If you are experiencing too much in the way of workplace difficulties and realize your job no longer meets your criteria in terms of being a good fit, maybe now is the time to consider a job change, career change or even starting a small business.
It is possible to begin to explore and consider options available to you while still working. All too often in working with people who are unhappy with their current work situation, I hear why they believe they can’t look for other alternatives.
I always remind them, you don’t know what else is possible if you are not willing to explore and consider other possibilities. If you don’t find something better than your current situation, it makes sense to stay where you are.
In considering other job, career and self-employment possibilities, it may be necessary to reinvent ourselves in the process of making these important life transitions come about.
As people, we are obviously complex and made up of many selves or parts. Some parts of ourselves will always be in the process of changing depending on circumstances, events and factors influencing us.
We have all been different versions of ourselves throughout our lives, learning and changing as needed to be able to reach our desired outcomes.
You are a different person from who you were in High School or College. You are different from who you were before you married or had children. You are a different person since you divorced. You have been different depending on the kind of jobs or careers you have had.
Reinventing ourselves means considering what matters most to us in the kind of work we do and in the kind of lifestyle we want to have.
It means taking stock of what we know, what we have accomplished, as well as, what we need to learn or change in working toward our desired outcomes
There will always be a certain amount of stress and uncertainty associated with moving from the known to the unknown in making the transition from where we are to where we want to be.
Most people I work with have achieved a lot and have a lot of capabilities, but don’t always appreciate that. Too often they tend to feel they need to do what they have done or won’t be able to do something different, especially something they would really like to do.
The conventional approach to changing jobs is to look for another job just like the one you have but hope it will somehow be better. This may be of necessity because you have limited time before you need to pay your bills.
However, your job problems in one workplace can be easily replicated somewhere else if you are in too much of a hurry and if you don’t take time to identify your important job/career fit criteria.
Going from working a regular job to starting a business represents even more uncertainty
and risk requiring us to learn and change in a variety of ways in order to do multiple job roles and responsibilities associated with being a business owner.
Robert Fritz in his book, Creating, makes an important distinction between choice and obligation. Too often people are focused on what they should do or what others think they should do at the expense of doing more of what they want to do.
Being more focused on what you want to do or have a passion for usually brings about greater excitement, energy, motivation and fulfillment than those tasks and activities we feel we have to do or should do but really don’t want to do.
Finding a job or career or even starting a business that is a good fit, starts with exploring possibilities related to doing more of what you want to do or have a passion for while at the same time being able meet your financial needs.
It involves further talking to people, research, and possibly acquiring new knowledge or skills to rule in or rule out your whether you will pursue your possible job, career or business endeavors.
Reinventing ourselves means greater opportunities and possibilities in living a more fulfilling life.