Helping Career Changers Around The World
February 2013
Commitment – Is It Too Big A Word?
Are you really committed to your career change?
We are into February now, so how much progress have you made? How far have you got with your New Year Resolutions to actually do something? If you haven’t made much progress, does it suggest that you are perhaps not really committed?
Now does this sound a little hectoring? Do you feel a little bit nagged or bullied? Does it make you feel just a little bit like a child again, being told off not studying hard enough?
It is a word that carries a lot of messages about how serious you are, how strong willed you are, how ready to knuckle down and drive yourself towards your goal.
It all sounds a bit heavy and a bit scary. Signing up to a commitment can seem like shouldering a big burden, so it is not surprising that people fight shy of commitment in many areas of life, not least with career change!
So how can you make changes in your career without commitment?
Well, you can’t, of course.
But the secret is to change what you are asking yourself to be committed to.
If you say ‘I commit to leaving my job as an accountant and starting work in the media by the end of the year’ it is such a big ask, that there is a real risk that you will be overwhelmed and fail to achieve it. Then you have to carry the burden of that failure around with you to add to the burden of a job you hate.
Not a good outcome.
So what if you say ‘I commit to talking to my friend Nick who I know has friends and contacts in the media, and I will do this by the end of the week.’
How does that feel?
A bit more do-able? What are the chances that you will fulfil this kind of commitment? Much greater, I suspect, and so you have a good chance of ending up with a feeling of success, not failure.
So this is the kind of commitment you need to be working on.
Lets face it, at the end of the day, every Big Dream is achieved through a series of small steps, so that is all you need to commit to.
So what small step will you take tomorrow?
Commit to it, do it and you will have taken a step towards your new career future.
Something to think about
“Ordinary things consistently done produce extraordinary results.”
~ Keith Cunningham ~
Cherry Recommends
Do One Thing Different
Ten Simple Ways To Change Your Life
Bill O’Hanlon
This is a fantastic book for people who are fed up with going round and round in circles and who just want to get on and sort out the things in their lives that are causing them problems. There is no lengthy discussion of past influences or psychological models, O’Hanlon simply demonstrates how you can make changes in very practical and straightforward ways.
Solution focused techniques are used to encourage the reader to move out of analyzing the nature of the problem and how it arose and instead to begin to find solutions and take action to solve it.
10 ‘Solution Keys’ are offered which include:
- Find what leads up to the problem behaviour and disrupt it
- Recognize what do you already know and do what works well for you
- Keep your past and your feelings in perspective – they don’t have to determine your present or your future
- Choose where to focus your attention. What will help and be worth your energy and time?
Do One Thing Different is a user-friendly, DIY guide to developing your own Solution Keys and will help you to define small and manageable steps towards a better way of living your life.
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