One of the subsidiary companies of the worldwide talent acquisition company Manpower Group, Right Management has recently undertaken an interesting study among various employees in US and Canada. The studies indicated the existing dissatisfaction among employers currently. According to the studies only 19% of the 411 surveyed employees considered themselves to have satisfactory jobs. While 44% of the employers were unhappy with their current job status, but would still continue in their old jobs. The main reason behind this fact is that, they fear making changes in their career and feel that stability would be removed from their life when they undertake it. Let us examine in detail how you can remove the fear of undertaking a career change when it is most needed.
Taking the first step: Understanding the simple fact that feeling fear is normal:
One of the simplest ways to overcome the fear of making a career change is to accept that it is part of your normal psychological behavior. You are among hundreds of people who suffer from self doubt, periods of inactivity and inability to think with clarity, when you nurse the fear to undertake a career change. If you sit with yourself for a few minutes, you can understand that you are being fearfull because-
- When you decide to make a career change, you are walking into an unknown area and this creates fear.
- You have been successful in your career, in most occasions, thus when you seek a career change you feel that you might fail in your new career. This makes you fearful and apprehensive.
- When you have worked in an industry for some time, you have a reputation. When you make a career change, you might feel what other people are thinking about you and why you have made a career change now.
- However the most important fact regarding why you feel fear when making a career change could be the fact that, you think that this might be a bad career choice decision for you.
Once you understand the basic facts regarding why are you fearful when making a career change, you are more equipped to overcome it.
Exploring the Risk and Asking yourself a few Simple Truths:
The next step to take after you have understood why you are fearful to undertake a career change, is to explore the risk and ask yourself a few candid questions. These questions are:
- How do I gain from making a career change?
- Analyze the factor which is making you fearful.
- What would happen if your career change turns out to be a bad decision? What are the problems that you would face immediately?
- How badly would you be affected and what do you need to do here?
- How can you minimize the risk which is present?
- Understand the various facts and figures you need in order to clear yourself from self doubt and confusion in this matter.
Planning your strategy to overcome your fear:
Once you understand the above points you would know that feeling fear is Ok. But not allowing yourself to do something wonderful could be detrimental for your career. Thus plan out a strategy which you could use to combat this fear and enjoy a new opportunity in life. The simple things that you can do here are:
Do something different every day:
One of the first steps to conquer your fear is by doing something different each day. The routine can be documented in a small notebook and this would help you to analyze your behavior. You can make a call to a recruiter and notify her that you would be sending your updated CV to her. You could also discuss with her the type of positions you are looking for. After the call you can document the conversations briefly in your notebook and this small technique would clear any self doubt you have. Next time when you speak to the recruiter, you can refer to the notes and discuss with her the conversation you had earlier. Very soon you will notice that she would be comfortable with you and also discuss with you regarding the career path you are planning to take and offer you some advice in that area. Once the channels of communication open up, you would be less fearful.
Analyze facts regarding your work style:
Sometimes most people do not understand the work style and thus fear whether you can undertake a career change and do something that you have never done before. It is very essential that you analyze your work style and understand what are the work areas that you love doing and the work areas that you dislike. The understanding of this simple fact would banish your fears and you can take a new job which is filled with activities you love and enjoy doing.
Speak to your colleagues and family friends about yourself:
Another effective way to gage yourself and your work expertise is to speak to your close colleagues and friends regarding what they think regarding you. After many hours of discussion you would be surprised to see a pattern emerge. You can study the pattern and make it useful, as you seek a career change for yourself.
Accept that you are scared:
You have to accept that you are feeling scared when you are thinking of making career moves. You understand that you are fearfull as you have responsibilities and you have a successful reputation to take care. However once you understand these important facts, you should also understand that a career change would help you to do many new things which you dreamt off. Feeling scared and sitting over a stuffy job will not help you in any ways. In fact when you do not like the job you have, you would have productivity issues and this would make you depressed. Therefore it is best to understand your fears and prevent them from controlling you.
Start being positive and have fun:
One of the easy ways to remove fear from your life is to start becoming positive. Here you can speak to a few people in your friend circles, who have made their career moves and enjoyed success in it. The more you discuss with them, you would notice that they also had fear issues but they effectively managed to squash it off. Thus you can also do the same thing and start enjoying your career changes and all the new things you are doing. Exercising daily for a few minutes would keep your anxiety level down in a major way. Every day inspire yourself and understand the various achievements you have enjoyed over the years and tell yourself that you would be successful again. Once you do this you would see that you would be very light hearted and confident to take the challenges which might surface in your new job.
In the end you have to understand that making a career move is an important part of your life and you have to do this if you want to move on in life, to the next level. You are the best person in this situation to understand how you would cross the bridge. As Jack Canfield once stated in his famous quote that everything you want in life is on the other side of fear. Thus once you cross the bridge, you would be happy to harvest the opportunities waiting for you and then laugh at the fears you had.
