Page 19 - Marky Stein - Fearless Career Change_ The Fast Track to Success in a New Field (2004)

CHAPTER ONE

Overcoming Your

Fears

Signs of Change

While some people find a career change to be exhilarating, others
may experience the uncertainty of the transition as terrifying. But
for people in both categories, the first question often is, How do
you know it’s time to change? If you’re still employed, you may
have noticed the stirrings of mild discontent with your work have
finally become so pronounced that they cannot be ignored. Going
to a different job in the same field won’t fix the problem. You
might come to realize that a more profound change is needed.
The end of a career may start with feelings of uneasiness or
frustration or even depression. These feelings may fester into
burnout and exhaustion, or they may take the form of self-sabo-
taging behavior like being late to work or not meeting deadlines.
Or, for some people, the need to change careers comes more
rapidly through a sudden occurrence like a layoff. These people
have to face an event that is out of their control and that is signifi-
cantly disruptive. Perhaps their whole field or profession is tem-
porarily dormant or struggling, and they have to find an entirely
new way of making a living.
The signals that a career may be coming to an end may appear
in unexpected ways, as in a dream. The need to cease what you’re
doing or how you’re doing it may manifest as physical symptoms,
such as tendonitis, neck pain, or back pain, or as psychophysical

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