================================================== "Achieve Your Dreams" - Volume 15, January 2006 ================================================== Greetings! Welcome to "Achieve Your Dreams", a bi-monthly newsletter for people with a dream - - whether it's accelerating a career, changing careers, building a business, securing a new job, achieving that long-desired goal, or discovering a new life vision and direction. Each newsletter will offer 1-2 noteworthy articles, a section on "Office Happenings" and "Helpful Resources", and some favorite quotes and sayings to motivate and inspire you. In this issue: 1. "Changing Careers: 5 Essential First Steps" 2. Office Happenings (Adult Ed Course / WorldWIT Article) 3. Helpful Resources (Goal Setting / High-End Service Careers) 4. Favorite Quotes Feel free to forward this to those you believe would find it useful. Feedback is encouraged and appreciated. If there is a specific topic you'd like covered, please send the suggestion to me via the e-mail address below. Enjoy ... ========================================== Changing Careers - 5 Essential First Steps ========================================== The alarm rang at 6:00 am on Monday morning and Tom Smith hit the snooze button. The knot in his stomach tightened as he envisioned heading to the office for yet another day in corporate misery. He sighed, swung his legs over the edge of the bed and willed himself to get moving. Sound familiar? As we enter a new year, many people contemplate making a career change and fantasize what it would be like to do something entirely new. Unfortunately, fantasizing is as far as they get. The dream of having a career they love remains just that... a dream. And yet, people are changing careers all the time! How is it that some people are successful at changing careers, while others remain stuck in jobs they despise? The key to a successful career change means going beyond the process of assessing skills, values, interests and lifestyle requirements. These exercises are important – vital, in fact - but finding a new career also involves coming to terms with the emotional side of changing careers (i.e., our fears) and creating the right mindset and environment to support our goals. Here are 5 essential first steps that, when taken, will help you make a successful career change: 1) Identify Your Fears Fear is the number one reason why people stay stuck in a job they dislike. So the first step to making a career change is defining what keeps you from making the switch to begin with. Is it: - Fear of a pay cut? - Fear of the time needed to re-school or recertify or start back at an entry level? - Fear you’ll make the wrong choice? - Potential embarrassment about your career dreams or what others will say? - Lack of information about how to make the switch? - Feeling you have too much invested in your current career choice? - Low self esteem? - Fear of failure? Once you've identified your fear, embrace it. Honor it. Envision your worst case fantasy. And then, vow to do something about it. Instead of letting your fear hold you back, resolve to either work through it… work around it… develop a backup plan in the event it becomes a reality… or create steps to prevent it from happening in the first place. Coming to terms with your fears and pledging to face them head-on is paramount to a successful career change. 2) Set a Reasonable Timeframe The second step to a successful career change is being aware of timing and setting realistic goals. Imagine trying to eat an elephant in one sitting. How daunting! Wouldn't it be a more manageable task if you took many small bites over several weeks? It's the same with making a career change. Trying to make a major career shift all at once can be pretty overwhelming. However, if you approach it as a series of baby steps taken over a period of time, then you can make steady progress towards a new career that makes you happy. It may take as long as a year - even longer - to decide on a new career direction. Recognizing that changing careers is a process, and then setting realistic expectations about how long the process takes, will ensure you don't get frustrated and give up too quickly. 3) Start Where You Are The great tennis player Arthur Ashe once said, "Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." Let's say the main thing holding you back from making a career change is money. Instead of giving up on your goal, begin the process from where you are. You might start by downsizing your life now so when you do take the leap, you'll be better prepared to earn less in the short term while you work your way up in your new field. Or, you could start by setting up a special savings account to fund your dream. The psychological impact of saving for a dream can be just as powerful as the actual money you earn once you arrive. 4) Start Hanging Out With the Right Crowd. The people we surround ourselves with can either cheer us on and propel us forward, or pooh-pooh us and bring us to a screeching halt. Before embarking on a career change, seek out people who will support your dreams. You may know some of these people already, others you may need to find and bring into your life. Start networking and talking with those who have successfully switched careers. Ask them to share their story and what they learned from the experience. Enlist them to be a sounding board, confidante and cheer leader. Surrounding yourself with people who are behind you 100%, or who have done what you long to do, will motivate and energize you and help you feel like nothing can stop you. 5) Commit to Making it Happen. Changing careers, above all, means making a commitment. A commitment to seeing the process through - even when the going gets rough. A commitment to making a decision and going for it - once a new career option has been identified. Without commitment... without that fire in the belly that says, "I WANT this and I WILL DO this... no matter what!" a career change simply cannot happen. So before embarking on the traditional career change exercises, take some time to assess your level of commitment. If you find it wavering, go back to Step 1 and identify your fears and vow to work through them. Because once you're committed 100% to making a career change, nothing - and no one - can stop you from making it happen. ================= Office Happenings ================= Once again I'm thrilled to be teaching an adult education class at Lexington High School, in Lexington, MA. Last semester's classes received rave reviews! This class, entitled, "Networking Your Way to a New Job" will be offered on Thursday, January 26 from 6:30 - 9:00 pm. For those of you in MA who may be interested in attending, you can learn more about how to register at: www.lexingtoncommunityed.org. I'm excited to share with you that WorldWIT (World Women in Technology) recently published one of my articles in their weekly e-newsletter (January 9, 2006). Their e-newsletter is published every Monday and is distributed to over 30,000 women worldwide. The article, "New Job Blues... Now What?", was featured in the last issue of "Achieve Your Dreams". For those of you interested reading it, you can view the article at: http://www.imakenews.com/worldwit/e_article000510073.cfm?x=b6t6j Kb,b20HHTRS ================= Helpful Resources ================= Online Tool for Setting Goals: The start of a new year is a perfect opportunity to set new goals and plan for a better future. For those of you who like to write out your goals and chart your progress, www.myGoals.com might be just for you. The site, which has been featured in publications from The Wall Street Journal to Rolling Stone, can provide assistance with almost any imaginable goal. Goals are grouped by category and are found under the broad headings of Health & Fitness; Family & Relationship; Time Management & Organization; Personal Finance; Career; Education & Training; Personal Growth & Interest; Recreation & Leisure; and Home Improvement & Real Estate. The site offers a 10-day trial and then a monthly subscription of $5.95 thereafter, or 12 months for $49.95. High End Service Careers: A whole world exists that I never even knew about! A coaching colleague of mine recently shared this and I thought I'd pass it along... "Recently, while attending the ICDC conference, I had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Starkey, founder of Starkey International, the world's leader in the training and placement of very high-end household service professionals (e.g., household managers, butlers, personal assistants). She has a training institute (mansion) in Denver where students live for 3-month intensive service training programs before they are placed with new wealth, old guard, legacy families, notable personalities, dot-com families and others. Training is vast and ranges from the care of art collections and wine cellars to international protocol and special events planning/management. Most of these positions pay in the six figures and provide free housing in beyond-luxurious settings. Not a bad career path for the sophisticated, well-educated, service-minded professional interested in an entirely new opportunity! For information, visit www.starkeyintl.com." =============== Favorite Quotes =============== "Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change." -- Dr. Wayne W. Dyer "If you have a great ambition, take as big a step as possible in the direction of fulfilling it. The step may only be a tiny one, but trust that it may be the largest one possible for now" -- Mildred Mcafee "Climbing is not a battle with the elements, nor against the law of gravity. It's a battle against oneself." -- Walter Bonatti "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming WOW! WHAT A RIDE!" -- Unknown In support of you, Jeanne ****************************** Jeanne Knight, JCTC, CCMC Career and Job Search Coach jeanne@careerdesigns.biz www.careerdesigns.biz 617-968-7747 Office Hours: M-TH 8:30am - 5:00pm FRI 8:30am - 12:00noon ** If you would like someone added to this newsletter distribu- tion list, please forward their name and e-mail address to me. They will be added promptly. ** If you would like to be removed from this list, please reply to me via this e-mail address. I will remove your name promptly.