You’re paralyzed. The fear of making a career change and making that leap fills you with terror – and yet the thought of another year in your current career is just as scary. In this fear-filled limbo state, how do you move forwards? With the help of a career changer just like you, Natasha shares an effective way to use fear to your advantage.
Sometimes people become miserable and undervalued in their current marketing job and, at the same time, they’d been offered a better-paid position in another company.
Sometimes the fear of career change leads people to thinking they will get stuck there. Also, there is the thought of having to stay at least a year to keep looking professional. What if they gave up on their career change in the meantime? This could feel like a trap: what if this job offer was a test of commitment to finding a career someone loved?
There is also the other side of being scared of not taking it – of passing up the chance to leave a company that didn’t value them, and where they felt themselves getting smaller and sadder with every passing week.
But then it comes down to having to make a decision in the next few days which came with paralyzing fear.
You’re probably familiar with the fear of career change, too, if you’re thinking about making a shift.
There’s the fear of going for it – of making a change. Fear of failure, fear of looking like a fool. Fear of the unknown, and of leaving behind a life you’ve invested so much in.
And then there’s also the fear of not making the move. The fear of looking back on your life with regret. The fear of spending your life not just being in the wrong career, but having to live with the knowledge that you’re still there because you were too afraid to change it.
This stuck state – this paralysis in the face of two equally scary options – is exhausting. You’re using so much energy, and getting absolutely nowhere.
Maybe you’ve been finding yourself lying awake at night, staring at the ceiling, running circles in your head. Or perhaps you’ve noticed that when your career change crosses your mind, your stomach gets tight, and your head gets so noisy it’s hard to think straight. You spend hours weighing up pros and cons and trying to be rational, but you can’t seem to be rational about this subject.
This in-between fear is hard to live with. It’s frustrating, and it’s confusing, and it feels like it’s never going to end.
And it’s also the sign that you’ve reached a beautiful tipping point in your career change.