Still Stuck In The Wrong Job Because You Can't Find The Time To Get Into The Right One?

By Sonia Lakshman

Posted in: How to overcome fear & obstacles

Sonia Lakshman looks at ways to beat procrastination and how to make time to change your career.

If the approaching New Year is making you annoyed/anxious/frustrated that you are STILL stuck in the wrong job another year on, you may have hurtled full tilt into one of the most common career change roadblocks of all - NOT HAVING THE TIME. We all know what it feels like - you are so busy in the stressful job that you are in (plus the commute there and back in the freezing cold!) that by the time you get in the LAST THING you want to do is get working on your career change. You're too exhausted, drained, fed up to even think about it and so you flop in front of the telly, go to the pub, or the gym or whatever and next thing you know you're back at your desk the next morning.

It's ground hog day/month/year.

Time for some strategies (ok I couldn't resist the pun!!).

Here are some good ones:

Do just one thing everyday towards it

Make a phonecall. Or do one short google search. Find one contact to talk to. Assign a time, maybe no more than 10 minutes, so it doesn't feel like a huge task. Get it out of the way and then you're free to do whatever else you want to do. Then you're not annoyed with yourself that you've made no progress, neither are you weighed down constantly by having to do too much. Do it everyday, keep it quick and things start to happen.

If that's too bitty for you - keep one evening a week free just for you. Commit. Accept no invitations, phonecalls or temptations. Announce it. Reserve it. Bag it. It's yours. Now use it.

Make it fun

If you make yourself a dull to do list, you'll never do it. So do the exciting stuff, talk to people, start a project, take a risk.

Take time off from all of it

Thinking about a career change all the time is exhausting. So is an endless to do list. So stop it. Do something new instead. It will lift you to a space where you feel more inspired and ready for action. Plus you'll have given your mind some fresh food instead of the hamster wheel it's use to. Watch what happens when you do that.

Get accountable

Commit to a buddy or work with a coach and you WILL get things done. Most of us need a good old fashioned deadline and there's no point setting one for yourself. Usually we need pressure and want to avoid public humiliation - so if you tell someone what you're going to do, or even better get someone to informally or formally commission you, you will. Usually that means that you are screeching over the finish line at the eleventh hour (don't we all do that!) but guess what you've actually got over the line!

Leave a comment below: What tactics help you to take action? Do you have some strategies in place to help you get things done when it comes to your career change?

Sonia Lakshman helps her clients figure out what they'd really love to do and to make it happen - a new direction, a business idea, going freelance, a better more fulfilling job . 

Before qualifying as a coach, Sonia worked in music and media including for Universal Music and the BBC, liberating herself from her office desk to strike out for a life of more freedom and fulfilment - and since then has helped 100's of people work happy.

You can reach Sonia at sonia@onesmartstep.co.uk , read more about her transformational career programmes at www.onesmartstep.co.uk or sign up to escape the Monday blues at Happy Mondays


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