If shifting from one job to another is challenging, a
career change is on a whole other level. We definitely can’t blame
you if you are full of doubts or even filled with anxiety just by
thinking about it. After all, there’s a certain kind of comfort and
reassurance in stability and familiarity.
However, significant risks, while they can result in
great losses, can also bring about massive successes, the kind that
you wouldn’t be able to have within the comforts of the familiar.
And while changing career is one of those kinds of risks,
sometimes, it is a risk worth taking, even if it fails.
There are lessons that you can learn from it, and some
of these are the following:
You will realise just how much there is to learn.
When you have been following one track your whole life,
it is easy to feel like you are in total control or even get too
self-confident. It is tempting to feel like what you know is enough
to survive a lifetime.
But someone aiming to achieve greater successes in the
future must not think this way; in success, one does
not always have
to be the smartest, the most intelligent or knowledgeable, but it
is essential to be wise. Wise people recognise that there is always
something new to learn, echoing the words of the man who was
thought to be the wisest man in Ancient Greece: “I
know that I know nothing.”
When one changes career direction, it is almost like
starting from the bottom or the first phase once more. You are no
longer among the experts of your field. This thought might be scary
at first, but there is nothing wrong with it. It means that there
is more room for you to learn and improve on new sets of skills and
to diversify your knowledge. In a sense, it keeps you grounded and
humbles as well, much like Socrates despite the respect he has
earned for his great knowledge and wisdom.
You will realise that it’s not always about the money.
Some are lucky enough to have found what they want to
do for the rest of their lives early on; others, not so much. And
at a later age, it becomes even more difficult to stray away from
the path you have been building for years or even decades.
On top of that, there is the question of practicality.
Fields have greater demand and provide better pay for certain
professions, so why would you venture into that art field, even if
that is what you have always wanted in life? These worries are
valid, which is why we truly understand why many are afraid to
leave their jobs and pursue their passion.
But you know what? Working on a job that you love does
not mean you have to beg for money in the streets. There will be
sacrifices along the way, but those who did it anyway are living
witnesses that many times, your happiness is far more valuable than
the numbers in your bank account.
It’s just that people are inherently biased
to exaggerate the possible negative outcomes in their
head; before they even tried, they judge it merely as an
impossibility. We ask of you: don’t be one of these people. Be one
of those who is brave enough to see for themselves. Even when
things do not go as well as you would have wished, it is probably
better than living the following decades of your life in regret and
lingering on the thoughts of “what-if’s”.
You will realise that your strengths from your past career can
still be useful in your new one.
When you lived your past yours encountering numbers and
computations, you might find it difficult how exactly that would be
relevant in a field like art. But really, careers are not as
clear-cut as we usually think of. The thing is, whatever field you
are in, you will most likely need to develop different sets of
skills; it just that how much you use each would differ.
More than that, no matter how different two careers
might be, your experiences from your past one will also be of great
use as you take on new problems on your new one. So don’t be so
quick to judge that you will be starting from
scratch; that’s not exactly the case because there will always
be something to recall and learn from in the past, both negative
and positive, in application to what you are tackling today.
You will realise that change is not all that bad; sometimes, it is
even necessary.
And of course, among the greatest lessons to learn when
you change career is to learn to embrace change finally. If there
is one thing that is constant in this world, it is change
itself.
Those who experience a change in career direction would
have an advantage in approaching the unfamiliar; this is because a
career change is among the biggest changes one can experience in
life. Once you’ve been through it, the others might not seem as
overwhelming.
Taking it up a notch, when it comes to change, one must
come to know that it is not enough to simply learn
to welcome it.
It is also important to recognise when you need to make it.
Not happy with the way your team is working? Maybe it is time to
approach things differently. Do you feel like you are always tired,
stressed, and running out of time? Maybe you need to
consciously change
your habits – to manage your time better, to sleep
earlier, and to take better care of your health.
TNS