Managing your career change on top of a full-time work load and personal responsibilities

Step One:  Make it a Priority

One of the biggest challenges my clients face is implementing their career transition strategy while managing a full-time work load and personal responsibilities.

Of course, this challenge can feel quite overwhelming.  Unfortunately, it prevents many women from even starting the process of launching a career transition - leaving them stuck in the wrong job and the wrong career.

Orchestrating a career change while working full-time and managing your home life is indeed very challenging.  The good news is that it is also very doable.

I help women hit this challenge head-on in my “Discover Your Authentic Career Fit” program.  We break the process down into simply organized and manageable action steps. 

This month, I cover four steps to help you cope during your career transition.  This week, we’ll focus on step number one:  Make it a Priority.

Make it a Priority

It’s so easy to “let life get in the way” when we’re facing a daunting task.  Unfortunately, when we do this we’re letting the busyness of life prevent us from achieving our dreams. 

It reminds me of when I was in graduate school and my classmates and I used to laugh that our apartments were always cleanest right before a big exam!  We all used the same avoidance technique of housework to sidestep the anxiety and pressure of studying!

“Busyness” can have formidable power over us.  Checking tasks off our daily to do list feels good.  However, this is a false sense of comfort for sure.  We’re using small-scale, unimportant tasks to avoid making large-scale changes that would elevate the overall quality of our life both now and in the future.

Let’s put this into perspective.  Ask yourself the following powerful question:

When I say “Yes” to the busyness of life, what am I saying “No” to?
Chances are, you’re saying “No” to having a job that makes you feel good. 
You’re saying “No” to a career you love.  In essence, you’re saying “No” to yourself and your dreams! 

Is this acceptable?  I think not!

Take my client Lauren, for example.  Lauren is a financial analyst in Chicago.  She has been thinking about making a career change for over five years.  However, she was letting the busyness of life get in the way of effecting this change.

When she and I had a forthright conversation about what was going on, she had this to say:

“I’m afraid to focus in earnest on my career transition because I’m afraid I will fail.  I’m afraid I will fail in finding a new job.  Even if I find a new job, I’m afraid of failing in the new position.”

When I probed further, she had the following realization:

“In actuality, my chances of failure are much higher if I stay where I am.  I’m currently in a job that feels like ‘running to stand still’ and is a complete mismatch for my strengths.  I’ve already received warnings from my manager.  I know I cannot perform at my best in this position.”

This “ah hah” moment was the impetus she needed to focus on her career transition in earnest.  Within three weeks, she had two job interviews. One of these resulted in a fabulous job offer which she accepted!

I invite you to ask yourself the following powerful question:

When I say “Yes” to the busyness, what am I saying “No” to?

Until next week…
Maret

This entry was posted by Maret McCoy on March 5th, 2007 under Career with keywords .

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