Page 20 - Marky Stein - Fearless Career Change_ The Fast Track to Success in a New Field (2004)

Fearless Career Change

issues like overindulgence with food or alcohol, problems with
sleeping, gastrointestinal problems, or sexual difficulties.
For some people, there is no precipitating event that forces
them to change careers. Instead, there is perhaps just a faint whis-
per in the soul that “there must be something better.” At some point,
often quite spontaneously, these same people summon the courage
to embark on doing something they’ve always wanted to do.

Your career change need not be turbulent or dra-
matic. It may just be part of a natural cycle, and
it may happen more than once.

If you’re like many people, you’ve thought of what it might be
like to have that “something better,” but you may be putting it off
until the kids go to school, your savings account is fuller, you have
an advanced degree, the kids are out of college, you lose 10
pounds, you get married (or divorced), your parents, spouse, or
kids approve, the economy picks up, or scores of other reasons.
The problem, though, with waiting until later is that sometimes
later never comes. You keep putting it off and putting it off until,
one day, you may wake up when you’re 5 or 15 years older and ago-
nize over what you could have done or what you should have done.

By reading this book, you’re taking the first
steps toward a future designed by wants,
not by shoulds.

Common Fears about Career Change
In a word, change itself (even change for the better) can be scary
and stressful. Two opposing needs—one for the security of the job
you’ve known, and one for the freedom to choose a job that might
be better—seem at odds with each other. It’s frustrating to be
pulled in two directions and easy to become overwhelmed and
even afraid of the prospect of change.

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