3 Tips to Support Your Successful Career Transition

I was recently asked “what did you find to be the most difficult aspect of career transition?”

What a great question for gaining personal insight…  and as I reflected I discovered that the most difficult aspect of my latest career transition, just over 4 years ago now, was giving myself the space to discover my sense of purpose and find my new identity.  After 20 years of corporate life I was used to being given my identity in the form of a role title and associated responsibilities.  I was constantly juggling work objectives and home life, not giving myself space to think about who I was, what I was doing and why.  It was only when I reached a sense of personal crisis and a knowing that something had to change, that I started to realise that who I was at work was not who I am!

On starting my own business I continued my busy pattern, filling my life with activities and people to keep me occupied.  The value of creating space for self enquiry and personal development has emerged over time, as a consequence of being coached, practicing yoga and in coaching others through their life transitions.  It has taken me some time to discover my passion, define a service that feels meaningful and an identity I feel comfortable with… and discovering the value of both being and doing has helped me make sense of my experiences over the past 45 years.  I am now able to integrate my skills, knowledge and talents in all that I do as a coach and facilitator, supporting leaders through personal change.

Learning from my own transition I offer three tips for a successful career transition:

1. Stop Doing For a Moment!

Give yourself reflective space for self enquiry and personal development.  This space will enable the true you to emerge, with a clear sense of self and purpose.

2. Challenge Yourself

Engage a coach or friend to help you create a reflective space where you can challenge your engrained beliefs and patterns of behaviour and allow new patterns to develop.

3. Discover What’s Really Important

Develop a creative hobby which allows you to get in touch with you, this will help create the space you need to discover what’s really important to you – your passions, values, skills and talents.

Balancing The Pie

What role do you expect your work to play in your life?  If your whole life was a pie, and one slice was called “work”, how big is that slice right now? And what are the other slices called? When you look at your pie of life, are the slices how you’d like them to be?

I recently re-drew my own pie and noticed that the slice called “physical fitness” had shrunk in comparison to the slice called “watching the television”.  Looking at the whole of my life in this way meant that I could make sensible, implementable choices and avoid the classic trap of trying to do “more of” one thing without making the necessary and corresponding “less of” adjustment elsewhere.

A well-balance pie probably has slices that cover a range of areas of your life including:

• Work
• Continuous learning
• Family
• Friends and social life
• Health and physical fitness
• Spirituality
• Rest and relaxation/hobbies
• Money

When you are facing any kind of personal challenge can be a great time to re-evaluate your pie.  If the news of an impending redundancy has hit you particularly hard, then you might notice that the slice called “work” is disproportionately large compared to other slices, and you may be fearing the implications when this slice is removed and the rest of the pie collapses.  Do you remember the old saying “when you die, no-one goes to their grave saying ‘I wish I spent more time at work’ “?  So how would you like to re-draw your pie while you’ve got the opportunity?  What slices do you want to enlarge?  What slices will reduce correspondingly?  Is there a slice that has been neglected and needs to be added in?  If so, what will go to make room for it?

The nice this about the pie of life is that you can re-bake it as often as you like.  Just remember that the most wholesome, nutritious pie is a well-balanced pie.