5 steps to change your career in 2023

Kickstart your 2023 work transformation by taking my five steps in January.

January is a popular time of the year to start afresh, set new challenges, write your goals and make lists of habits you want to break.

This happens because if you have had time off over Christmas, your brain is switched off from work and you have the space and time to think about new possibilities. You start to dream about finding a new job and changing your lifestyle. You can visualise these changes and become excited about how life is going to change. You may even go as far as writing it down.

However, for a lot of us, the good intentions don't last beyond January.

Why?

Because change is hard. Change takes time.

We have unrealistic expectations of what we can do by ourselves; you can’t Google your career change. It’s easier to stick where you are, continue doing what you have always done and remain on the treadmill.

So, how do you break that cycle and push through with making the change without feeling overwhelmed and in the dark?

I will share with you what I have learnt through my three career changes.  These are my top five steps that can be done in January and will set you up to make that change.

1. Start by deciding what you don’t want

All the experts tell us to start by deciding what you do want. However, this can be difficult and not always the best way to start. I spent months deliberating over whether to leave my full-time job in education or stay and stick it out, even though I was bored and demotivated and I knew it was harming how I saw the world.

I saw an advert for a free taster coaching call with a career coach at John Lees Careers and that 40-minute call was the kickstart I needed. I finished that call knowing exactly what I didn’t want. This was a huge realisation for me, I felt relieved that I had made a decision and it cleared my way to take the next step. (My decision was I didn’t want to stay where I was, although I didn’t know what I wanted to do yet.)

2. Get help

What resources do you have access to that will help you make changes? I am a bookworm and find reading a great way to explore, learn and discover. I decided to buy the famous book What colour is your parachute? by Richard Bolles and promptly went off to the library to order it. It was full of practical help and exercises, and I ended up completely changing how I presented myself on my CV and application forms. I used the flower exercise in the book to help me dig a little deeper and find out what was important to me in a job. This meant by CV reflected who I was, and what I valued in a company and matched me with employers who were looking for someone like me.

If a book doesn’t do it for you, then think about how you prefer to learn. Podcasts, videos, online courses or engaging a career coach.

3. Talk to people

Who do you have in your network who has also made a career change? Who do you know who is in a job or industry that you are interested in?

I spoke to lots of people in my network who had moved into self-employment and were education consultants. This made me realise that there was a lot of work out there and I had the skills and experience to do it. I talked to people who were working the hours they wanted to, still having a good income but who also were happy in their job. This helped cement my decision to move into self-employment.

However, a word of caution with this too. Don’t fall into the trap of asking well-meaning family and friends who could thwart your efforts before you even start by reflecting their fears onto you. There’s nothing worse than sharing your thoughts about a career change only to have questions thrown back at you like “do you think that’s a good idea, that’s a good job you have” or “do you have the skills for that? Or “you’ll never make enough money doing that” That’s why working with a professional career coach is so empowering. They have been trained to ask questions that open up your thinking and challenge your fears, but without judgement.

4. List the pros and cons

I know this sounds a little old-school and simplistic but it does work. The trick is not just to list the pros and cons but to validate them. For example, having 'reduced income' in the cons list may be a concern, but it may not be a fact.

 Ask yourself, What evidence do I have that I will have reduced income? What research have I done?

If it is a fact that you want to move into a job that will result in you having less income then the benefits will probably outweigh this in the pros list e.g. less working hours means more time with the family, less travelling means saving on transport costs, less stress means happier me!

Once you have your pros and cons you may have your answer. But if you don’t, ask yourself:

• What is my gut telling me to do?
• If this was my friends' pros and cons list what would I tell them to do?

 Our gut reaction is often the right one.

5. Take action

Finally, take action. I completed steps one to four and then wrote my resignation letter, without any intention of submitting it. Once I had written it though I couldn’t wait to hand it in and did so the very next day. Physically writing it out was the final step in making me realise how much I wanted to move on. The day I handed it in I felt euphoric, a stone lighter and I can still remember the feeling of being able to see clearly for the first time a bright future ahead of me. I couldn’t stop grinning!

You could do steps one to five in January and be on your way to making that career change in February.

The bottom line is life is too short to be unhappy at work, invest in yourself and change your life.

If you want to have a chat about your current situation, I offer a free taster coaching call. Contact me and who knows, our conversation could be the kickstart you need.