What do you thing caused you to tire of your current career. Could it be a bad boss, or maybe it's the workplace or could it be a bad economy? Look no further than a mirror-it's you.
There may be outside forces that play a role in causing you to be dissatisfied in your career. But those outside forces are not usually the primary factor in causing job dissatisfaction, and it is important for you to understand what the primary factor is if you hope to pull off a successful mid-life career change.
When we talk about the primary cause of career dissatisfaction we are not saying there is something wrong about the way you feel about your current career. On the contrary, it is normal to feel dissatisfaction about a job after you have been in it a number of years.
We all have a desire to learn and to grow over time. It is that desire that is causing you to become dissatisfied with a career that no longer provides the challenge it once did. The surprising thing would be if you never felt a need to pursue a mid-life career change.
It makes perfect sense to seek a new career after mastering an earlier one or finding that one is not suited for the earlier one. The pitfall is that there is a good chance that the old frustrations will recur, this time when you are older and have fewer career options.
The better approach is to gain over time a level of financial freedom that lets you call the shots to a greater extent than the typical employee. This might mean starting your own business or joining a start-up company (that you could not otherwise afford to take the risk of joining) or entering a career that offers more challenges than most (and thus provides a more satisfactory long-term level of fulfillment).
Financial planning by itself does not work. Career planning by itself does not work. What does work? Career planning combined with financial planning. Build a nice nest egg, and you gain a level of control over your future career decisions possessed by few of today's workers.
Acquire a higher level of financial freedom, and all sorts of exciting possibilities open up to you. It won't matter too much whether one particular new job you choose ends up being the right choice for the long-term or not. Those who gain significant levels of financial freedom early in life enjoy more opportunities than most others regardless of what happens with their boss or their company or the economy.
How do you do it? You aren't saving to finance an age 65+ retirement. You are saving and investing for some form of "early retirement." You may employ a number of different definitions of that term, but your overall goal is to enjoy the benefits of financial freedom well before you turn 65.
Many of us began saving in this different and more effective way because of dissatisfaction we felt about jobs we were in. It could be that your job dissatisfaction will prove to be your ticket to a better way of both managing your money and managing your career too. The power of this new approach comes from the integration of life, work and money goals.
Yes, you need to change careers. But you might want to slow down in your implementation of the plan and make sure that the solution you come up with is one that will serve you well for a long time to come. To make a successful mid-life career change, you need not just a job-change plan, but a money-change plan too.
It is by reducing the extent to which you need to work for money that you obtain the best possible long-term assurance of being able to spend your time doing soul-satisfying work.
John Groth is a former HR executive and career coach. Find Career Changing Ideas, valuable articles and a Free seven day career planning guide. Discover up to date career and recruitment strategies at our Employment Ideas, all to assist you in advancing and managing your career.
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