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3 Things That Will Make Changing Your Career Really Work For You by Natalie Ekberg

 

Recently, I ran a workshop about a career change. Everybody was having a good time, until I started talking about my favourite part of the process, called “ take continuous action”. All of a sudden, the faces of the participants turned serious; they clearly didn’t like the sound of that! Sometimes, a part of being a coach means delivering a slice of reality to those who have hoped for a magic potion….

Now, don’t take me wrong l; I am a great believer in magic and I know for certain that it appears in our lives, once we have worked for it. Most people understand the concept of “hard work” but the concept of a “continuous action ”can still feel a bit foreign.

There are few elements that I would like to explain:

1.) “Continuous” translates as “every day”. Yes, you read that correctly: an action towards your final goal needs to be taken day in, day out. The size of the action and the time spent on it may vary; the non-stop aspect of it needs to prevail. For example, if you read a newspaper article related to the process you are going for, it qualifies as your daily action. On the other end of the spectrum would be for instance a good couple of hours researching jobs on Linkedin.

Why is this so important, you ask? Like with learning a new language or any other new skill, immersion in your project (in this case a career change) is the best way forward. If your goal is let’s say, to get a job in a travel industry while you are working somewhere else, you need to immerse yourself in that industry: read the magazines, go to the fairs, talk to anybody and everybody who has any connection to that industry. The good news is, once you start the process, one person would lead to the next, one information would send your mind into exploring another one and on and on it goes. Fundamentally, if you are excited about that new job or business of yours, taking a continuous action should be a joy, not a chore.

2.) Remain open-minded about how things will develop for you. This can only happen if you are so engrossed in the process of change that you can be flexible at any given time. I can see from the experience with my clients that the process of a career change has NEVER worked exactly as they expected. Thankfully, because they remained open minded and pursued their options on a continuous basis, they explored the areas never before considered and ended up with huge, uplifting and happy-ending surprises!

3.) Allow yourself to follow your intuition. If you wake up and feel an urge to call Laura, whom you have not talked in years, call her. If you feel strongly that a particular book will have an answer you were looking for, buy it. If you are urged to take a certain trip, take it. Following your intuition comes handy especially when you feel you can’t think of any more “continuous action” (which is almost impossible).

The points above are just some handy ways how to succeed at any career related change. If you are serious about such change and want to do it fast and effectively, get in touch on: [email protected]

This article provided by kind permission of Natalie Ekberg at http://lbcareercoaching.com/.  Copyright 2013 retained by Natalie Ekberg.

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