Are you feeling the mid-career itch?
According to research, 31 is the average age that workers look to change careers.
A survey of over 5000 workers found that employees around this age are much more likely to consider a change of role or even industry. This is because they've been in work for over a decade by this point.
The top reasons cited were better earnings (33%), wanting a role they're more passionate about (31%) and better work/life balance (19%).
In my coaching practice, I speak to clients all the time who are feeling motivated to change careers because of a landmark birthday or significant life event. Their 30th, 40th or 50th birthday may be approaching or has passed, or they are thinking of starting a family, or they are on maternity leave and planning a return to work.
Some have taken a much longer break out of their careers to care for their kids or older parents, and now want to finally reclaim their professional selves. But so much time has passed since they were last in work that they need some help figuring out who they are now, what they want from their careers and how to re-enter the workforce.
Going forward, I want to really focus on the thrills and challenges of making a midlife career change. After all, I went through one myself and have never looked back, but I do remember how scary it was when I first starting thinking about it.
I'm going to be sharing lots more written posts on this topic via my newsletter, as well useful links, book and podcast recommendations, and Q&A's with clients who have made a midlife career change themselves, to give you inspiration and encouragement that you can do it to!
Am really looking forward to getting stuck into, sharing lots more conversation with you and helping you navigate this tricky but exciting change.
If you haven't already, just sign up to my newsletter here.
Why we've got the happiness equation all wrong
I’m a real sucker for a good personal development or business book. I have stacks of them by my bedside, and it’s taken me a while to get to the one I’m currently devouring, but wow what a game changer this is.
Author Shawn Achor wrote ’The Happiness Advantage’ after spending over a decade researching and teaching at Harvard University, and conducting one of the largest ever studies into happiness and human potential.
He discovered that most of us have been taught from a young age that if we work hard, then we will be successful, and then we will be happy.
We hear this message at home, at school, at work and from society in general. Which explains why we chase those high grades, and promotions, and pay rises, and the bigger house or the bigger car, thinking this will eventually lead to happiness.
And yet in the course of his research, he was finding amongst his own students at Harvard that many of them were distinctly unhappy.
Achievement in itself didn’t seem to hold the key.
During his decade long hunt for the keys to happiness, he came across new research from the growing areas of positive psychology and neuroscience which showed that we have had this backwards all along:
In fact, happiness leads to success.
Happiness and optimism actually fuel performance and achievement, and a more positive brain is more motivated, more resilient, more creative and more productive.
So where do you begin if you want to feel happier? Well a great place to start is to understand our capacity for change. Many of think we are just born a certain way:
“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”
“I’m just not a very positive person”
“I’m good at certain things but not others, it’s the way I am”
But in fact, new research into ‘neuroplasticity’ shows that our brains can adapt and grow throughout our lives. We aren’t stuck with a certain skill set and personality that we thought we were born with. We can in fact continually learn new skills through practice.
So it’s perfectly possible to learn to be happier!
I’ll be sharing one of my favourite happiness tips later this week which you can apply in your daily life, and I’d love to hear how you get on! Feel free to comment and let me know.
So here’s to all of us turning that happiness equation on its head, and seeing how more happiness = more success!
Why failure could be the key to your career success
We are often told from a young age that failure should be avoided. At school, top grades are rewarded and low grades are penalised.
When we fail at something, it can feel embarrassing, painful, and can even damage our sense of self-confidence.
But what if I were to tell you that in fact, you can re-frame how you see failure and use it to make you more resilient and propel you towards success?
If you start to look around you, you can find many examples of well known figures who have embraced failure and pushed on through to achieve great things:
JK Rowling's first Harry Potter book was rejected by 12 different publishers before Bloomsbury accepted it
Michael Jordan was actually cut from his basketball team in high school
Thomas Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the lightbulb before eventually finding a model which worked
Oprah Winfrey was fired from her first job as a news anchor and told she "wasn't fit for television"
What we can learn from these examples is that you can change the way you see failure. Or even what you call it. Why not call it an opportunity? An opportunity to refresh, to refocus and become more resilient.
This alternative way of seeing failure is also called having a 'growth mindset'.
When you operate with a growth mindset, you don't allow yourself to be held back by your perceived limitations and abilities (also called having a 'fixed mindset'). Instead, you allow yourself to see failure as an opportunity for growth and development.
It's a much more empowering and confidence-building perspective to go through life with.
So if you do one new thing this week, allow yourself to do it badly! Be brave and have a go at something you've never tried before, and be ready to fail, learn and grow your resilience muscles. You'll soon start to see that this process is all part of your path to career success.
