About Transitioning
Transitioning is always a challenging thing. This is because you are leaving a version of yourself behind. A version that has benefited you, perhaps made you feel safe. Now you feel you are not growing or your values have shifted, maybe you did it for money, and now you want to really enjoy what you do, start something of your own or impact the world.
What the statistic says?
When a class of Columbia Business School MBA students was surveyed, 90% of them listed “pursuing their passion” as an important goal for the future. But the reality is that out of 3000 full-time workers, across job levels and industries, only 20% say that they are passionate about their work.
Indications that you are outgrowing your job
If you are becoming less productive, not taking initiative, are disengaged and disinterested, and feel stuck and stagnant, these are signs that you are outgrowing your job. You either want to get into a different field, do what matters more to you, or perhaps sync better with a different role within the same company.
Four things you need to consider before pursuing your passion
- Patience: Sometimes people especially those who are likely to take a decision without a proper analysis of the situation. They just choose to leave everything behind and regret it later. This is one of the reasons why 90% of start-ups fail and 70% of organizational change initiatives fail too.
- Respect your feelings: It is important to respect the feeling you have that now is the time for your to leave either because you feel inspired towards a new vision or want to get out of the frustration you feel.
- Balanced approach: As you now have accepted your situation, you can now choose to use a few tools at your disposal like analyzing the industry you want to move towards. Does it have an above-average return on your time, money, and effort? How long will it take for you to break even on the current expense you have to break even?
- Find your complimentary partner: It is great to have a conversation with someone who is very different from you in the way they choose to make a decision. For example, if you take most decision just on your gut feeling, talk to someone who likes to take a more rational approach, draw two lines on a notebook, and writes down the pros and cons. But if you are a person who likes systems, processes, and steps, you need a free-flowing gut to really get out of your comfort zone. There is also another possibility though, that is of a balanced person who could move through it without help but having another balanced person would really help.
My Personal experience
If you know me personally, you know that I am one of those free-flowing guys. I don’t need a reason to be happy, I can change plans, take decisions on the spot and trust my feelings. This has both its beauty and ugliness. I decided to transition from my field of study early on because I had a massive breakthrough after attending a free NLP event. I felt a deep passion for helping people heal, learning more about human behavior, and how people become effective in their fields. I was purely driven with passion and heart.
What I realized
As I look back, I chose to get a job, learn more about the market and slowly craft my ideal client and the services I offered. My passion misguided me, I became more rigid when I had to be flexible. I did not look at the numbers, coaching is a growing industry in Nepal.
Numbers don’t lie
The country’s GDP per capita in 2021 was $1,222.9 compared to $69,287 where the coaching industry is rising and over 2 billion dollars. I realized quickly that the clients I was getting here were coming not for coaching but more for healing and therapy primarily. At some point, it took a toll on me because I was dealing with a lot of heavy, dark, and negative energies.
Be Flexible
I take these as learnings and feel much more balanced. I am working on my passion project but have recently applied for a position of content writer for a marketing agency. There are a few other options I have decided to explore.
The Door’s Open
In the future, I see myself being more skilled in the digital space which could open an opportunity to completely change my focus on the clients I want to work with. I would love to work with entrepreneurs, and creators and help them scale up or focus on helping content writers. All I am really pointing out here is the choices that have developed because I choose to be flexible.
My focus Now
Today as I write this, I am focusing on young adults, professionals currently engaged in a 9-5 who are getting the indication that they need change either transition or a change in their role. I want to help those individuals make an easeful transition so that their survival process is not overlooked and we get to a place of being excited about coming to work, allowing our creativity to blossom, and creating real impact.
To be brutally honest with you
To be brutally honest with you, you deserve to do this for yourself, everything else comes later. I remember a question that really shook me to my core and helped me take action. It was, “Is the feeling of fear, and discomfort going to be more painful than the regret you will feel when you lie on your death bed wondering what you could have created? The numbers don’t seem to lie either, 90% of people end up living their lives and then dying with regret. The number one regret of people who are on their deathbeds is that they wish they lived a life that was true to themselves and not the life that others expected of them.
We’ll continue exploring
There are many things that must be looked into so that you can better understand what stops you from taking that transition. I have hinted at a few things in this blog as well. We will explore this in the next blog. If you have read this much, I really want to thank you for being so patient and hope you got to take back something of value, perhaps something you will start pondering about.
You’ll love this
For the ones who feel this deeply and want to take action not just ponder on it, I want to offer you a Free 30-minute clarity call to help you clarify where you are right now and what is it that is not allowing you to trust your inner voice. If you find the session fruitful, I will then offer you one of my packages which I have already used successfully to get my clients the results they were looking for.
For the time being, you can follow me on my Facebook page or choose to explore with a Free workbook I created for you, and join the group here where we share tips tricks, and mindsets to help you with this transition. Subscribe to my Youtube channel where I am planning to invite guests who have successfully made that transition and learn about their journey.
If you have skimmed to the bottom and are like me, here is what this blog is about
- What statistics say about people, passion, and work
- Four things you need to consider before pursuing your passion, here’s why?
- My own experience transitioning from a marketing major to the field of life coaching and the mistake I made