Avoid the 11 Costly Mistakes
Career-Changers Make
by
Bill Dueease
Most people spend approximately 25% to
over 67% of their waking hours working.
Eventually, most everyone will want to
work in a career that they enjoy and are paid well enough to live
a prosperous life. Yet, far too many people end up being miserable
in their job and find themselves stuck in a career that they did
not choose. People then get discouraged, produce less, and become
disgruntled. Unfortunately, people then blame themselves or those
they work for, when in truth there is rarely anything wrong with
them or the people they work for. Instead, maybe their job
selection process is flawed which causes them to fall into the
wrong positions.
You have considerable control over
selecting your work conditions to get the position you are
passionate about by following these 11 steps.
Step # 1 Avoid following the normal
trial and error career selection process
You probably follow the trial and error
path to select your job or career. You take jobs that appear to be
the best opportunities and try them out. You adjust to what your
bosses and the companies want in hopes of advancement. You
eventually discover that you are stuck in jobs or careers that you
really don't like. You might switch to other jobs and try them out
and eventually end up in the same unhappy position. You will want
to avoid falling back into the trial and error selection process.
Step # 2 Avoid following a career
path to please others
Many people feel obligated to follow a
career to please others or that they feel they “should” pursue.
Spousal influence, peer pressure, family tradition, parental
pressure, societal pressure, and other outside influences are
frequently allowed to dictate career paths. In these situations,
you end up working to suit the needs, wants and expectations of
someone other than yourself and deep conflicts arise. These
conflicts cause you stress, unhappiness and income reduction. You
end up working at a position you do not like and eventually
disappoint the people you wanted to please in the first place.
Step # 3 Focus first on what you
want and enjoy in your ideal career
You have your own inner wants, needs,
and feelings. Many times it is easier to follow how others view
you than to look for and accept the truth about yourself. The only
way you will know which career is best for you is to focus first
on YOU to discover what YOU want and what is important to YOU.
Step # 4 Discover your true passions
Most people are passionate about
something, but have suppressed their feelings for a number of
reasons. You will want to discover what you are passionate about
so you can find the position that will allow you to feel
fulfilled. Your passions are always with you and you probably do
not recognize or understand them. You will know you are passionate
about something when you become naturally excited just thinking
about it and even more excited about doing it.
Step # 5 Discover your true desires
and priorities
Most people do not take the time to
discover what their desires and priorities are in life. They seem
to just go with the flow and hope that they are heading in the
right direction. Yet, the one big reason people feel so frustrated
while working is that it conflicts with their true desires and
priorities. An example of a desire is: wanting to work outdoors
with people. An example of a priority is: placing your family
first.
Step # 6 Discover your true values
Everyone has his or her own value
system. Unfortunately, people rarely look into their own values
and instead frequently accept the values imposed by the companies
they work for. Just look at the damage caused to the many
employees of Enron, World Com, Global Crossing and others whose
beliefs did not agree with the misguided values of the CEO's and
higher executives. Were all of the employees misguided? Certainly
not. Yet, most failed to discover their very honest values, and
were penalized anyway, because they conflicted with the values of
the leaders of the companies.
Step # 7 Discover your true talents
The most productive and enjoyable
position for you is the one that comes naturally and is easier to
do because it fits your talents and skill levels. You will enjoy
working, be much more productive, and generate more quality
results when you maximize the use of your talents at work. Your
increased productivity and higher quality results will attract
greater rewards to you.
Step # 8 Create or find the position
the matches you
Unfortunately, many people who actually
know what their ideal income positions really are choose not to
pursue them. Either they feel guilty pursuing them, or they feel
that they are unattainable, or more frequently they do not know
how to get them. You want to find or create the position that will
allow you to fulfill your passions, desires, values and talents.
Now you can create the position to suit you, instead of taking a
position and adjusting to it.
Step #9 Get help from the right
person
People are led to believe that they can
easily look within themselves and discover themselves on their
own. Self-help books and assessment tests claim that reading the
books or taking the tests will reveal all you need to get your
ideal career. Yet, both methods fall very short of actually
getting to the truth. Discovering what you really want, what your
true talents or values are is not a self-help process.
We humans cannot see our face without
using a mirror or a photographic image. Just as you must look into
a mirror to see what you really look like, you must have another
person act as your objective mirror to see what you really want to
do and be in life.
Your other-person-mirror must be
totally devoted to you and must be able to actively assist you in
seeing within, where you may have been reluctant to look before.
They must provide you an objective, non-critical mirror. Seek out
and get someone to be your objective mirror to discover the truths
about yourself, to find or create your ideal position. Career
coaches are trained, motivated and focused on assisting you in
becoming “The Worlds Leading Expert on You.”
Step # 10 Go after the position that
best suits YOU
Devise a program to attain your very
distinct target positions. You will not be trying to "get a job"
like so many others. You will be able to focus on getting a very
specific income positions. You will not waste time, money, effort
or emotional energy on pursuing unwanted position. You will want
to recruit your ideal positions, even if they appear not to be
available. Why? Because you have now become an extremely valuable
and in essence, very marketable source of productivity. You will
be very surprised how easy it is to actually get the position you
love. Bosses prefer people who are enthusiastic about a job
because they love it, and customers are easily attracted to
professionals or business owners who love their work.
Step # 11 Recognize that your career
wants and needs will change
Many people think that because they
finally found the position they are passionate about, that they
will want to stay in it forever. The position that is ideal today
will probably not be ideal in a couple of years. Why? Because your
passions, desires, priorities and needs will most likely change
with time. Your values, or at least your understanding of your
values might also change. As they change, your ideal career
positions will also change. You will want to continually keep a
pulse on yourself to determine your new priorities to reshape your
career positions to what is important to you in each stage of your
life.
About the Author: Provided as an
educational service by Bill Dueease of The Coach Connection, where
"connecting great people with great coaches" is their goal. You
may receive a free copy of the article "The Ten Paths to Human
Improvement" by contacting The Coach Connection at 800-887-7214 or
239-415-1777 or coaches@findyourcoach.com,
or
www.findyourcoach.com/0o-career-coach.htm.
