Whether you need to maximise your income or strive to create a better work life balance, I reveal how you can boost motivation and start taking action towards a career change today!
- Scale your current level of satisfaction/happiness/fulfilment at work out of 10 – be honest, but don’t take too long to think about this, just go with your first answer.
- Get clear on your CORE values! These are the things that really spark our motivation and inspire us. They vary from person to person but they usually remain constant throughout our lives and were often formed in childhood. A helpful way of working them out is to ask yourself to describe a time at work when you felt 1) most satisfied 2) most happy and 3) most proud. Who were you with? What were you doing? Are there any common factors here which can be drawn out as your key values? For example, learning new things, helping people, kindness, honest communication, risk taking, professionalism, sense of community, collaboration, team work, independence or communication? You can search online for further examples of core values at work. Write down your top 5 and ask yourself if your job is in alignment with these?
- Also, what are your EXTRINSIC values? These are the things that entice us into a job and often keep us there but don’t usually bring the same level of inspiration as core values Pay, benefits, hours of work, annual leave, flexible working, sick pay, pension etc. Unlike intrinsic values, what we value here can change depending on our stage of life, i.e. earning a high salary may be the priority during our 20’s whereas having a good pension might be more important as we enter the later stages of our careers. What’s important to you right now and does this match your current job?
- Know your strengths. Ask a colleague, manager and friend/relative what they think your 5 main strengths are. Ask yourself the same question and see if you can note down some examples of how your use these in your current role. Are you utilizing these on a regular basis and if not, how can you increase this?
- Break down the career change journey in to small steps – what can you do to move from a 3/10 to a 4/10 in terms of the number you scored your career currently? If you are feeling overwhelmed by what to do next, break down your journey into small, manageable chunks and allocate a time limit. For example, I will update my CV with my latest role (1 hour) and spend 45 mins investigating the National Careers Service website or I will request a meeting with my line manager next week to discuss my next steps/flexible working request – it will take me 10 mins to send the email.
- Time blocking can ensure you take the action you want to! As well as allocating time to small steps, why not block out time in your calendar to actually do it. Treat this as you would any other appointment that you need to attend – write it in the diary and prioritise it as important. As you’ve already set a time limit for the task, it should feel manageable.
- Get some help….. As well as professional career and life coaches who can empower and support you to make a career change, there are also many other sources of advice and guidance out there so don’t feel you need to do this alone. National Careers Service https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk is a great place to start with free tips and resources to get you started with anything careers focused and ACAS has a useful website which details the latest employment laws and your rights to request flexible working/adjustments. http://www.acas.org.uk There are also various organisations out there to help with starting up small businesses within your local area as well as funding from the Skills Agency for certain qualifications and training routes https://www.nationalskillsagency.co.uk
Read more about my career coaching services here: Career Coaching in Bristol – Abi Unwin – Certified Career Coach (abigailjanecoaching.com)