I recently caught 10 minutes of Grand Designs. This long-running (originally) British television series follows intrepid souls as they transform all kinds of unlikely spaces into dream homes. I watched a typically enthusiastic couple outline their plans to turn a modest, tumbling down bungalow into an eye wateringly stylish abode. I know that Grand Designs is all about the journey, the hold-ups, the stuff-ups, and the battles with budgets and weather. But I just wanted to fast forward to the finished masterpiece. I didn’t want to see the struggle to get there.

We love a transformation story.

Any substantial personal or professional makeover sparks a range of reactions from admiration and optimism to disbelief and envy. We visit a beautifully renovated house and feel a mix of awe and jealousy. We leave feeling restless and upset that our place is shabby by comparison. We see someone looking fabulous at a party and wish we’d toned up our arms and taken up distance running in our 30s.

The trouble is, although we sometimes glimpse the unreconstructed start of significant transformations, most often, we only see the perfectly polished finish. We’re never exposed to the hard bits, full of doubt and insecurity. We don’t see desperately tired struggles to keep going or painful adjustments or gut-wrenching cutbacks that simply had to happen.

Changing careers is unsettling.

Especially in the early phases, it’s easy to fall prey to wishing we had what others seem to possess effortlessly. We’re lurking on LinkedIn and see some shiny, smiley person who appears to have got to where we want to be. We follow a Tweet to the classy, confident-sounding website of a company that’s 10 years ahead of the business we’re thinking of starting. We’re introduced to someone who simply adores their job. We wonder why the entire world seems to be where we want to be. We want to be there now.

None of us transition overnight

In the rush to compare who we are and what we have unfavourably to others, we dismiss the inevitable sweat and tears that go with all human achievement.

As F Scott Fitzgerald put it in this lovely piece of grammatically twisted advice on the art of writing - ‘Nothing any good isn’t hard.’

Although it can look that way in thirty minutes on television or five minutes on Facebook, no transformation happens overnight. There is always a struggle that’s woven into the fabric of the human, house, or career that emerges. While it might be invisible at the end, it’s an essential part of any important or enduring story.

By Jo Green, Career Change Coach

I know that when you find what you love, heart and soul, your life changes. I work every day with people who are reshaping their current careers, starting new enterprises or searching for a new direction. Basically I help people who don’t like their job to figure out what to do instead!

As a Careershifters and Firework Advanced Certified Coach and experienced career changer myself, I can help you figure out what fulfilling work looks like for you.