My Own Career Change Story and the Messy Middle.Today I want to share more of the behind the scenes, where I am at with my own career and the messy middle of it.
In my 20s, I used to think once I have 10+ years of experience in something, then I will have made it. Can you relate? I thought, once I have 10 years of experience in a field on my resume, I will be legitimate, I’ll be an expert, I will feel settled, established, and secure. But it’s interesting how life doesn’t alway work this way! And that it’s much closer to being and feeling like an ongoing process of reestablishing and reinvention of yourself vs reaching a finish line of sorts. Perhaps some people feel that way or at least from the outside it might seem like that, but it’s probably not the true way they feel on the inside either. Perhaps the ones who are closer to retirement might feel like now they have reached that state of completion, but I bet even they feel like they’re still in the process. I think the appearance of having it figured out is a deceptive one, but the idea is still alluring and attractive. Something that as I think about it is most likely a seducing idea or aspiration, and not necessarily reality. It’s similar to longing for the moment when you’ll be able to put your feet up on the ottoman by your couch and watch a movie or simply do nothing because you’ve cleaned the house and everything else is done. But those moments rarely arrive and even when they do , they are short! And my mind is constantly telling me that more needs to be done, the next thing needs to be taken care of and tended to, planned, etc. It’s like this never ending motor, push and need to do more. Can you relate?:)
So back to the podcast about my own story and the messy middle that I feel like I’m in right now. Right in the smack dab middle of it and that is one of the reasons why I’ve shied away from sharing too much about it. Because I don’t have a perfectly laid out script and I don’t know how it all will come together, and that feels vulnerable and uncomfortable. It would be much easier to wait till it’s perfectly packaged with a happy ending that I can share.
You’ll hear about the recruitment career that I started in my twenties and I built over the next 15 years in a seemingly up and up trajectory, and how it came to a halt. You’ll hear about the overwhelm, stress, and longings I had along the way, how I started taking steps to explore my interests, personality and strengths further to inform and find my own puzzle pieces so I can take my own advice and the advice of the podcast guests to keep architecting work and life that is energizing to me, that is mine. Not someone else’s but mine. And I will say it isn’t for the faint of heart and it isn’t easy. At least not in my experience. You’ll hear about my journey to podcasting, coaching and also how I arrived at learning more about and getting certified to teach Tai Chi. So seemingly unrelated pieces, but they each have their own meaning and bring aspects of tremendous fulfillment as well as development for me. They align with my core values, incorporate my passions and interests, are deeply self motivating and satisfy my own hunger and yearning for more meaning, satisfaction, connection, knowledge, and health. Each of these aspects have come into being in their own magical way, hence I wanted to share the story.
Even though I don’t know how it’ll all come together at the end, I definitely know that I’ve discovered parts that I’ll keep as I continue to build my own career and life in technicolor. I know that I've gone for things I felt curiosity and desire to explore and that I’ll keep chasing my own purpose and further answers.
How about you? Where are you in your work and career journey, what is weighing on your mind right now that you’d l
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