A few months ago, I posted a blog called “Quitting Isn’t Giving Up on Your Past. It’s Investing in Your Future.”

It’s been my most popular post, and a topic that I think is worth revisiting as nearly 40 million Americans face unemployment. It is incredibly scary to lose your job or to know that your job is at risk. The fear of “starting over” is incredibly real right now.

The original blog post, if you haven’t read it, is about why it’s OKAY to walk away from your career, no matter how much money or time you have invested, if it’s not serving you. Quitting isn’t starting over, but rather, starting fresh with a much broader base of knowledge and awareness over what you do/do not want from your career anymore.

We live in a society where we associate our identity with what we do rather than who we are. As children, we are asked what we want to be when we grow up. In college, we are asked what we are studying and what line of work we want to get into. When we start our careers, we align ourselves to the image of that career and focus on what certifications we need to be successful. At some point, we allow our “what” (accountant, lawyer, marketing, banker, etc.) to determine our “who,” rather than allowing our “who” to determine “what” we do.

What if we focused on who we are, and allowed the things that make us unique and our passions shape what we become?

What’s the Purpose of It All?

After six-months of quarantine, I think it’s safe to say that everyone’s career has been significantly impacted. Whether you’ve been laid off, furloughed, received a salary cut, are now working from home full time, have assumed more responsibilities and work due to others being laid off, are playing Mom or Care Giver on top of your job, you have to go into work and consider all the additional safety measures, or the stress of your job is never-ending, your job has been impacted.

Personally, over the past month, I have had several clients and friends tell me that quarantine has forced them to re-evaluate what is important in life. Many have realized that their jobs or careers are no longer serving them. The value of freedom has become apparent for many, and their jobs have been weighing on them heavily. Where they once found joy, excitement, growth, and fulfillment, they now find dread, longing for more, frustration, and emptiness that can’t be explained.

During a year of unprecedented change, I’m sure you’ve questioned either to yourself or out loud… “What is the purpose of it all?”

I’d love to really challenge you to think about that exact question. What is the purpose of it all? Do you even know? Do you believe the story that you’re telling yourself?

Is the purpose really to wake up, go to work for 8+ hours a day, collect a paycheck, save for retirement and spend our limited time outside of work choosing between doing household chores, being with our families and friends, or doing things we enjoy?

I would argue that it’s not. The number one thing that my clients want help with is creating a new life for themselves. They are burnt out but feel stuck at their current job because they have been there for *so* long, that they don’t know what else they could even do.

Further, when burnout sets in, we often stop learning, growing, and challenging ourselves, which means that our inner critic pipes up and tells us that we’re not good enough to get a different job, and completely blinds us from the fact that our skills are transferrable.

Finding Purpose

So how do you step back and Marie Kondo your career? Assess what aspects of your job bring you joy, and discard the rest?

It can be broken down into five “easy” steps. Easy is in quotes because it takes A LOT of self-awareness and challenging of your truth to connect the dots between the below steps. I usually spend four to six sessions with my clients walking through the process.

Complete a values assessment.
- Any will do. I have a comprehensive one available for free on my resources page, but Brene Brown’s is also great!
- The ultimate goal is to identify one or two strong core values that will become your guiding light for making tough decisions.
Complete a talents assessment.
- Write a list of all the things you were good at or liked as a child. Be as specific as possible.
- Write a list of all the things you are good at or like doing now. Be as specific as possible.
Evaluate all the tasks that you do at work.
- Create an all-encompassing list of the tasks you do at work. Even if it’s something you do every three months.
- Rank on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being “I despise this task” and 10 being “This task brings me ultimate joy.”
- For anything you ranked 7-10, describe what it is you like most about the task, what aspect of the task you’re grateful for, and what specifically about the task brings you joy.
Connect the dots and look for trends between the first three steps.
- Circle the things that bring you the most joy. If there are other things that bring you joy, add them here.
Create a list of keywords from step 4, and search for jobs at sites such as mynextmove.org.

A Case Study

I have one beautiful and wonderful client who has been working with me for the past year on many facets of self-growth like finding her authentic voice, setting boundaries at work, tapping into things that bring her joy outside of work, building confidence, and becoming fearless. Fearlessness was critical for her recent shift. I asked her, “If you weren’t afraid, what would change?” She responded, “I would actively start looking for a new job.”

This client has spent 18 years at the same company. A former dancer, she started in customer service without a bachelor’s degree. While employed, she went back to school to obtain her degree, got her Six Sigma Black Belt, and has since worked her way up the ranks on the Quality Assurance (QA) team. We started working together because she was on the brink of burnout and wanted a change – but didn’t even know where to start. She has since assumed managerial responsibilities and is positioned to be the global leader of QA, but she knows it’s not her forever job. The culture at her current organization is weighing on her.

When I asked her what type of career she would be interested in exploring, she froze. She has always toyed with being an entrepreneur, but financially she knows she needs to move into a more fulfilling corporate career so that she can “fill her buckets” find joy, and have energy left to start her side business.

As much as she wanted a new job, she didn’t know where to start. She had spent her entire career in QA, what else was there? Understandable, and common for so many of my clients.

When we looked at her talents from when she was a child, they were riddled with creativity. From designing houses and making clothes for her Barbies to coloring, writing, and dancing, she was always creating. As a former dancer and dance instructor, she loved choreographing various dances because they allowed her to tell a story.

When we discussed her values – her number one value is Inner Harmony, achieved by her secondary values of freedom and creativity.

Then, we walked through the steps related to her current role. The following trends kept repeating:

Creativity
Problem-solving
Storytelling
Visioning

Based on these keywords, and some other aspects of her job that she really enjoyed, she started researching jobs and discovered that Content Marketing, Story Telling, and Copy Writing were good fits for her. She was so “blind” to opportunities that existed outside of QA that she never fully realized the broad aspect of marketing roles and didn’t even realize that Story Telling was a real job!

Just the act of researching using these keywords and finding free courses that teach her more about marketing has brought her so much joy and happiness. She also has a better appreciation for certain aspects of her current role, has started delegating tasks that drain her, and looks forward to tasks that allow her to express her creativity, and that grants her the freedom and autonomy she desires.

This client’s story is far from over. Being a process-oriented individual, she is taking a methodical approach to her job change. And taking advantage of free training and mastermind courses to embellish her skills in these areas before applying to any jobs, but – every decision she has been making since doing this work has been guided by her secondary goals of “freedom” and “creativity,” knowing that both will bring her the inner harmony she desires in the long run.

The Takeaway

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that change is the only constant and that it is our responsibility to create the happiness we seek. If we embrace change, and our responsibility to find joy, we will grow stronger and more resilient as a result. Embracing change and cultivating resilience allows us to seamlessly end one chapter while we transition into a new one.

If you are ready for a career shift, now is the time. With rising unemployment rates, I’ve heard feedback that employers aren’t even asking why you are looking. And if you are, then saying “This pandemic has given me the opportunity to evaluate many facets of my life, and I am using the opportunity to align with my talents, values, and things that I am passionate about.” is a perfectly acceptable interview response!

If you have any questions, please reach out. I’m always happy to discuss anything I write or talk about in more detail, and I am currently accepting new clients if you’re interested in partnering with a coach to help you through this process.

Change isn’t easy, but when you use your core values to guide you, it is SO worth it. Happy transitioning my friends.

Interested in working with me? Head over to the Work With Me page and schedule your free coaching exploration call today!

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