It’s tough to wake up every day to a job you dread. It’s even harder to perform well and earn rewards.
We can often have trouble getting started, even when a change is long overdue. Here are 5 things you can do when you’re feeling totally stuck and needmomentum going. As you get moving, you’ll get more goal-oriented and then take more purposeful, goal-oriented actions.
(1) Brag about your accomplishments. Make a list of your top 50 accomplishments: anything you’ve done since your first memory. Include the big promotion, the third grade trophy…whatever makes you smile.
Tell each accomplishment as a story: what you did, what happened and why you enjoy the memory. No cheating: come up with 50, even if you write 5 a day.
(2) Develop your area of expertise.
In a basketball game, you have a go-to player — someone who gets the ball because you can count on her to make a play.
We are all go-to players in some areas of our lives.
“Ted” was a retired science professor, was a go-to person for cooking tips. “Amy,” a software designer, was a go-to person for shopping.
(3) Listen to whispers – your own, not somebody else’s.
Have you had these thoughts: “I’ve been having this wild idea of writing a novel…” Or opening a bookstore. Or becoming a chef. Or moving to the country.
Some whispers are actually mixed signals. You get a fantasy about moving to the country when you really need a new job, or vice versa. But start by paying attention and maybe even writing them down.
(4) Do something different.
If you’re not sure what you want to do, it doesn’t matter, as long as you take action. Action means you leave your couch and (better) your home.
Choose activities you haven’t done in awhile, or maybe ever. Go to a movie series. Get involved in an exercise class. Take a trip if you have time and money. Start a daily program of writing 500 words day.
(5) Learn something new.
Take a class or get a book. It doesn’t matter what you choose as long as you feel good about what you’ve learned. Your personal creative energy shifts as career changers learn anything from drawing to dog training.
As you keep taking actions, you’ll probably notice a shift in your physical and mental energy. If not, you’re probably (a) being too perfectionist or (b) following someone else’s program, not what’s meaningful to you.
It’s a process. Give it time. Enjoy exploring your possibilities!
