We have all heard stories of someone who started looking for a new position because of her dissatisfaction with her current job. After some searching, she finds a position she is very excited about and which she is sure will be the career change that will put her on the path to her dream job and dream life.
Fast forward a year or two and this person is again talking about searching for a new job because the one she is in just isn’t “working out.”
Or how about the entrepreneur who left her job to start her own business so she would have more control over her schedule and a better work-life balance. Yet she often finds herself awake at midnight, exhausted and scrambling to meet another deadline.
Now think about your current situation. If you are considering changing jobs or have recently done so, you are probably making this change to improve your life in some way.
Keep the following four strategies in mind to make the most of your career change.
Define Success
This is the most important part of any career transition, yet it is also the most overlooked. Define what success looks like for you, both within your new job as well as how the job impacts the other aspects of your life.
Before any job change, write down answers to the following questions:
- What type of work would I like to do? How do I want to spend my working hours?
- How many hours a week do I want to work?
- How much travel do I want to do?
- Where would I like my job to be located? Do I want to be able to work from home?
- Do I want to work with big groups, small teams, one-on-one or alone?
- How do I want my office to look? How do I want it to feel?
- What do I want my evenings and weekends to look like? Can I tolerate my job impacting my free time?
Identify Your Genius Work
What is the one thing that you do best? What type of work do people often recognize you for?
What types of tasks do you breeze through with ease that others find difficult?
What kind of work puts you in a state of joy exclaiming, “I can’t believe I get paid for this!”
This work is your unique brilliance or “Genius Work.” If possible, make sure this work is central to what you’ll be doing within your new career.
Delegate
Once you have made your career change, your goal now becomes maximizing the time you spend on your Genius Work and minimizing the time spent on everything else. Become a master delegator and delegate as many unwanted tasks as possible.
Tasks that are ideal for delegation include things that:
- Can be done faster by someone else.
- Can be done better by someone else.
- You do really well, but they leave you feeling drained, scattered or unfocused.
- Can only be done at specific times that are inconvenient for you and how you want to structure the rest of your life.
Eliminate
Depending on the type of work you do or your current financial circumstances, it may not be possible for you to immediately begin delegating after a career change.
However, regardless of your situation, you can eliminate tasks that once may have seemed very important, but that now no longer serve you well. The best question to ask yourself when deciding whether to eliminate something from your work or personal life is, “If I wasn’t already doing this, would I start doing this given my current circumstances?”
If the answer isn’t, “Absolutely!” then it’s time to release this task to allow you to make the most of your new career and achieve the work life balance you are looking for.
Use these four strategies to make sure that your next career change is a change for the better!
Your Assignment
Whether you are in a new job, thinking about a career change, or want to improve your current work situation:
- Define what you want your career to look like and how it should or shouldn’t impact other aspects of your life. Write down answers to the questions listed above.
- Identify your Genius Work. What would you gladly do for free all day long?
- Look at how you spend your time. Free up more time by making a list of “Delegate” tasks and “Eliminate” tasks. Get these out of your schedule to make more room for your Genius Work and for free time.
- Define what actions you can take to make changes and move in the direction of your new career.
