Risk & Business Magazine California Fall 2017 | Page 23

CAREER REINVENTION I f you stop and look back over your career so far, you’ll see how much you’ve changed, even if you’ve stayed in the same career path for years. Over time, our perspective changes. We learn from positive and negative experiences. Sometimes we have to stop and reflect on our path to see how far we’ve come! Career reinvention can be something you take on as a project, either because you’re bored in your current career or because you want to bring your work and your passions closer together. Sometimes career reinvention is forced on us by circumstances – like your company closing its doors or maybe the arrival of an evil boss whose nasty attitude makes it clear that it’s time for you to move on. We don’t always know when Mother Nature is going to give us a push – a nudge that says “You could be doing more with your career – why not investigate?” Career reinvention is a much bigger prospect than just a change of office location or a new job title. It’s a physical change in you, no different from a snake shedding its skin or a hermit crab moving out of a cramped shell to venture out and find a new home. Reinvention is hard work. Reinvention can cause us to feel strong emotions like anxiety, fear, loneliness, and confusion. At the same time, reinvention can feel exciting and exhilarating. Your emotions may go up and down like waves. That’s normal! You are in reinvention. Get ready to ride with Mother Nature for a while! How can you make the most of your reinvention, whether it was your choice to reinvent yourself or someone else’s decision? The first step is to get a journal and write in it every day, or as often as you can. Write about your career and life so far. Write about what you loved to do when you were little. Write about what you’re good at – you are good at many different things! Undoubtedly you’ve had the chance to use some of your gifts in your work already. Maybe you have other talents that want to come out and show themselves to the world! Don’t rush your reinvention process. If you need to take a survival job to pay the bills while your reinvention plays out, do it. Don’t feel that you are diminished just because you have a job that isn’t as lofty or impressive as jobs you’ve held before. So what? You are stepping out into new territory. That can fe