Are you at a crossroads, with opportunities for making new choices? Perhaps you got off on the wrong foot with your job and now realize it’s not the right career path for you. Perhaps you are ready to retire and are looking for ways to create a lasting legacy. Perhaps you are looking at your skills and experience and know you can make more of a difference than you currently are, especially with all the needs in our challenged world.
It takes courage to explore opportunities for making new choices. With an established career, time and money invested in credentialing and education, the prestige of promotions, and the circle of contacts you already have, change isn’t easy. Recareering requires incredible effort and sacrifice. It may also involve a loss of pay, prestige, and connections.
“Mindfulness gives you time.
Time gives you choices.
Choices, skillfully made, lead to freedom.”
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
Now is the time to be making new choices based on your likes and dislikes, your life experience, your self-awareness, and the work of becoming who you are meant to be. You can have a second chance but it won’t be easy.
When my husband was growing up, he knew the only way out of poverty was to get a good education. He entered a work-study program at Johns Hopkins University and was able to get his degree in electrical engineering. This field interested him and he had a talent for it. He entered his chosen field then completed a second undergraduate degree followed by a master’s degree. After many years of progressing in this career with promotions and with increasing responsibilities, he had an epiphany. He came to realize he didn’t like working for a large company and he longed to find a way to work for himself. This desire to pursue his own direction became unbearable as he approached 40 so he started over despite his executive title, good salary, and job security. He formed limited investment partnerships with family, friends, and colleagues to purchase real estate, which is what he’s enjoyed for the last 40 years. Recareering can be done.
The current uncertainty we are all facing is an opportunity for making new choices. It’s a good time to explore more of who you are, what you want to do, why you want to take action, and when you will carry out your plan. Go ahead and move from doing work you don’t enjoy to doing what you love, work that reflects who you are.
Now What?
Ask yourself these questions as you look for opportunities for making new choices
• What are your expectations right now?
• What excites you?
• What actions can you take to move forward immediately?
• Who can you look to for support?
• What are your goals and aspirations?
• What are you passionate about? Is it creativity, working towards a better environment, lifelong learning, entrepreneurship, fighting poverty or injustice….?
Use your education, training, experience, ingenuity, and gifts to find a sense of purpose. Look for opportunities for making new choices then contribute to your community and leave a lasting legacy.