Learnings two years after taking a different career path

Two years ago I shook up my career. After a long, successful, albeit exhausting and stressful corporate marketing career, it was time for a reset. Actually it had been time for already 18 months when I actually changed paths (note to you: don’t procrastinate like I did). I launched myself into 2 completely new ventures: becoming a coach and running a solo business. Was it challenging? You bet. And it still is. Do I have any regrets? None. Can you change careers too? If I can (and I’m just like you), you absolutely can.

Today as I celebrate two years with The Career Catch Up, let me reflect back on what I have learnt so it can guide you in your career choices too:

• You don’t have to know the full ‘destination’ yet: I am still figuring this out, as I am building my business. Usually all we have is a starting point: an interest, a calling, an attractive opportunity. If we wait to know the full plan, the steps and what the journey looks like, nothing will happen. Knowing where to start is enough to decide and go do it. So don’t stress about not having the full picture clear yet, it will come once you give this a chance. How will you know, if you don’t start?
• People will have advice or opinions, but nothing matters like what feels right to you: I wish I had fully realised and believed this sooner. I took turns in my business or listened to some advice without being truly convinced deep down. I tried to believe it, to do it well and to make it work. It did bring me some valuable learning, but I know now I could have had the courage to be my authentic self. When you are ‘expected’ to follow a certain path from where you come from, check that it is where your heart really wants to go too. Even if it doesn’t make fully sense to others, trusting your gut is enough.
• The scariest part is to let your new path change who you are as a person: and that is hard because we love who we are. It feels comfortable, familiar. We want to retain it AND grow to the next level. It only clicked recently with me that I needed to drop some parts of my old identity. That is not a loss, just an evolution. And if we don’t do this, we don’t get to a different place. So maybe you are a little afraid of changing who you are. That’s OK. But it’s part of every change process – 50% exciting and amazing (seeing the new), 50% tough and full of lessons (evolving from the old).
• Until you experience real fulfillment in your job, you don’t know what it feels like. You may have caught glimpses of it, at an event, during a specific project, or working with a special team. But when you feel it one day in your main job, you will know. It’s a totally superior feeling to what you’ve experienced in your work before. I didn’t know what it felt like either. But over the last 2 years I have regularly felt that surge of joy, excitement, tremendous energy and serene contentment. This always happens when working with my clients, and this community. It transcends all the material realities (all the money we make, the stuff on our to-do-lists etc.) and takes it to an elevated place where life feels simply super good. This is what is possible for you, if you follow your instincts and do the work to shift. Guaranteed.

I could keep going, but I think this is as good a point to stop as it could be. Because this is the reason why you are reading those lines, or thinking about your career. It is because you want something else. Something better. And so you should. Because it’s right there waiting for you to walk towards it. So leave the excuses at the door, and get on your way!

Thank you for following me over the past few weeks, months or years. You are my inspiration and the reason I get up every day. I can’t wait to keep walking alongside you on your journey.