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The job that pays the bills is often not the dream. According to a recent Gallup poll, 87% of employees in the world feel unengaged in their daily work lives. What’s holding people back from diving into a career that constitutes what they’ve always dreamed of?
“Fear of change,” says Sara Bliss, author of the new book “Take the Leap: Change Your Life, Change Your Career.”
“When you open yourself up to change, you’re really opening yourself up to possibilities in your own life,” says Bliss.
Bliss sat down with Yahoo Finance and shared some of the common themes she discovered while interviewing 65 people for her book, all of whom successfully reinvented their careers on the path to finding a more ideal lifestyle for themselves.
DO YOUR RESEARCH
Some of the most successful career pivoters in the book made a specific game plan and did their research on a new career before taking action. “They prepped, they got ready, they found a mentor, they went back to school, and that kind of started to open up doors,” she says.
DON’T LOOK BACK
Sitting on a good idea likely won’t get you anywhere. Bliss describes the subjects in her book as people who stayed on a forward-moving trajectory. She says “they didn’t look back, they went for it.”
EXPECT HURDLES
There was also a clear sense that the path to positive change might not always prove easy. “The people who made these kinds of leaps expected hurdles and they knew that change is hard and that there are always obstacles, and they didn’t let those obstacles derail them,” Bliss says.
Bliss shares examples from her book of individuals who transformed their careers and are living happier, more fulfilling lives. One example is Scott Neeson, the former president of 20th Century Fox International, who refocused his life toward running a children’s non-profit in Cambodia. Another is Marjorie Gubelmann, a single mom who went to DJ school and now spins at events around the globe.
She discusses the relocation of restaurant owners Carrie and Jerry Bogar, who decided to take their restaurant business to their favorite vacation spot. “They were working 24-7 just to go the Caribbean for two weeks a year and they turned to each other and said, ‘why don’t we just open a restaurant in the Caribbean?’” The couple now work only four days a week, and vacation 2 months out of the year.
For the risk-averse set who just can’t see letting their steady paycheck go, Bliss says that career pivoting is not just for the wealthy: “I want anyone who feels like they’re too old, too young, too broke, or too inexperienced to see examples of people who have done it… it’s not as overwhelming as you think.”
If you or someone you know has a career pivot story, please share with us at [email protected].
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This story was originally published on December 4, 2018.