A lot of people who are miserable with their careers but lack the drive to change courses delude themselves with this famous – or infamous – line: “I do want to take on a new career path, but I can’t.” So they sit with the lame excuse and do nothing to alleviate their misery – less work and hassle, they must be thinking.

For people who prefer to bury themselves in career stagnation despite the feeling of discontent, it’s not really a case of “I can’t.” Most of the time what they actually mean is, “I want to embark on a career change, but not right now.” And if they allow it, “not right now” can easily turn into “not ever”, in no time at all. Now there’s a bleak perspective. The sad thing is they will soon believe it – and live it.

To avoid falling into this trap, one should realize that a career change is not an overnight process. Finding stimulating careers is not something that happens with the snap of your fingers. More often than not, it takes months or years to unfurl and take shape. What many people fail to realize is that “I can’t right now.” does not necessarily mean they can’t ever. If you are inclined to say, “I want to start a new career, but I can’t.” take a long look at options and possibilities and translate them to longer term perspective. Delve deeper into your self-motivation and ask yourself what it will take for you to make the move; follow this up with an assessment of what you have to put in place to get started with a career change.

A smart move may be to start pooling you resources and setting up some funds for your planned career change. It may also be an excellent idea to start harnessing your skills and develop some expertise. Establishing connections should pave the way to your identified new area of career focus.

See, one step at a time towards change now can give you a good head start. No matter if the conclusion takes a little bit more time to attain, NOW – and not tomorrow or the near future – is absolutely the right time to start laying the groundwork for your career change.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 1:33 am and is filed under Applying for a Job, Career Changes, Free Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.