I had an unexpected shock just after Christmas 2023.
My husband nearly died. He is fine now, thank goodness.
Something like this doesn’t half make you think about what REALLY matters.
So I lost my mojo for a while, and new year celebrations didn’t happen.
My new year 2024 starts this Saturday 10 February, Chinese New Year!
2024 Chinese symbol
2024 is the year of the Dragon, or more specifically the ‘Wood Dragon.’
A Dragon symbolises bravery, strength and luck.
Wood Dragons in particular have the drive and motivation to put their ideas into practice and are original.
You need bravery, strength and luck to change career direction.
I am lucky to have been born with an ‘insights and ideas mind’ – useful to help my clients think about what else they could do.
What is inspiration?
What/who inspires you?
Where does inspiration come from is such a big question, isn’t it?
Inspiration means:
“The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially something creative.”
How inspired are you feeling about your work/career?
How is your 2024 going?
Are you feeling inspired?
Who or what inspires you?
What inspires a career change?
I find that people change career direction moving away from they don’t like and/or towards something different that inspires them.
- Redundancy;
- Lack of fulfilment;
- Unhealthy work life balance;
- Desire for a future-proof career;
- Wanting to run their own business;
- Poor prospects;
- Something else?
This topic of inspiration got me thinking of all the clients I have helped in the last 23 years being a career strategist and coach.
Causes of being in the wrong career
Why do people fall into the wrong career for them and find themselves unfulfilled?
I did an analysis recently of my clients and what led them to be in the wrong career.
The reasons were:
- Poor careers advice at school or college;
- Desire for financial security due to challenging family circumstances;
- Parents with different values/motivations to you;
- Lack of self-awareness/knowledge;
- Insufficient research into career options before choosing;
- Not looking at long term work trends;
- Teachers putting their own bias/preferences onto students;
- Wanting to please your parents;
- Parents wanting to realise their unfulfilled dreams through their children;
- External circumstances e.g. poor economy + jobs when entering the world of work;
- Personal family circumstances e.g. orphan or foster parents etc.;
- Lack of career mentoring;
- Prioritising raising your children over your own career ambitions;
- No budget to do what you really wanted to do.
What factors would you add?
Are you inspired in your career?
If yes – great! If not, it is never too late to change career and get on the right career path for you.
Younger generations will change their careers at least 7 times due to the rapid pace of change.
Life is too short to stay in a career that isn’t right for you.
When’s the best time to start changing career direction?
- Never
- Now
- A specific date in the future
- Something else?
Start the ball rolling and get in touch, or mention Energise to someone you know who isn’t inspired by their career.
What inspired my clients to change career direction?
Project manager Debi loved cheese so created a cheese tour holiday business in France.
Advertising executive Duncan wanted to make a difference after doing a motorbike tour of the world so started a charity to bring water to African villages.
Human rights lawyer Olivia loves dance and wanted to help people so retrained as a dance therapist.
Education lawyer Lydia is a skilled oboe player, so combined both pivoting to be the CEO of an orchestra.
These are just some of the clients we have worked with over the last 23 years as a career coach with a marketing and brand strategy and communications heritage.
Portfolio careers
Developing a portfolio career is a good place to start.
Adding more ‘ingredients’ of skills, experience and knowledge to your ‘career recipe’ so you can create new opportunities in future is wise.
A portfolio career = a future-proof career.
What/who inspired my career?
My career was inspired by a man called Charles Handy.
He was way ahead of his time.
Read about him here.
https://www.london.edu/think/profile-charles-handy-social-philosopher
Specifically his book ‘The Age of Unreason’ published in 1995 led to me setting up my own business Energise in 1996, 28 years ago.