One of the reasons you're making a career transition could be that the present version of you no longer fits into your past ways of functioning and operating. While it may appear as if the struggle is external — with the industry you're in, with your boss or colleagues, the city, the circumstances, the people — it isn't.
As I share some personal and intimate lessons from my career transitions with you, I'd first like to invite you to replace the word 'struggle' with 'growth', and 'outer' with 'inner' in the above context.
Through these lessons, we'll explore how your 'inner growth' is no longer in sync with the work you had been doing. Our deepest callings come from an intuitive knowing of where the new version of ourselves is going to thrive.
Take it slow: Your mind may expect results way faster from the new career you're transitioning into, especially if you're building something of your own. You may even resist a transition, craving for a quick shift to another career.
Remember, you're uprooting yourself from one complete ecosystem of work type, role, learnings, and conditioning that have gone into it, and humans, along with emotions related to them. Slowing down will only help you unlearn and decondition from what's no longer needed, and manage your energy well, so that you don't take your past emotions, patterns, and projections into your new career where they won’t serve your purpose.
It had taken me almost a year to commit to a new path after my first career transition. During my second one, it took me more than a year to embrace the slowness of the process and realise that a transition was needed. Our minds are conditioned to quick shifts, and therefore, transitions can feel very challenging [and scary!].
Making a career transition is like treading on an unknown journey. Not knowing what's ahead can be extremely discomforting for our minds, which can possibly result in serious anxiety, stress, and depression. As you take up this journey, make sure you equip yourself with the right tools – meditation,  life coaching, therapy, whatever might work for you – to support you on your way to your next destination. Today, we're privileged to be living in an era where we have  support options available like never before. If you're new to these tools, be willing to experiment, and commit to what works for you.
For me, committing to a combination of life coaching and Vipassana meditation (dhamma.org) has worked wonders, especially in those areas of life and career, where I had made myself believe that darkness would never end.
Commitment to this deep inner-work has also led me to progress on these paths by attending and serving more meditation retreats, practicing the same on a daily basis, as well as by consistently receiving coaching.
Act when it's time to act: One of the natural consequences of feeling lost during a career transition can be a lack of personal, authentic action guided by our inner motivation. All therapists, meditation teachers, guides, counsellors, and coaches can do is guide you to reclaim your own power. However, a guide is not a savior. A guide is simply a person who can show you how to walk the path. Only you have to choose what the right path is for you. And it only unfolds, step by step, as you start taking the action guided by your own intuition, even if you still don't know where it leads. Action, which is completely in alignment with your vision, is the only way for you to create your path ahead.
As I made my last career transition, I was intending to shift from an inner place of over acting (where action was coming from a place of fear, comparison, competence, obsession, and guilt) to a place of taking clear and focussed action towards grace and fulfilment. Many a times during this transition, I’ve hit extremes, where I was either taking a lot of action due to deep-rooted behaviour patterns from the past, or not taking any action at all due to the fear of the unknown. This is the space where this learning emerged from...
Hang in there: During any transition, when the same issues keep coming up for us to work on, it's a sign that we're still acting and behaving the same way as we were doing earlier, and to get to the other end of the shore, we need to allow our new version to flourish and thrive. We may even  feel like we aren't making any progress because of these persistent patterns, which can be so firmly rooted for specific types of behaviours. However, in reality,  we're just getting an opportunity to release deeper layers of the same behaviour which isn't serving us and our growth anymore. Remain persistent and determined in difficult circumstances, especially when you feel you're going to meet another dead end.
Hang-in there: This was one of the most useful reflections offered by a trusted friend when I was almost at the end of the tunnel, and my brain, because of its past conditioning, was feeling tempted to develop self-doubt again.
It’s useful to talk through with friends who can see you beyond your doubts and fears, and can acknowledge you for the progress you’ve made, no matter how non-linear your journey may appear.
Not settling for what may feel misaligned with your vision is one of the direct ways to embody the principle of creating a life you desire, and of self-love. Living up to your dreams and integrity is much more mentally difficult because it's convenient to pick low-hanging fruits.
Saying ‘no’ will not only help you organise your boundaries, but will also offer you a direction towards what will truly bring you a deep sense of fulfilment and satisfaction. Walking away from people and situations no longer serving a higher purpose in your life is okay. By doing this, you're reaffirming your true worth to yourself – to the one who holds the power to open the doors for you which you may not yet see.
For me, one of the essential steps has been to realise how much of my power I had given to the hurt of my past, and to the fear of the future. Releasing that mental weight is what helps us reach our optimum level.
As a life-design coach, I support people thrive through change and transition with easeful and wise action. If you'd like to speak with me to explore this theme, I'd be delighted to connect.
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