Three simply fascinating ways to keep your career change focus
If you’re currently changing careers by choice or necessity, bravo! Despite everything that 2020 has thrown at us, now is as good a time as any to make a move.
Changing careers is exhilarating. It’s also exhausting. Sometimes (or often) feeling discombobulated is normal and fine.
Some of us have fail-safe systems for topping up our tanks and staying motivated and focused. But if you’ve depleted your stores of career change energy and optimism and don’t know how to refill them, treating yourself to some ‘soft fascinations’ may do the trick.
Soft fascinations – the calming power of ‘natural and different’
Soft fascination happens when you stop relentlessly concentrating on doing, sorting, and solving things and quietly and effortlessly observe nature’s patterns.
In short, a spot of cloud gazing or watching and listening to waves or leaves in the wind can reboot your depleted attention system.
Soft and hard fascinations (more on the hard ones in a minute) are the brainchildren of psychologists Rachel and Stephen Kaplan, who pioneered Attention Restoration Theory (ART).
ART sees humans as hardwired to reflect on and be soothed by observing nature in action. So, besides putting yourself in the right environment, it takes zero effort to have a refreshing hit of soft fascination. Simply being there is a natural antidote to the attention fatigue we experience in our pacey, digitally driven world.
Exhausted by hours of trawling job-seeking websites? Try stopping to stare at the sky.
Nature nurtures humans. That’s a fact. When we’re wobbly, a mere fifteen minutes a day in open spaces can help us recalibrate.
If an extended break just isn’t possible, step back. Pop your head out of that digital rabbit hole, and step away from the screen. Goof off, move, don’t move, curl up with a book, stretch out, bake, daydream.
Step back – the perspective restoring power of ‘putting stuff down’
Stepping back isn’t as easy as it sounds, especially if you’re gripped by analysis paralysis or warring with your inner critic. While soft fascination calls for zero effort, stepping back needs a conscious decision to call ‘time out’ on the thing that’s tying you in knots.
I learned this trick on a meditation course. I once brought a thorny problem to a class but the teacher invited us to,
‘Put down whatever burden you’re carrying at the door. Don’t worry,’ she added, ‘it’ll still be there when you leave. You can pick it up again then.’
She was right. An hour later, the problem was still there, but it had lost its fangs.
Singing in a choir as a teenager, the frustrated choir leader told us he was going to park a song we were struggling with for a few weeks. That simple act meant that when we sang it again weeks later, it sounded better despite us not having worked on it!
When you’re frightened or frustrated by your career change’s pace or direction, make a pact with yourself. Put down your head banging burden and step back for a bit.
Can’t find the courage to contact that promising lead?
Distract yourself with an activity absorbing enough to fill the brain space previously occupied by ‘the thing.’ It doesn’t have to be fancy or take a long time. A shower, a short walk, a puzzle, a conversation, gardening, singing, find what works for you. Then flex that career change courage muscle.
If stepping back connects you to a source of soft fascination, so much, the better. According to the Kaplans, fresh eyes on familiar surroundings can also rest and restore your concentration. Watering your pot plants can do it because you’re engaging with nature’s processes here. Scrolling random images of office cyclamen plants, not so much.
Hard fascinations - the restorative power of blockbusters
Soft fascinations make us reflective and introspective. They help us make sense of things. Hard fascinations entertain and distract us and bust our boredom. Hard fascinations are absorbing high energy, high velocity, human activities. Think video games, sporting events (possibly not cricket), or action movies.
If you’re keen on the hard ones, take heart, according to the Kaplans, both sorts of fascinations can work wonders.
Lost for words to enliven your LinkedIn profile? Head to the movies.
As the end of a year of COVID-induced chaos hurtles towards us, think about how you might take a break. Wherever you’re at in your career change or life, getting out into nature for a day or an hour or stepping back for a moment, or even losing yourself in Netflix may make you a happier, healthier human.
If changing careers is on your wish list for the New Year, or you’ve in the midst of making a move, and you feel coaching could help. Book a chat.
Best wishes for a safe, fun holiday season.
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.
