Enemies of Change

On a course I did recently we were introduced to the concept of ‘enemies of learning' - what are the thoughts and attitudes that prevent us from learning and being open to learning.  It made me think of the work I do one-on-one and so I went through my client notes from the last few months, and surely enough I found a lot of reasons not to change that were similar to the ones that I'd learned about learning.  So here's a selection, in no particular order, of what I would call: ‘enemies of change'.  See if any of them sound familiar - and think how they might be preventing you from starting your career shift...

* I'll be worse off than my friends

* What if it's the wrong choice?

* I don't have time, I'm too old, too far along to make too many changes

* I need to know for sure (product of school system)

* I don't want to be laughed at

* I can't just play around, I've got serious commitments I have to consider

* I know (part 1) - confusing having opinions as 'knowing'

* I know (part 2) - confusing having information as ‘knowing'

* I know (part 3) - inability to admit ignorance

* That's who I am, I'm just being realistic

* What if I fail?

* There's no point, I won't find something I like anyway

Whilst these may feel like legit concerns, are you really going to let them stop you from leading a more happy and fulfilled life? 

So you might have a lower salary than your friends initially, but isn't it better to be doing something that you love doing, and thus also being a better friend (because your not tired all the time and don't spend quality time with friends complaining about how much you hate your job). 

So you may have a few extra years on you, so what?  It's ‘old paradigm' thinking to imagine that you will only have one career.  I recently read that most people my age (I'm 34) will have 3-5 various careers during their lifetimes, and most likely we can't even begin to imagine what we will retire from as technology and thus society is changing so fast that it's difficult to predict what jobs will be needed in the future.  As my parents pointed out, it's not even our lifetime where changes are huge - they have just retired and what both my sister and I do for a living (she's an international marketing/PR expert) were not careers that they had any notions about when they were our age.  So again, why not do what you love and enjoy the journey adapting your skills and experience to what might be needed in the future?  

I could go on with each one of these... but that's not the point.  What I want to do here is to help you get out of your own way.  So which enemies of change are you embracing - and what can you do to overcome them?  As Bob Dylan sings: "He not busy being born is busy dying."