life is what happens while we obsess over completing our plans. Especially in a period of career transition, several things can happen. You will meet resistance. Ask yourself, is this a hurdle you can bypass, or is it a major no-go sign? If so, what does it tell you?

Life is what happens while we are making plans. Did something major happen in your life? Maybe your partner found a unicorn job in a different country. Maybe you are disappointed by a lead that looked promising but fell through. Maybe a baby is born. You may need surgery that will immobilise you for several weeks. Or you receive an unexpected proposition to partner in a startup…

Whatever the circumstances, the way to negotiate your next step is to go with the flow without losing sight of your ultimate goals. One of the first things I do with my clients is to mine their values. I help them shine a light on what is most important to them and to envision the life they want, a fulfilling life that includes a career they love.

Once you get clear on your ultimate vision, you are more prone to accept sudden changes and turn them into opportunities, which may come from unexpected sources. When you stand in your values, you increase your capacity to adapt, make the best of each situation, and evaluate offers with clarity and purpose. In following your WHY, you become healthily unattached to the HOW. 

Do you feel like you are currently lacking clarity and direction? Then download my free Compass Coordinates Workbook. It’s a great starting point to help you get back on track.

2. You are lonely

It is not easy to acknowledge when we feel lonely. Especially if you are blessed with a partner, a family, and a bunch of good friends. You have made the bold decision to change careers, you have shared it with the people who are important to you, and received their support. Nevertheless, your journey to change your career can be a lonely one. The daily tête-à-tête with your computer screen is all but romantic. Motivation is a resource that has a limited lifespan. Discipline works until it fades and gives in to anxiety…

It is time, dear brave career transitioner, to change the dynamic and get help from people who understand what it is you are doing. A vast range of free or inexpensive options are available to you: Join peer groups locally (oh the joy of meeting in person again!) and online. Forums, industry experts, discussions, entrepreneur associations, alumni, mastermind, or other peer support groups. Are you enrolled in a training program?  Connect with your co-students and create a support group with them.

The core message here is, find your tribe and engage! The positive effects are many:

  • You gain perspective and advice from peers
  • You become an educated resource for others who value your expertise
  • You will fuel your self-confidence
  • You enlarge your network through meaningful exchanges
  • You get back to your project with fresh eyes and renewed energy

If you are on LinkedIn or Facebook, feel free to connect with me. I would love to follow your journey into a career you love!

3. You are in a pit

You started out like a champion, tackling the first steps of your transition like the kick-ass professional you are. Then things started to slow down, hurdles began to accumulate and your energy started lacking. Self-doubt and guilt are center-stage, draining your emotions and clouding your skies. Positive thinking doesn’t help when the fear of failure is running the show.

The first truth to keep in mind: A career transition always takes more time than expected. Resistance is what you meet most, starting with your own human inclination to cling to the status quo. A change of perspective is needed.

The prescription? Radical honesty and self-compassion.

Radical honesty means a 360°, non-judgemental assessment of your situation at this moment. Including revisiting your objectives to see if you are still aligned with everything you decided at some point in the past. Acknowledge your achievements. You have come a long way, so give yourself credit.

Now assess your current situation. What is stopping you? Are you in a perspective where you believe you have only black and white choices or no choice at all? One of my clients tortured herself to decide if she would quit her corporate job in order to find a more fulfilling career, or stay and stagnate. She ended up keeping her job (now fueled with renewed energy, knowing it is temporary) and pursued not one, but two professional opportunities, corporate and free-lance. As she signed her first paying clients, fresh and exciting perspectives started to show up. Self-compassion is about giving yourself a break. At this point in your life, you don’t have to prove that you are an overachiever. Try to be a better achiever instead, the kind of achiever who values their physical and emotional health at the same level as their professional success?

What do you think is holding you back from transitioning into a fulfilling second act of life? I have made it my mission to help talented executives and high-achievers transition into a more meaningful, fulfilling career. If you would like to have a chat about your plans, book a complimentary discovery coversation with me.

It’s time to break through any obstacles and make it happen!

by

4 Common Misconceptions About Career Transitioning

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT CAREER TRANSITIONINGAlexandra Humbel

Have you been repeatedly inspired by the stories of friends, colleagues, people on social or in the media, who changed careers in their fifties and started something vastly different? Have you wondered, even for a minute, how exciting it would be to follow their example? Then this article is for you. In all honesty, nobody ever said it was easy. It never is. But the most difficult thing may well be the first step: Overcoming your pre-conceived ideas about what it takes to follow your inner North Star, and start a meaningful second act of life.

Here are four common misconceptions about career transitioning that I often hear from clients before we start working together.

1. I am too old

Misconceptions about age are extremely interesting because ageing is a taboo. It becomes even hairier when you realize that you are now officially part of the “senior” or “older” workforce. At this point, the only visible perspective for your future is retirement. If this is not what you want, and if you consider changing career instead, I can hear you asking: “How old shall I be when I succeed in my new job?” the short answer is “The same as if you dwell in the status quo”.  We age anyway, this is a fact of life. The even shorter answer is: You have choices. You always do. Starting a new career that makes your heart sing every morning might come with a different lifestyle, where you divide your time between work and leisure. According to the latest Aegon research on retirement, older professionals do not want the traditional ‘cliff edge’ retirement – they want an easier transition towards a work-life balance which better suits their needs.

2. I will need a lot of training

This is also a misconception, and here is why. Once you are crystal clear about what you want to do (which might require some time and help), it becomes a matter of execution. If you need to add competence to your skillset, you will proceed, promptly. One of my clients transitioned from CEO in the media industry to skipper, cruising clients in the Mediterranean in a luxury sailing boat. While he had been a savvy sailor in the past, he needed to pass a professional skipper degree. It took him six months of commitment and he graduated with honors. Motivation is at the core of the decision to get training. As Brave Start observed in a recent survey,

“The drive to learn is undiminished but comes with the self-awareness and perspective that comes with age” ¹

Are you struggling to find clarity? A great place to start is by downloading my free Compass Coordinates Workbook, which will help you cut out the noise and get a clear direction for where you need to go next.

3. I will lose my status

Yes, you will. The misconception is about what you make of it, and what you get in lieu of your status-quo. When was the last time you re-visited your conception of success? What is really important to you? What do you want other people to see in you? To say about you? What is the impact you want to have? Do you want to use your sterling experience in a meaningful way? Is there an entrepreneurial dream that is waiting to be brought to life? There is no right or wrong answers to these questions, but it may be time to re-align your actions with your values. Business cards are old-fashioned and unsustainable anyway. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Once you are on your way to your second act, a new status will emerge, together with a new version of yourself.

4. I will be financially vulnerable

If you ask yourself questions about your finances, you are point on. Money is key in the equation of a potential career change, and you want to be clear about the consequences. To start with, you want to have a 360° view to make an educated decision. This exploration is essential, as we tend, by default, to cling to standards that are no longer aligned with what we really want. Make a thorough assessment of your needs, and those of your family. You may be ready to downsize your home, move, or simplify your life. Doing a job you love has its own pay-offs, that may make you happily give up the toys you enjoyed at some point. Or, on the contrary, financial success is centrally important to you. Different moments of your life involve different priorities. An evaluation of your assets and pension fund is necessary to determine what you have and what you need to earn, in order to live the life you want.

Have you created false beliefs that are preventing you from living your dream life? What stories have you been telling yourself that are holding you back from taking a leap and transitioning into the next stage of your life? If you are looking for someone to guide you, who can provide you with an objective view and the tools that will allow you to transition gracefully into the second stage of your life, I would love to have a chat with you. Click here to schedule your free discovery conversation today.

 

¹ Unlocking the Value of an ageing working force, 2021

by

The Barefoot Boss

Every month, meet an inspiring ground-breaker and achiever, a leader who is changing the culture around age, work, and living a purposeful second act of life.

Ed Kushins is an ex-US Navy submarine officer, entrepreneur, startup investor, social innovator, sharing economy trail-blazer, people connector, avid traveler, and good life lover.  Please join me for a fascinating conversation on a sunny Californian beach with my ex-boss, mentor, and friend, a man who makes his most strategic decisions barefoot in the sand.

How did your 50’s look professionally?

In my 50’s I was running two businesses in parallel. One was a family scrap metal recycling business, Fairway Salvage, that I subsequently built from 2 to 55 employees. I had a partner on board, which allowed me to run the company without spending too much time on it.

The other one started more as a hobby than a business but ended up becoming much larger. I had been on a home exchange vacation with my family and came back enthusiastic about the concept. The owner of that company declined my offer of some free marketing advice, so I started my own company in competition. The game-changer was taking the service from paper to digital, making HomeExchange one of the first online communities in the nascent sharing economy.  In 2006, the romantic comedy “The Holiday” propelled home exchange into the spotlight. The success of the movie was a booster for the company, which started to become profitable.  The same year, I sold Fairway Salvage to focus on HomeExchange.

From day one, I ran the company from my home near the beach in Southern California, never from an “office”. It was a conscious decision that when building the Team, I recruited Reps, Customer Service, and even my Partners exclusively from our community of Members. I figured they would be satisfied users who could relate personal experiences and would know everything about the home exchange process with almost no training.

To help our 60+ Team members (who all worked remotely around the world) bond together, I invited them every year with their families to a half-work, half-vacation retreat somewhere fun, usually on the beach… Evian, Croatia, Greece, Biarritz, Hermosa Beach, Myrtle Beach, Mt. Tremblant, Taormina, and more! With the input of my Team and partners, HomeExchange continued to grow until we sold it to a competitor in 2017.

When you sold HomeExchange you were hitting 70. What was next for you?

I was happily retired for 6 months, then a new idea kicked in. I am a networking guy, I’m always looking for ways to connect people. My new website, VacationPropertyPartners.com connects two families to partner to split the cost and enjoy the benefits of a vacation home. We “hold their hands” until they buy the vacation home together.
Besides VacationPropertyPartners, I make myself available to help business owners with their marketing strategies. I am an active member of the Rotary, where I contribute to 3 to 4 projects. As an ex-Navy officer, I am part of an initiative that helps veterans re-enter civilian life. I am also active in an investors’ group focusing on startups.

Do your professional engagements support other aspects of your life?

Totally. I’ve made a conscious effort to not only keep a balance between the time and energy devoted to the professional and personal areas of my life but to use each of them to enhance the other. Terry and I love to travel and I actually chose to concentrate on HomeExchange because it allowed me to create more opportunities to do so for business and pleasure. For me, learning, meeting people from around the world, building a successful business around a product, culture, team, and members that I believe in, have all been incredibly satisfying.

Along the way, I’ve developed some habits and rules I try to follow:

  • Keep my work, personal life, and health in balance.
  • Prioritize my tasks so I know what I want/need to do each day/week/month/year. Sometimes “Go to the beach” is on the list. It’s OK to get away from the computer for a while.
  • Appreciate my customers and try to keep them happy.

I’ve got 5 long-term priorities… “The journey of 1000 miles”  that I’m taking the first steps on:

  1. Appreciate my wife and always try to make her happy
  2. Do what I can to stay healthy
  3. Launch my new website, VacationPropertyPartners.com
  4. Write (or dictate) a memoir
  5. Finish my long-in-process (only 35 years) book about the personal decision-making process. Becoming aware of how you make personal and professional decisions, however big or small, is a super-power.

What is your definition of success and how would you evaluate your success on a scale from 1 to 5?

Definitely 5/5. My insight into how and why I’ve made the choices I’ve made allows me to accept and feel comfortable with what I’ve done.  I accept the result of choices and actions that I’ve made along the way, given my expectations of the risks and rewards, as well as the work, time, effort, and sometimes money I’ve followed through with.

Life is good. Every night I go to bed grateful and excited for another day.

by

STAY UP TO DATE

Stay connected and receive updates, free tools and resources.