How to feel happier at work while waiting to make a career change
Career change takes time. So what do you do in the meantime? How do you improve your current situation while working out what’s next and formulating your escape plan?
One of the perhaps surprising results of career change coaching is that clients can feel better about their life and career relatively early in the process. That’s because we begin with the here and now, making small tweaks that release energy and build momentum towards their bigger goal of choosing a new career path.
What career tweaks could you make in the short-term that would enable you to feel happier at work while waiting to make a career change? Here’s three simple suggestions: work on your strengths, do a quick career audit, and explore the possibilities. All three can be easily accomplished, even while staying at home. Read on for further instructions!
1. Work on your strengths
Being only vaguely aware of your strengths is like only ever driving in first gear: you’ll get where you need to go but the experience could be so much smoother! Why chug along when there’s such an easy way to make a change for the better?
“Knowing and activating your strengths can make you happier, more productive and more engaged in your work.” VIA Institute on Character.
How do you know and activate your strengths? Aim to generate a list of your top 5-10 strengths, clearly labelled and defined with examples so that you can spot opportunities to use them, as well as develop and communicate your strengths in a career context (e.g., choosing which work projects to say yes or no to).
Take action:
You can take the free, scientific VIA character strengths survey and get a short report; pay for a more extensive report from either VIA or one of the other strengths assessments, or work with a coach to delve even deeper (check out my Show Me My Strengths 60-minute coaching session).
How working on her strengths benefitted Helen:
"I'm a ‘scanner’ – someone with many, varying interests – which is why I find career planning so difficult. However, the strengths session with Nicola made me realise that even though my skills and interests diverge a lot, there are a number of consistent, overarching themes. I can now use the knowledge I have about my core strengths as an underpinning to my future career."
2. Do a quick career audit
The Oxford English Dictionary defines an audit as “a systematic review or assessment of something”. When we’re stuck in a career that’s making us feel unhappy things become very black and white. We’re so focused on escape that the positives about our current role become subsumed by the negatives.
It helps to take stock: what do you like and what do you not like about your current role? You could go a step further and apply the same question to past experiences, in a job or as a volunteer. It’s all about bringing awareness to what does and doesn’t work for you. The next step is to ask:
How can you do more of the things you like?
How can you do less of the things you dislike?
Sometimes the smallest tweak to our current work situation can make a big difference. For example, we emphasise the good over the bad by getting involved in a project that plays to our strengths; we feel immense relief at saying no or delegating a task we dislike; or we release energy by taking up a new hobby or an activity like volunteering that restores what we’ve lost by working in a role that no longer suits us.
Take action:
Draw up a simple table with three column headings: Like, Neutral, and Dislike. Take a quiet moment to reflect on your current career and write down a list of activities for each column. You could also include who you like to work with and where you like to work. Need some help doing an audit and identifying your next best steps? Book a Mid-Career Strategy Session!
3. Explore the possibilities
Career change involves both thinking (e.g., about your strengths or what you do or don’t like about your current role) and doing. When you’re figuring out your next step, the “doing” relates to career experiments which I’ve written about in an earlier blog post: “Curiosity as a Starting Point for Your Career Change”.
In all likelihood, there’s a list of possibilities when it comes to your future career. Yet the longer you’ve been in the same profession, the harder it is to imagine doing anything else. As Karen, an attendee at my What Else Can I Do? Career Change at 40 and Beyond online workshop said,
“I had tunnel vision before this webinar and could only see my one skill, now I see many.”
Try answering this question:
“Imagine five parallel universes, in each of which you could have a whole year off to pursue absolutely any career you desired. Now think of five different jobs you might want to try out in each of these universes.” Roman Krznaric, How to Find Fulfilling Work.
How could you conduct a career experiment on one of these jobs? You could try a scaled-down version using some of the suggestions in my earlier post or have a chat with someone who’s working in a related area. For some tips, see “‘Tis the Season for Career Change” which includes some ideas about connecting with others in the context of career change.
Much like doing a career audit, conducting career experiments releases an energy and enthusiasm that carries over into our current role. We’re no longer solely focused on the job that makes us unhappy but the possibilities that our future holds. And the more we explore those possibilities, the greater our sense of achievement. Plus, you’re doing something and taking action which brings a sense of satisfaction all of its own.
Take action:
Read “Curiosity as a Starting Point for Your Career Change” and conduct your own career experiment and/or sign up for my mailing list so that you don’t miss the next What Else Can I Do? workshop.
Which career tweak will you start with? Let me know in the Comments below!
