What’s the Absolute First Step of A Career Change?

So you’ve decided you’re ready to figure out what you want to do with your next career move and it sure as heck isn’t <insert your current job here>.

Congrats!….now what?

Contrary to popular belief, the next step is not spiffing up a fancy resume or reaching out to your network (or building one).
While those things are helpful and can help you cross the finish line of your career change, nothing, and I mean nothing, can replace your mindset. Cultivating the right mindset from the get-go and revisiting it regularly (ie this is not a “Set it and forget it” kinda thing, guys!) is CRUCIAL to getting started and staying moving.

Sound Captain Obvious-y to you? I agree; this is not rocket science, but what I really want you to dig into today is how YOU are actively cultivating that mindset on a regular basis. It needs to be crystal clear. Make a list of the ways you are clearing space for this change. I’m talking physical space- is your workspace cluttered? I’m talking mental space- is your mind cluttered? And I’m talking energy-space- are you drained each and every time you try to start? Do you not pinpoint your roadblocks and thus keep them up unwittingly, letting them derail you from your major goal of finally getting in a job that you actually want to go to 5 (or more!) days per week?

Below is a laundry list of potential ways that might help you with this big FIRST step toward making a career change. Maybe you do one or two of these. Maybe adding another element to augment what you’re currently doing might help. For example, I recently added “Morning Pages” to my morning meditation practice. They really go nicely together and help me clear my plate before I enter my day.

Cultivate the Right Mindset With These First Steps to a Career Change:

• Daily Meditation practice (with or without apps like Headspace or calm.com)
• Daily intention journal
• Daily gratitude list
• 2 Minute End-of-Day Recap (How am I feeling, what worked about today and what do I want to work on for tomorrow)
• Morning Pages (to get the creative juices flowing and remove the clutter)
• Yoga
• Mindfulness retreat
• Work with a mindfulness teacher
• Visit your local Shambhala Center
• Books like “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”, “The Alchemist” or “The Buddha Walks Into a Bar”
• Checking in throughout the day with how you’re feeling and what might be getting in the way of this

Are you sitting there thinking, “Jill, I don’t have TIME for any of that. I gotta get to work.” To that I ask you: Do you have time to spend more years than you already have in a job you really don’t like? Do you have time to spend more late nights at work and miss time with your friends, husband, wife, kid, mom and/or cat?

Until very recently, I was very much like that, running around from thing to thing and checking boxes off my to-do list. And while I’m by no means a levitating Buddha nor am I telling you that you have to be one to change careers (quite the contrary actually), I’m saying that investing a little time in this each day will make a BIG difference toward achieving this really big goal.

I will also add that I can say this over and over, but it’s up to you to give it a whirl. And by ‘a whirl’, I mean dedicate yourself to it for at least a month, if not 3 months. I was one of those people who sort of internally groaned whenever someone told me I should meditate. So that’s why I’m not telling you that you should meditate- because that’s annoying if you’ve heard it a million times or just don’t like being told what to do (who does like that?)

So what I AM saying is this: 

A career change requires the right Mindset Toolkit. It will be slightly different for each and every person. This is all I’m asking you to accept. THEN, I want you to fill your toolbox with what works for you and leave the rest. And as you grow and evolve, you might pick up new tools but your core go-to tools are always your stead standbys.

PS: Mindset is where we start in the Career Change Kitchen– my new comprehensive career change online course (with some extra goodies and various levels of support from me!) Check out the info here.