As we navigate life’s road, there comes a time that you will have to choose what’s good for you—a career shift. Interests change, capacities change, priorities change.
If you have been working for a long time, you might consider a major career shift that will affect everything from relationships, income potential, organizational dynamics, health, and overall life satisfaction.
Here are five tips drawn mainly from experience.
Table of Contents
Introduction
I’m at the crossroads with many options to take, but major considerations lean towards health concerns as a primary determiner of future activities. Health issues can be restrictive but not definitive if addressed with a positive outlook.
Looking back through the decades, I have done a lot in many aspects of life, accomplishing all the targets I set out to do. I’ve done things which I did no targeting at all. Like blogging, in this instance. And being able to create websites.
These are some passions I love to do without specific targets to accomplish in mind. Anything produced is acceptable. These are life’s extras that enhance fulfillment of inner desires to do something without due regard to rewards or whatsoever.
This brief analysis brings us back to planning a career shift, as we get to know more and learn new skills. On a personal note, these are personal reflections primarily based on experience through the years.
The shift I describe here is one arising not from within the bounds of trying to make ends meet. This description delves more on transitioning from a very active work life to one where we can take things rather slowly or taper off as our energies wane.
Our interests can shape the direction of our future. But for me, the future is already here, being in my senior years.
Based on experience, and deep introspection, here are five career shift considerations that I thought would help anyone out in any career shift concern in the same vein I have just described.
5 Career Shift Tips
1. Find out your passion
While the myriad of factors may influence you all throughout your life, like family priorities, educational conditioning, work pressures, peer pressures, and societal pressures as an individual, you must find out your passion.
Don’t dwell on other’s priorities. Find out what makes you fulfilled and happy as a person. It’s your life and nobody can dictate how you will live it.
You just have to be sensitive to your sense of satisfaction, because passion can change through time. Through time, our passions can change as we learn new things and discover other inclinations we never thought we had. And there are passions that get diluted through time as new passions emerge.
Such is my case where I discovered that writing is my passion. I love writing, but I discovered other likewise interesting passions like welding or carpentry where I can excel. Perhaps these are subconscious impressions of my father, who was an excellent carpenter, but not a welder. This passion has something to do with object manipulation, to serve a purpose.
2. Inventory your skills
Each one has a unique set of skills which they can develop to maximum potential. I am a multipotentialite, because I have many interests and I can do almost anything that I’d like to do. I just love to do something new that brings me to new areas of endeavor. Challenges are always there that keep me going and powers my desire to come up with unconventional and creative solutions.
My skills include being able to write, edit, do carpentry, weld things, work like a tailor, fix things related to computer hardware and software problems, create websites, design e-books using Lyx, do systems modelling using Stella and Vensim, create graphics using software applications like Gimp and Inkscape, sing like John Denver, do research, SCUBA dive, run like an athlete, do lettering, cook, do gardening, paint, draw, do photography, lettering, and almost anything I can think of.
I can do all these things because I set no limits to learning. Whenever I get opportunities to learn and am interested, I go for it. I do not limit my potential. Hence, I can shift to any career I want, as long as I have the energy and the passion to fuel myself.
Income is not a prime consideration here, because if you do things that interest you with such passion, there is no way you can’t earn. Let money follow you, not you following the money. I adopted such an attitude when a Japanese counterpart in a conservation-related venture gave me such advice. I find that piece of advice so very useful in my career path. It stuck for many years until now.
3. Take care of your health
Your health is a crucial element of everything in your life. If your health fails, there is nothing more you can do.
Just like everyone who has lived more than half a century in this world, the everyday stresses we experience finally take its toll on our health. Despite our efforts to keep ourselves as healthy as possible, our bodies succumb to pressures of work, family problems, and unforeseen events like climate change,
I make it a point to always engage in physical activity. Regular exercise can address whatever sickness, or potential sickness, we may have. I couple this with a positive attitude, thus I override whatever ills I have.
4. Don’t compare yourself with others
Never compare yourself with others, for there will always be greater and lesser person than you are. Such a statement reminds me of the Desiderata poem by Max Ehrmann (1927) that I wrote on an illustration board using Old English letters on an illustration board as my Grade VI project. And I quote:
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Max Ehrmann
Nothing could be further from the truth. You are a unique person, different from anyone else. So whatever achievements you do, you should be grateful.
5. Do things anyway
In action is the enemy of accomplishment. Just do things that come to your mind. Chances are, these thoughts or ideas are great things for you to do out of your subconscious mind processing when you sleep or unconsciously pondering things.
It took me a while to write this article down as I’m preoccupied with my newly found hobbies and interests. But it’s nice to share what I have learned through the years.
My Conclusion
Always be the person who you are. Everyone is unique subject to unique experiences. It’s a life worth living, being able to reach your full potential—in the service of others without sacrificing your own need for fulfillment.
