Change- You’re Worth it
Sometimes when a door is open and you won’t walk through it, life pushes you out the window. I also believe that when we ignore the road signs of life, we can find ourselves either on the side of the road without ‘gas’ or heading a hundred miles an hour toward a brick wall. Although these metaphors may sound harsh, I think we are destined to find our professional purpose, one way or another. So when our innate strengths and gifts are under-utilized, life has a way of forcing us to re-evaluate.
The problem with this method of changing careers is that it’s often painful. Not being good at details and finding yourself in a high paid detail-oriented job is likely to result in professional and personal stress. Maybe you are a person who cares deeply about helping others and you are in a fast-growth company where a huge percentage of your leadership role requires routinely offering negative performance feedback. You will likely struggle to either attain corporate performance goals because you aren’t demanding enough of your team, or you will start to have health problems because of all the guilt you feel about hurting other people’s feelings through your professional criticism.
Much too often, we find ourselves at cross-purposes with the very fabric of our own personalities and natural gifts because they are misapplied by well-meaning HR departments, self-serving recruiters, or even good-natured mentors. I’ll never forget one of my early recruiter experiences. I was in outside sales and miserable. Frequently, I got into my company car and before I made it to my first appointment I had tears in my eyes. I had moved out of Atlanta, and my exquisite career planning was simple -- I wanted a company car. Being outgoing, it was a one-recruiter-call experience. POW, I got an outside sales job with a company car. Success, right? Hardly! Outgoing worked for outside sales but being alone in the car 75% of the time was not a good match. Despite my short-sighted 23-year-old career goals, I realize now years later that, had I invested in some career assessments, I might have found out that although sales is something I can do, it does not align with my need to be creative, help others, or make a impact on more than the bottom-line.
The next recruiter experience was even more ironic. I had decided after a year of riding aimlessly in the car that it must be the product I didn’t like. So, I went to a local recruiter and said I was ready to get out of the industry I was in. She said ‘great,’ and then lined me up for an interview with a competitor in guess what -- the same industry. I went on the interview and was offered the job making significantly more money. What did I do? I took it. It’s still hard to believe. After years of watching others go through their own difficult career transitions, I realize that was just a typical move that people often make. They jump from the proverbial ‘frying pan’ into another ‘frying pan’ and wonder why they continue to get burned.
Unfortunately, the problem is that in order to make long-term sustainable change many people have to hit ‘rock bottom.’ Too often this is because people have a profound ability to adapt and rationalize things. Humans were created to adapt to their environment, even difficult or unfulfilling ones. This adaptability ensures survival in many cases. On the other hand, it does not ensure happiness. Being able to rationalize making a change that is not in your best interest is the culprit that often keeps individuals stuck. Stuck in low-satisfaction jobs, bad marriages, or disadvantaged economic circumstances. An individual’s willingness to change their circumstances often is directly tied to the level of risk they are willing to take, but also their level of self-esteem. If you believe you deserve happiness, then when you find yourself in unacceptable or simply unsatisfying circumstances you will change them. You will trade in your bad job for a better one, not an equally bad one. Finding the strength in yourself to believe you deserve better is where true change begins.
In fact, I understand the importance of change now more than ever. Recently I redirected my career out of my own company Execume, a brand I built over two decades, into a new venture, G3 Agency. This business focuses my passions toward global change around a new, emerging market of clean-tech, green, and sustainability. This leverages my gifts in a way that allows me be a part of shaping the future by bringing brilliant people into these areas where we desperately need their professional genius to solve complex energy, natural resource, and climate challenges. For me, I realized on a deeply personal level that the time to change is now.
For you, I am not saying you shouldn’t take that recruiter’s phone call. I am saying you should find it in yourself to be honest with what you want and not let other people dissuade you from your agenda-- to be happy, employ your gifts, and be passionate about your professional purpose. Trust me, you are worth it.
By Gayle Oliver, CEO of G3 Agency – It takes Genius to Grow Green
www.G3agency.com - 770-402-7520
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