4 ways to build your confidence for a career change

It can be really hard to break away from a career you have always known. Your current career is your comfort zone - it is what you know, and it is what you are used to. The problem is that you no longer enjoy your job, and this is chipping away at your confidence.

Feeling like this can be tough, and many thoughts will be going through your mind;

• "If I change career, it may go wrong and I will be back where I started"
• "I am never going to find something I enjoy"
• "I don’t have the confidence to move on and change career"

How often do you think thoughts like this about a career change? Every day? Every week? Every month?

Do you realise you are potentially setting yourself up to fail? This may sound harsh and you may argue that you are simply being cautious. However, how does thinking it all might go wrong make you feel? It is unlikely to be making you feel happy and is most likely making you feel a bit miserable. These thoughts will also be affecting your confidence and ability to reach out to potential careers and job opportunities, and will almost guarantee you end up remaining in your current job.

How can you find the confidence to change career and move on from your current job?

I have set out four steps below which I hope will help you to find the confidence to break away from your current career.

1. Be aware of the impact of your thoughts

• "If I change career it may go wrong and I will be back where I started"

Imagine your negative thoughts have the power to push you into a box and close the lid. The more you think negatively, the more secure the box becomes. Sometimes the lid becomes so secure that you become stuck. The possibility of a career change is nowhere to be seen inside the box, and the more you think negatively about a career change, the more secure the box becomes. You don’t want to be in the box, but there is no obvious way out.

• "I am never going to find something I enjoy"

This may be a bit like what you are feeling in your career right now. You can easily find yourself closing the lid on career opportunities. You keep doing what you are doing and do not give yourself the chance to find a new job you enjoy. You may have a lapse in confidence and become unsure of how to move on.

• "I don’t have the confidence to move on and change career"

2. Be up for the challenge!

Now, imagine that floating around outside the box are positive thoughts about yourself and the future in a space filled with opportunity and potential careers.

• "I am confident"
• "I can find a job I enjoy"

The world of careers is all around you. However, you can only discover the opportunities it offers if you open the lid of the box.

To open the lid, you have to challenge your negative thoughts and be open to believing the new positive thoughts floating around in the space of opportunity outside the box. Start challenging them now;

• Would others think you will never find something you enjoy?
• What evidence do you have that it will all go wrong?

Keep challenging!

3. Be prepared for opportunities

By challenging your negative beliefs, you will successfully release the lid of the box, and now that the lid is open, you can choose to go in and out of the box as you please. However, if you choose to go back in and revisit your negative beliefs, you are at risk of the lid closing again. If you choose to stay out of the box and repeatedly revisit your positive beliefs, you will remain in the space of opportunity and the lid may even close behind you. The world of careers is open to you, and you start to feel excited at the prospect of achieving and finding a job you like.

4. Be active!

By following steps one to three, you will give yourself the best chance of feeling more confident about your career change. The next step is to act so that you start achieving. Take control and start working out what you enjoy and what skills you like using. Use this information to explore different job and career ideas. Take each step at a time. They can be small steps, as long as you are taking the steps that is what matters. It may sound a bit simple, but that is more of a reason to give it a go!

If you want to give yourself the best chance of finding a fulfilling career, start challenging your beliefs now!