I'm stuck! I want to move from being a legal secretary to the area of complementary/integrated health

ShiftDoctor answer

By Jessica McGrego... on 19 March 2007 at 15:00

This stuck feeling between a safe a known present and an unknown but most likely a more satisfying future is a normal progression towards creating what you truly want.

The pluses of your situation is that you have a starting place with the type of feeling you wish your work to have. You also have a starting area to begin researching possible options. And you have a timeline in which you are financially secure which reduces any stress hugely.

So start by clarifying the ‘what'. This can seem tricky but that is often because we don't yet know how we are going to make it happen. As soon as we get an idea our inner critic voice jumps in and says 'well that's all very well but how are you going to do that?!" Immediately a seedling of an idea is dashed before it even gets a chance to grow.

You've obviously had some ideas about the area you'd like to work in, so step one is write all these ideas down. Spend a few days carrying round a notebook and ask your brain to give you back the ideas you'd binned. Write those down along with the ones you have at the moment. Whilst you are doing all this keep your eyes and ears open. Often when we start opening ourselves to ideas they can come from the most odd places. A chance radio interview, a newspaper article, an advert on the TV, a conversation with someone newly met, who knows where you might find inspiration.

Whilst you are doing this you can also do some internal investigation. You have worked in a similar field for a while and use a set of skills. But you also have other skills that either have been laid by the wayside or not recognised as skills. It is time to start identifying these and seeing which ones you like using. On one side of a page write down all the jobs you've every had, including the responsibilities you held. To that add any vocational things you enjoy doing - sports, hobbies. Then and anything you did in your teens, volunteer work, summer jobs etc.

In other words anywhere you may have used a skill. Now on the other side of the paper write down the skills these thing involved. These can be people skills as well as material/operational skills. Now take a look at this long and accomplished list and cross out all the ones you don't like! If you are going to be working at something for eight hours a day it might as well be using the skills you enjoy. Highlight the ones that make you feel most enthused. From this list does any new ideas for your future work jump out?

Once you have allowed your list to grow for a few days take a look and notice the ones that feel either the most exciting or the most scary, in other words the ones that have the most energy attached to them. These are the ones to investigate. Are people doing it already, can you have a chat with them and see what it entailed to begin to work in that field. Can you shadow someone to get a hands on feel for it? If it hasn't been done before but is related to something speak people in the related field, would it be useful, would it fit? Is there a training for this, if so find out about it. Start to inform yourself about area you are interested in, in that way you will either feel a growing Yes or a shrinking No. Either way it gives you more information.

These two ideas are just a starting point to get you moving, often the action of motion itself is enough to start a process that then continues with it's own momentum. The clearer you get the ‘what' the easier the second part becomes. The goal planning, decisions around retraining if necessary, working out the timelines, adding milestones, planning the start, all begin to seem less immense. It is a step by step process.

Hopefully this has given you some ideas to ‘unstick', and I leave you with one question. "What one thing will I do in the next two days to start moving towards my dream career?"

Good luck!