Career Changers - Blazing New Trails To A New Career

"The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it." - Pearl Buck (1892-1973)

Reinventing yourself from one career to another is an adventure. The adventure can be welcomed or not. It depends upon personal circumstances. To some it is a deliberate intention to change. They are eager to venture out beyond their comfort zone and tap into their potential. To others reinventing themselves may be an unwelcome transition due to job loss, having to go back to work, divorce, or some other circumstance beyond their control.

Regardless of the reason for reinventing yourself, you will be venturing into the unfamiliar. Your attitude will have a great deal to do with your success and dealing with the "gap" from where you are to where you want to be.

Let's say you know what kind of career you have chosen to seek. Knowing where you are headed will give you a map to follow. Blazing new trails to reach your desired position is where your true grit shows up. For in this terrain there are straightforward passages as well as the long way around to reach your desired job.

I became familiar with the terrain in reinventing myself from corporate to entrepreneur more than once. There were long patches of encountering roadblocks where I would get stuck. Our jobs, our relationships with self and others are opportunities to grow inside and out. Everything happens for a reason - the good and the bad. One big lesso
I learned was this: when something I don't want keeps happening over and over again, it is my true self telling me I am on the wrong path. It is time to retreat and know when to quit, especially quit when trying to get different results from others and situations I have no control over.

A roadblock can mean you are going in the wrong direction or it may be something you need to learn in order to get further on your journey. It is up to you to decide which way to go - straight ahead or make a U-turn.

Whatever you decide you want to do, become the best at it. It is the key to getting the best jobs. Continuing to improve will lead to new opportunities. I don't care if it is being the best receptionist, manager, salesperson, business owner, educator, executive, etc. To be at the top of your terrain will take preparation, being in action and paying your dues. Winners are aware there are hurdles to conquer to being the best. They also know to be the best means stretching to new horizons. To settle for less than you are capable of being and doing is to be mediocre; showing up below potential possibilities.

Human Resources screen for the best. Some screening procedures are: having you submit a resume, which may get you an appointment; the first impression you make; results of any required tests and/or assessments; setting up a series of interviews.

Questions have the answers:

• After interviewing for a job you didn't get, what did you do? Give up? Move on? Rest awhile? What were the results of your choice? What would you do differently?

• What assumptions do you have in reinventing yourself?

• What is the career direction you are choosing and why?

• What is it you would like to be the best at? When will you start?

• Is it time to retreat and reinvent yourself?

• What are you grateful for?

TIPS

• Excelling at your career will bring you extraordinary benefits, because you will be among the few who stay the course.

• Staying the course is on the course you want to be. This is the course that will test you with obstacles and your inner critics will have a field day.

• Reinventing yourself is awakening to awareness of the potential possibilities within you. The best is already within wanting to be expressed outwardly.

• Leaders realize that failure is feedback. They understand the discipline necessary to excel.

• The gap is the distance from where you start to where you are heading. Successful people don't just ride the gap or survive the gap, they lean into it.

Lean into the gap - Anything is Possible!