Life is a journey, not a destination

By Satu Kreula

Posted in: How to overcome fear & obstacles
image of landscapeI know, a cliché, but one that should not be forgotten in your career change process. I can hear in the language that many people use that they clearly see where they are now as being point A, and their career change being point B. The thing is that career changes are journeys. Check out Selina's (and the other writer's) blogs, and you can see cases in point about this.

We are so caught up in this paradigm of: "If I only have X, then I'll be happy." Life is a funny thing, as it actually works the other way round. How many times have you bought something (i.e. bought into the marketing hype of you must get this and you'll be ultra-cool) and not really felt much change once you had it? It's the same flattening feeling with other things in life as well. We have to start by deciding who we want to be (and we have complete choice over this believe it or not), and from there we can start figuring out what we want to do to manifest this being, and as a result of 'being', we'll do and have things.

So instead of seeing it as a cliff to jump from (point A) hoping you'll land on cliff of your choice (point B), why not start looking at the career shift as a journey. Who do you want to be in your career shift/change? When I was in your shoes I decided I wanted to be curious and proactive, so I did things that I wouldn't have normally dared to do - ran workshops in my own name, attended courses (for example clowning) - all of which made finding what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it more easy. And whilst I love what I do now, I'm still on a journey - in some sense, I have arrived, but I'm still moving - and I can't wait to see where life will take me 5, 10 even 50 years from now!

A great book that I'm recommending left, right and centre these days is Herminia Ibarra's Working Identity. She explores ‘unconventional strategies for reinventing your career', and her supposition is that career changes are never linear. They are iterative, and that you just need to jump in and explore what's right for you. So what can you do to start your career reinvention journey?

I know, a cliche, but one that should not be forgotten in your career change process. I can hear in the language that many people use that they clearly see where they are now as being point A, and their career change being point B. The thing is that career changes are journeys. Check out Selina's (and the other writer's) blogs, and you can see cases in point about this.

We are so caught up in this paradigm of: "If I only have X, then I'll be happy." Life is a funny thing, as it actually works the other way round. How many times have you bought something (i.e. bought into the marketing hype of you must get this and you'll be ultra-cool) and not really felt much change once you had it? It's the same flattening feeling with other things in life as well. We have to start by deciding who we want to be (and we have complete choice over this believe it or not), and from there we can start figuring out what we want to do to manifest this being, and as a result of 'being', we'll do and have things.

So instead of seeing it as a cliff to jump from (point A) hoping you'll land on cliff of your choice (point B), why not start looking at the career shift as a journey. Who do you want to be in your career shift/change? When I was in your shoes I decided I wanted to be curious and proactive, so I did things that I wouldn't have normally dared to do - ran workshops in my own name, attended courses (for example clowning) - all of which made finding what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it more easy. And whilst I love what I do now, I'm still on a journey - in some sense, I have arrived, but I'm still moving - and I can't wait to see where life will take me 5, 10 even 50 years from now!

A great book that I'm recommending left, right and centre these days is Herminia Ibarra's Working Identity. She explores ‘unconventional strategies for reinventing your career', and her supposition is that career changes are never linear. They are iterative, and that you just need to jump in and explore what's right for you. So what can you do to start your career reinvention journey?

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