Change Your Life, Change Your Career

This article, first published in Stepcase Lifehack, gives two useful 'lessons' that you should follow if you are thinking of changing your career. Muovo is well aware that a career change is, really, a life-changing task and it is hence important to make the right move at the right time.

So, what is the first lesson?

Lesson 1    Ironically enough, there is no plan.
Too many of us get stuck because we had it all worked out years ago – college, starter job, pay our dues, a couple of promotions, maybe a move to a bigger company, and, at some point, a comfortable perch in a corner office where the 'good stuff' will start unveiling itself.

It is a good plan, from a project management perspective and perhaps for the building of a professional career. However, this may not sound as easy as it sounds (if it does sound easy at all!). For starters, it assumes that we will remain the same person, with the same drives and the same ambitions, forever. It also assumes that when the time comes, the opportunity will present itself. But as we well know, to assume is to make an 'ass' of 'you' and 'me'!

When The Plan fails to come to fruition, we turn inwards, looking for the things we can fix in ourselves to promote ourselves better, to become perhaps more desirable as a job candidate, and ultimately, to be more well-suited to The Plan. In this way, however, we become entrapped in a never-ending cycle of rooting out weaknesses.

Lesson 2    Think strengths, not weaknesses.
For one reason or another, all of us are better at some things than others – and find more satisfaction in some things than others.

A life spent ignoring our strengths so we can 'better ourselves' by improving in those areas where we’re weakest is no life at all – it’s a one-way ticket to perpetual dissatisfaction with who we are. This being said, it should be in our nature to move forward, improve, and focus on strengthening and honing our skills and qualities that make us stand out. Not sure what your strengths and weakness are? Read this article and find out.

To conclude, two good books that might help you, as they have helped me throughout my changing of careers include the following: 'It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be' by Paul Arden, and 'Escape from Corporate America' by Pamela Skillings.

Buena Suerte!

Nikita Pisani at Muovo

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