All our life we jump through hoops
Often without asking why
Its easy to feel stuck – a small cog in a big machine.
It doesn’t have to be like this.
Don’t waste your life living someone elses.
Don’t wait for permission
Life is too short to do work that doesn’t matter to you.
From: The Escape manifesto, by Escape the city.
A year ago I handed in my notice at Beca and jumped into the scary unknown of being self employed.
The first year has been equal parts blissful and terrifying. Going it alone has been a big test of my character. Overall, I'm glad to be living a more authentic and conscious life, even though I admit sometimes the space I'm currently in can be disorientating and highly uncomfortable.
I reckon a career change appeals to most people at some stage in their working life. Heres my advice if you are considering a career change or wondering "what if".
Look up the ladder
Ask yourself: are you climbing a career ladder to a destination you WANT to arrive at?
I worked at Beca for 14 years in total. Long service is common with Beca employees, it's a fantastic company to work for and being employee owned, the longer you stay, the greater the benefits. It's very safe and comfortable.
As I looked up the ladder at senior roles above me, I couldn’t find anyone whose life I really desired. My perception was that the closer you got to the top, the greater the personal sacrifice of time and energy. By then, I had already invested a lot in my career account over 20 years, at times to the detriment of some other areas of my life like health, wellbeing and relationships.
I knew I didn’t want to keep doing this job for another 25 years, but I couldn’t for the life of me decide what I did want to do. I felt stuck. I felt like a highly trained monkey. So I decided I needed the freedom to explore some new areas, to do lots of learning and see where I ended up.
Think a lot
Literally, block out uninterrupted, empty time where you journal, sit or walk and just think. I suggest early mornings.
Being confused is normal. Park concerns about money and write down everything you have enjoyed doing or making. Set goals that will actually make you happy. Ask yourself quality questions like ths:
What would l like to be doing in 1 year ? in 5 years?
If I had $100 million in the bank, what would I do day-to-day?
Most people spend more time planning their next holiday than they will ever spend on such questions.
Consider writing down in exquisite detail, what a day in your ideal life will look like in 10 years. The dream life you would live if you had no fear. I borrowed this from Debbie Millmans "Your ten year plan for a remarkable life" exercise.
I've done this. It's very revealing.
The money question
The main reason people stay in jobs they don’t enjoy is money.
I certainly encourage you to crunch the numbers behind quitting your job. Work out the minimum you can live on per month, and then how many months you think you'll have to live on. That equals what you should save for your escape fund. Minimise costs, save intelligently. Think about how much is enough. Do you need all the things you think you need?
Beyond all the numbers though, comfort yourself with this thought: I believe that the pursuit of money for money's sake doesn't bring sustainable happiness. Abundance (including money) flows from the kind of happiness that flows from vital engagement. Vital engagement is intrinsically fulfilling work, where you see your work as contributing to the greater good.
Know your strengths
The goal is to choose work that allows you to use your strengths every day.
If you are stuck in a job that doesn’t match your strengths, reframe your job so that it does.
Strengths are the unique combination of talents, knowledge, and skills that every person possesses. For example, my strengths are Harmony, Learner, Intellection, Connectedness and Achiever. Most people don’t know what their strengths are or have the opportunity to use them to their advantage.
I really got a handle on this when I did the Strengthfinder assessment at Beca. It's potentially very powerful when building high performing teams. Strengthfinder is a book and an online web assessment tool, which has it's grounding in the positive psychology movement (an interest of mine).
In the old days we were encouraged to focus on fixing our weaknesses, but research shows that, if you do that you will only ever lift your weaknesses to at best average level, but if you focus on strengths you really have the chance to shine.
Martin Seligman is one of the fathers of positive psychology and if you would like to know more, read his book Authentic Happiness. There are also a bunch of free online character strength tests you can do which are similar to the commercial offerings.
Don't wait for an epiphany
The decision to do something different is a process, of waking up to your own values, personal truths.
It requires lifting your nose from the grindstone, snapping our of the automatic routines and all the urgent but un-important tasks that fill our days, and looking at yourself and your life from 10,000 feet elevation.
A gradual epiphany is an oxymoron. An epiphany is a sudden or striking realisation. A moment of truth.
My advice is: Don’t wait for one of those.