I LOVE books.
Having been born before the Internet gave us access to information at the click of a button, books have been my gateway to knowledge since the moment I learned to read. Books patiently shared their stories with me and presented information I may not have had access to otherwise. As a Spanish-speaking girl starting middle school in the US, countless hours spent at the nearby library quickly helped me bring my English up to speed to minimise being made fun of. As a teenager, I could read all I wanted to about existentialism when it wasn’t being taught at school and look up astrological signs of people I cared about to gain a better understanding of them. Books have given me a certain kind of freedom and I love them for it.
Books have been such a source of support, that for years I thought they held the key to figure out my ideal career and how to make it happen. So, I read EVERY book, yes EVERY book on career change. Ok, maybe not every book in existence, but every book I could get my hands on. I also did all the personality tests, and yes, honouring my stargazing teenage self, even looked at best careers for my sun sign Leo. I did all the checklists, mind maps and analysis offered. This was my approach for many, many years while I did jobs that I liked but didn’t love and in a few cases, didn’t like very much at all. Always hoping the next book would unlock my path to a career I could do and would also find deeply fulfilling. Although books were motivational and useful to an extent, I needed help with my individual life circumstances. Books could not specifically address what was happening in my life that stopped me from knowing and doing what I was really longing to do.
What was missing was personal support to find the strength to do what my soul was asking for.
I managed to change careers a few times all on my own. I did step outside my comfort zone more than once to learn new skills and follow interesting career paths when given the opportunity. I navigated my zone of competence pretty well with the tools I had, but as years passed, and I gained more work experience, everything I could really get excited about still seemed far out of reach. It required what I thought was too big a leap, or didn’t even know was an option, like coaching. When I finally learned about coaching, it took a coach to help me become one, so I could finally take the leap.
If you want to change your career to something that seems out of reach, books will be great in helping to get you to begin thinking of options and researching potential career paths. However, books are often written for as wide a target audience as possible. They generally won’t address what is really stopping YOU from your ideal career.
In order to be able to begin a new career that is truly meaningful for us and a bit of a leap from what we’ve done before, the intellectual work around career choices, strengths and action plans is often not enough. We need to expand into a new perception of ourselves and what we are capable of. We need to accept the possibility that we will become someone new. We need to see ourselves in a new way and find the courage to bring this new person out into the world. If you don’t, you may just move sideways or remain in your zone of competence and the change you’ve made won’t make as big a difference in your life as you were hoping for.
I still read career change books today, of course, because I am passionate about it. Now that spring is about to arrive and change is in the air, I will even recommend what I consider to be one of the best books on career change I have read lately.
If you haven’t read it yet Pivot by former Career Development Program Manager at Google, Jenny Blake is my favourite book on career change at the moment. It provides heaps of exercises and guidelines to structure a career change...if you can find the courage to do so.
Are you ready for a change this spring?
Would you like to start exploring a vision of who you could become?
Book a call with me here to catch your first glimpse.
Photo by Lavi Perchik on Unsplash