'Oh the places you'll go' – career change clues from Dr Seuss
I'm yet to meet or coach anyone whose career change ran straight from 'a' to 'b'.
The path to your new career will probably zig zag towards a great new place that you may never have imagined at the outset.
Career change coaching can give you confidence, direction, and skills for exploring uncharted territory. Now for some proper grown-up insight into dealing with career change's unpredictability and 'bang ups and hang ups.' Here are seven classic quotes from Dr Seuss followed by a few tips from me.
Cure Comparisonitis
'Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!'
It's hard to feel good about being talented capable you if you're constantly comparing yourself to others and feel you're coming up short.
It's tough to resist the urge to compare your 'everything' against what others have and do. Since you're unlikely to stop indulging in this common human folly, why not do it in ways that won't leave you feeling useless and vulnerable?
For starters, reality check your reactions as you doom scroll dozens of shiny social media posts and impressive LinkedIn profiles. Remind your envious, overwhelmed self that behind any apparent overnight success lies oodles of sweat and sacrifice.
Try drawing some career change insights from 'Grand Designs'.
Work on swapping FOMO and feeling 'not-good-enough' whenever you spot a seemingly high achiever. Instead, dig a little deeper into 'why and how' they got there. What might you learn from their stories?
Reset your comparisons compass from envious to curious.
Test limiting assumptions
'Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the things you can think up if you only try.'
Career change can be a masterclass in managing uncertainty. One of the first lessons to tackle is testing undermining assumptions. They can appear out of nowhere whenever we set out to do things differently.
Contemplate career change, and chances are you'll begin by:
overestimating the height of the hurdles, and the strength of the competition
underestimating your ability to make a great move or have enough money to live on
over or underestimating the glamour or the hard graft of any new career
Worse still, you'll do all of this based on hair-raising hearsay from actual humans or drama and doomsaying from your pesky inner demons.
What's to be done? Don't fall for untested assumptions. Follow Dr Suess and think about things from every angle.
Be patient and look for clues
'If things start happening, don't worry. Don't stew. Just go right along, and you'll start happening too.'
Or, if things don't start happening soon enough or fast enough, don't panic. Successful, sustainable career changes generally don't happen overnight, nor do they reveal themselves in a defining light bulb moment.
So, if you're hanging out for a career change epiphany, do something while you wait.
Get unstuck
'I'm sorry to say so, but, sadly, it's true that bang-ups and hang-ups can happen to you.'
Your career change zig zag is bound to have bumps, blind alleys, and the occasional black spot.
There'll be times you get stuck in a spin cycle, trying to untangle a mass of ideas and information. Cue confusion and analysis paralysis.
Other times intriguing paths turn out to be dead ends. Cue dispiriting disenchantment.
Despite having a solid plan plus 'brains in your head and feet in your shoes,' sometimes you're stuck in career change quicksand. Cue angst around quitting your comfort zone.
You can never be sure where career change will land you. But en route to your destination, expect some stopovers in 'not-so-good' places.
Five sticking places for career changers and how to negotiate them.
Stay curious
'You'll be sort of surprised what there is to be found once you go beyond Z and start poking around.'
Never mind not going from 'a' to b,' changing careers can take you well past 'z'!
Here's the thing. You don't know what you don't know. And 'you can't be what you can't see.' Give your curiosity free rein. Rely on your gut to point you at intriguing possibilities.
Career change inspiration and grooving good fun can lurk in some unlikely places. Put on a brave face and have a little look.
Six ways to activate career change curiosity.
Stay open
'You do not like them. So you say. Try them! Try them! And you may!'
Or you may not, and that's perfectly fine too. After years of longing to leap into the wide blue yonder, here's what happened when I tried paragliding.
There are loads of ways to try out new careers. Think work shadowing, volunteering, setting up a side gig, practising on friends and family.
Chat to people whose careers have a sprinkle of something that sparks your curiosity. Sign up for that weekend workshop you've been dithering about doing. Ask your mate if you can help out in their small business for an afternoon. Say 'yes' to all that life throws at you during your career change journey.
Before you launch into fully-fledged trial mode, consider career conversations with helpful humans doing things you're keen to try. These confabs can give you a sense of the 'day in, day out' reality of working in a sector, role, or organisation you fancy.
Some conversations will leave you buzzing and give you heaps of insight, information, and a fist full of new contacts. Some will have you sprinting to shift that career to your list headed 'when hell freezes over.'
Either way, you've had a win.
And will you succeed?
‘Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed!'
Keen to see where some of my career change clients have zig zagged to. Find out here.
Enjoyed this taste of vintage Dr Suess? Treat yourself to this five-minute animated reading of 'Oh the places you'll go.’
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.
Drop me a note to organise a free 20 minute consultation to chat about your career change and how coaching could help.
