Has the time come to relaunch your career?

Career change expert Joseph Liu reveals how you can successfully relaunch your career in five easy steps.

Business woman - Via Shutterstock
Business woman – Via Shutterstock

Our work takes up a large proportion of our lives, so gaining fulfilment from what we do is so important. Research by Gallup has revealed only 33.8% of employees are actually satisfied with their work, leaving a large proportion feeling unaccomplished and unhappy with their career. This can lead to you feeling unmotivated and disappointed which can affect your personal relationships and leave you feeling pessimistic about life in general.

Having made three major career shifts in my life so far, I have learned first hand that pursuing a career path that brings you happiness and accomplishment makes ‘going to work’ so much more fulfilling and rewarding. Even if you enjoy your job, but have that niggling feeling that something is missing or that is starting to take you in the wrong direction, then it could be time to consider a career relaunch.

Here are five steps to kickstart your career relaunch today:

Take the Time to Reflect

If you are feeling dissatisfied with the route your career is taking, then take a step back and reflect on your path. Do you enjoy what you’re doing? Does your job contribute to your personal growth? Reflection is a crucial part of moving forward and will help you decide whether you need to relaunch your career. Once you can reflect on your current position, you can weigh up your options and decide which path to take. The first step to a career relaunch is realising you no longer enjoy what you do. Only then can you start meaningfully working towards changing your position and moving towards something better.

Find Your Passion

A career relaunch is all about finding what makes you happy and what you are passionate about. It is difficult to choose your path if you don’t know what matters to you. Work out your key values and interests and decide which paths align with these values – this can give you clarity when embarking on a new career. Taking the time to clarify what you want will help you prioritise what matters most to you and narrow down your options. Doing something you truly enjoy will stop those Monday blues and make working an enjoyable experience.

Don’t Overthink It

Though it may be difficult, try to avoid overthinking the decision to relaunch your career. Most of us hate uncertainty and tend to meticulously evaluate all the various options. Trying to make the perfect move can get in the way of making a reasonably good move, or any move at all for that matter. This can leave you feeling stuck, exhausted and riddled with self-doubt. Focus on action, and not excess analysis, when relaunching your career. In my own career transitions, I’ve found that endless analysis doesn’t get me anywhere, whereas taking a leap into a direction that’s broadly right has helped me make concrete progress.

Decide What Is Most Important For You

Having a successful career can often involve trade-offs that force you to prioritise certain aspects of your life. In order to move forward in the right direction, establish which aspects are most important to you in this next chapter of your career. Start by thinking about your last job – what did you find most dissatisfying about this? Was it the excessive hours? A lack of a work life balance? Or perhaps you felt underpaid or undervalued? If you felt underpaid, perhaps a career with a better salary is what matters now. Or if you felt like you worked too much, finding a path that allows you to focus on your personal life may bring you happiness. Relaunching your career is all about aligning your work with what matters most to you in this chapter of your life.

Focus On Your Goals

Clarify who you are and what you stand for when you embark on a career relaunch. Knowing your own personal goals will help you move forward and become who you want to be whilst gaining fulfilment out of your work. Having goals will give you direction and help you reach your career ambitions. It will keep you focused and help you on your path to a career relaunch.

Relaunch your careerMany of us struggle with the concept of relaunching our career as it means choosing a path of uncertainty and it can be difficult to leave a job that provides stability and routine in pursuit of a path less travelled. However, if your job brings you unhappiness and makes your life feel mundane, is the stability really worth that daily struggle of going to work? If you are yearning for something new, then stop wasting your precious time on this earth doing a job that makes you miserable. Embark on a journey that will bring you happiness, and hopefully, a career you can love.

Joseph Liu is a career change strategist. Hear inspiring stories of career reinvention on his Career Relaunch Podcast (CareerRelaunch.net) and follow him on Twitter at @JosephLiu_

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1 Response
  1. Interesting and useful career relaunching tips…. First you must be clear with your interests and avoid mistakes like entering a certain career field because of the promise of a high salary, the prestige a job might offer, or because you feel pressure from family.