Risk & Business Magazine Nesbit Agencies Risk & Business Magazine 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 feel scary. Keep breathing and remember
that every living thing changes. Change is
part of life!
ANYONE WHO
WOULD JUDGE
YOU IS NOT
SOMEONE WHOSE
OPINION MATTERS
ANYWAY.
Spend time with friends who get your quirks
and your sense of humor. Limit the time
you spend with people who criticize you or
bring you down. You don’t need that energy
around you when you’re shedding an old
skin and stepping into your next adventure!
Take time for yourself. If working in your
garden gets you out of your busy mind, then
work in your garden whenever you can.
Dance to songs on the radio or YouTube.
Read your favorite books. Organize your
spice cabinet. Do what makes you feel good.
Reinvention is exhausting.
Don’t feel that you have to solve your
reinvention in your head. You couldn’t do
that even if you tried. Reinvention is not a
logical problem. It is not a Sudoku puzzle.
It’s you opening up to your own possibilities
– something that many or most of us have
never done before.
Apply for jobs if you want to, but don’t feel
that you have to choose a formal, final, and
concrete career direction that will carry you
through from here to retirement. Your goal
in reinvention is to experience new things,
not to make arbitrary rules for yourself and
then feel bound to follow them!
You may settle on a career direction that you
like at first but learn over time that it isn’t
your cup of tea. You may explore a career
path you never thought you’d like and find
that it speaks to you like no job you’ve ever
had before. Don’t judge anything you feel in
reinvention – just be aware of your feelings.
You will have dreams in reinvention, even
crazy dreams that seem to make no sense.
Pay attention to signals you get during this
time of confusion and openness to new
ideas. You may hear a song that reminds you
of something you cared about when you
were a kid. Notice that! Write about it in
your journal.
Get some business cards that include your
name and the word Consulting on them.
You are consultant now – not a needy
job-seeker! You can work here and there
on a consulting basis. When you meet with
people for networking coffees or lunches,
give out your consulting business card.
You are stepping into your power. You
are running your own career – not letting
anyone else run it for you.
Reinvention can feel like a hike through
the desert. One day you think “