by Angela Loëb
“Find the work you love” isn’t just some empty slogan we thought was catchy and so stuck it up there at the top of our website. This is Great Occupations’ driving purpose, and I personally walk the talk. I personally live this credo.
I used to be a recruiter in the staffing industry. It was something I sorta fell into and then stayed with for almost 15 years. After about a decade into my career, I began to feel a pull and tug to change directions, but I didn’t know what direction I wanted to go. I tentatively started to explore – internally and externally. I met with a career expert, I attended workshops, I read… lots of books… I did exercise after exercise, I took assessments, I did informational interviewing, and I challenged myself with stretch goals. Everything that Jay and I teach through the CareerFinder™ Method and the Destination: New Career! workshop, I lived, breathed and used during my own career transition.
So you see, this process isn’t just a theory of how to change your career – it’s a proven method, and “find the work you love” isn’t just an idle suggestion – it’s a clarion call for you to change your life before you die with the music in you.
Yesterday afternoon I was talking to a close friend who is also undergoing a major shift in her career. We talked about the stamina it takes, and we acknowledged how important it’s been that we keep urging each other along. It’s hard work making a career change. For me it took years because I was comfortable at my job. It’s very difficult to leave your comfort zone on purpose! Once my friend decided to stop dreaming, she made a plan over several months and then took the plunge. The way it’s going, it looks like it will have taken her about a year to a year and a half to execute her career change. She told me during our conversation, “It has been hard. Some days I ask myself if I’m crazy to be doing this. But there are days like today when I meet a former co-worker by chance, and he says, ‘You look really happy,’ and I know it’s all been worth it.”
Yes, I agree, it’s all been worth it. The years-long exploration and research, the times when I had to tap an inner reserve of self-control and self-motivation I didn’t know I had, the dead ends that taught me what I did and didn’t want… all of these were worth the happiness I have now. I have found the work I love. In “Change Requires Self-Control,” my wise colleague, Jay Markunas, says “It is easier to give up and just stick with the dead-end career that we are in instead of recharging our self-control to keep moving forward for the ultimate goal.” I’m glad I didn’t give up.
Let’s face it… if finding the work you love was easy, everyone would do it. Yet, isn’t it sad that more than half of US workers are unhappy with their jobs? My goal is to help change that statistic, even if I have to do it one person at a time. Won’t you join us - we happy few, we band of brothers? You, too, will see that it’s definitely worth it.
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