Do You Need to Change Jobs Before You Can
Change Course?
If you're in a job that's sucking the life
force out of you emotionally, time-wise, or both, but for
whatever reason it doesn’t make sense to take the leap to
doing your own thing right now, then, for you, the road to
right livelihood might begin by getting a better job. I know
it did for me.
I spent seven years commuting 90 miles a day
to my corporate job. I didn’t yet know what I wanted to be
doing but I knew that if I could free up some commuting time
it would at least buy me some time to start figuring it out.
So I took a new job at a smaller company doing similar work
but with half the commute. Freeing up that hour a day in
commuting time allowed me to work on building my dream life
on the side. For you it might mean getting a job that lets
you telecommute, provides some hands-on experience in your
dream job, or reduces your stress level enough that you can
actually focus on finding your true calling.
The Good Enough Job
Changing course from having a boss to
being your own boss doesn’t happen overnight. And
while I think being an entrepreneur beats being an employee
hands down, depending on your circumstances, your transition
to self-employment may have to start with finding what
Barbara Sher calls the “good enough” job.
In order to qualify as the good enough job,
Barbara says it must meet two criteria:
1) It can't be
toxic.
Jumping from one high stress job in your
current field to another one is not the answer. (You’ll
know you’ve stepped into another toxic job if once you
get there you find yourself uttering the words, “same
circus, different clowns.”) Even though you may make
less money in a different job or field, imagine how much
happier and less stressed out you'll be working in a
more low-key or otherwise less challenging or demanding
environment.
2) It can't
consume more than 40 hours a week.
There’s just no way around it. If you want
to create a new and better life doing work you really love,
you have to be willing to put in the time. That means
investing some of your evenings and weekend time into
building your real dream on the side. Common sense would
tell you if you’re logging 50, 60 or more hours a week at
your day job it simply leaves no time for anything else.
Let’s take a closure look at five perfectly
good reasons why phase one of your overall changing course
strategy may be a job change. If you find you too need to
change jobs before you can change course, then skip down to
Some Places to Look for the Good Enough Job to begin
your search.
5 Reasons to Start With a Job Change
1) Your current job is incredibly
stressful or toxic.
Tom's company recently downsized which means
he's now doing the job of three people. The pressure to meet
impossible deadlines and the hassle of having to navigate
unseemly organizational politics just to do his job leaves
him feeling irritable, depleted, and empty.
2) Your current job consumes too many
life hours.
Ever since Joan became a mother, she’s
dreamed about writing children's books. Instead she works in
corporate finance in Manhattan. Getting to work means
getting up at 4:30 a.m. to catch the 6:05 a.m. commuter
train. She gets back home at 8:00 p.m. just in time to put
her kids to bed. Joan says sometimes she's too exhausted to
even read them a bedtime story.
3) You just can’t afford to take the
leap right now.
Before you can afford to transition to
self-employment maybe you have one or more kids in college,
or you first need to clear away some old debt. If your
current job is toxic or requires you to work an inhuman
amount of hours, but you still need to bring in a certain
amount of money, then you may need to find a less stressful
and/or time consuming job in the interim. Just don’t forget
to be doing your homework on your dream job and socking away
as much as you can for when the big day does come.
4) The thing
you love to do just won’t pay the bills.
A software engineer named Jack has a passion
for opera singing. Despite being involved in a local opera
company for years, at 52 and living two hours from the
nearest big city, Jack knows he’s never going to make his
living as an opera singer. What he’d love to do though is
find a job that would allow him to devote an hour or two a
day rehearsing and exercising his voice. He also wants to
work at home. Jack decided to do two things. He went looking
for freelance software engineer jobs and he decided to take
a course on how to become a freelance marketing copywriter
(for more information on this interesting occupation, go to
Cool
Jobs). The combination of the two would allow him to
work from home and have time to practice his opera.
5) You need some on-the-job experience
in order to launch your own thing.
Some occupations are harder to launch from scratch as a
solo entrepreneur than others. For example, a client of
mine named Cindy is wild about fine wine and good food.
So one part of her transition strategy was to take a
part-time job working in an upscale wine bar and cheese
shop. Cindy’s plan was to take win tasting
classes through the Culinary Institute of America. But
working on the retail side gave her the opportunity to
learn about wine, working with the public, and the wine
business from a different vantage point.
From here Cindy transitioned into her own business as a
wine expert. Today she partners with
gourmet shops, wineries, and restaurants to run workshops on
wine tasting and on pairing wine and food. Cindy loves what
she does and it all began with the very strategic decision
to take a job-job. (If you want to learn more about Cindy
and others who are successfully changing course, I invite
you to read my article
Six Tips on How to Get Started.)
If you want to safely test the waters of a
potential new career without actually diving in, check out
Vocation Vacations. This innovative service sets you up with
in-person, personal mentoring with professionals who have
succeeded in such dream jobs as professional sword maker,
inn owner, baseball team manager, golf instructor, radio DJ,
cattle rancher, interior designer, doggie day care owner, or
dozens of other fascinating occupations.
Some
Places to Look for the "Good Enough" Job
Do a Job Search
CareerBuilder I used to be a columnist for this site
and have since partnered with the nation's largest
on-line employment network. Use multiple search criteria
to find your ideal job or post your resume and let
employers find you.
Seek
Out Highly-rated Employers
Look for Companies
Offering Sabbaticals
According to articles in the Christian
Science Monitor, Arrive (Amtrak's onboard magazine), and
the Washington Post many companies are offering employee
sabbaticals. Here's a short list of companies offering
paid sabbaticals:
-
Ralston Purina
-
Netscape Communications
-
Intel
-
Ernst and Young
-
IBM
-
Eli Lilly and Company
-
General Motors
-
Arrow Electronics
-
Autodesk
-
Charles Schwab & Co.
-
Dupont
-
LL Bean
-
McDonalds
-
Apple Computer
If you can’t stand the idea of getting another job-job
click here to learn about some Cool Jobs.
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live
life on purpose
