Mid-Career Transitions: Why You’re NOT Alone & How You Can Get UNSTUCK

Ep: 105

When one phase of your career draws to a close, how do you bridge the gap and place yourself somewhere that makes you feel fulfilled and valued and allows you to make a real impact? Women facing a mid-career transition often feel intimidated or afraid of the next step – but the next step is a chance to position yourself somewhere incredible.

On this episode of The Bridge to Fulfillment, Blake puts mid-career changes in context as the opportunity for growth and fulfillment that they are, lays out the most common reasons women get stuck in this phase of their career, and shares some of the remarkable career transitions she has seen women make when they reach out and ask for help with the process. Listen in for a much-needed shot of hope and perspective in a stressful time.

 

What You’ll Learn:

  • What the data on mid-career transitions says, and how to interpret it to get a sense of what’s possible for you going forward and the value you already hold
  • Why clarity on your value and secret sauce transferable skills is vital to a successful career change
  • How to get the right help for the career transition you need to make, and how Blake’s process differs from other “tactical” coaches
  • And much more!

Favorite Quote:

“Most people transition multiple times in their career throughout their lifetime. And the key to a successful transition is really uncovering your secret sauce transferable skills, really understanding your fulfillment framework – what it is exactly that you need, what are those criteria that you need to truly be fulfilled in your career life, not just for the short term, but for the long term.”  —Blake Schofield

Rather than hoping the grass will be greener, identify what the RIGHT next step is.

We can help you do just that.

Get clarity on where you are on your journey to career fulfillment, where you’re headed, optional paths to get there, and the right next step to take.

Start your complimentary, Personalized Career Fulfillment Plan by going to www.thebridgetofulfillment.com/plan

Want free resources to set your job search up for success? You can get them by going to: https://thebridgetofulfillment.com/mistakes

Transcript

Blake Schofield Welcome back to the Bridge to Fulfillment. Today, we’re talking about the question I get asked all of the time, is it too late to transition if I’m mid or later in my career? Stay tuned, because I’m going to break down barriers and myths that maybe you thought and help you understand why, in fact, transitioning in the middle or later part of your career is not only common, but one of the absolute best times to do it. You know, it can get really easy to believe that it’s risky or hard to change careers mid life, but in fact, it’s the most common and in many cases, like I said, the best time to do it. Why? Number one, you’ve developed great transferable skills, you likely just need an impartial expert to help you see them and know how to communicate them. Number two, you’ve had enough experiences to actually understand what you like and what you don’t want anymore. Number three, you’re more clear on your values and priorities. And you want to build a more intentional life that aligns with them. And finally, number four, you’ve already built a successful career and shown you can deliver results. You have a wealth of knowledge, experience, and tools to take with you to really be able to elevate and move into that next chapter of your life. So why do we tell ourselves that it’s too hard that we might not be happy or successful on another path? Or why do we fear that we have to take a big step backwards or go back to school in order to make a change. It’s because we don’t really know the right next path. And we get lost searching online, talking to friends and family and trying to figure it out on our own. That lack of progress and increasing frustration leads us to believe that it might not be possible for us, or that maybe our expectations are too high. Those are the two most common things I hear from pretty much every single woman that talks to me when she shares what her true dream is. And I want you to know that pretty much I’ve I would say never heard from a woman that what she wants is completely unrealistic or unattainable. But it’s hard to know when you’re in your shoes, because you’re struggling to find it. Another reason we get lost is because our perspective is too narrow. We only know what we’ve seen and experienced. And if you’ve been in the same company, same career, same industry, your entire career, you’re limited to what your experiences and knowledge have been. And so oftentimes, it’s really easy to assume that you know everything and what you’re seeing is the full picture. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. We also get lost because we’re following traditional job search strategies. Searching job boards and LinkedIn, talking to recruiters applying for jobs that are similar are ones that we think someone will hire us for. We’re also making decisions out of fear instead of possibility and opportunity. This is a huge one. If all of your thoughts and all of your decisions are being driven by what you’re afraid, you’re going to have to give up. What you’re fearful might happen. You are literally shutting off and choking away the opportunities for your life, you will never create the type of life that you want. By fearing things. You create the life you want by going after the possibility and the opportunity and setting yourself up with the right foundation so that it’s not a leap, so that you are building that bridge as you go along. So you have the stability, the confidence, the knowledge and the strategy, truly to create what you want. We also get lost or stuck because we don’t have the skills, tools, roadmap or support to know how to do this in a way where we have 100% confidence in the right path. And in our ability to move into that path and truly elevate our life and career. I know this is a huge part of why I was stuck for so many years. I didn’t have clarity. I didn’t know what the right path was. And I didn’t know what to expect.

Blake Schofield And so therefore, I got stuck in trapped doing a lot of things, or I was taking a lot of action but it wasn’t actually getting me where I needed to go. It reminds me of one of my former mentors used to always talk about being in the car and having the car emergency brake on and your foot is on the gas and you’re putting in so much energy to move forward but the car is literally going nowhere. I know that this is really what I was doing for almost two decades of my career, I was making small movements for but ultimately, it wasn’t truly getting me where I needed to go. Because I didn’t understand the path. I didn’t know how to be successful, I didn’t have the clarity that I needed. And this is what I consistently see with people with women that are struggling with the exact same thing I was struggling with. Another reason we get stuck, we’re focusing on the tactical pieces, focusing on updating our resume, interviewing positioning ourselves, but not solving the root cause. I often say if you’re unfulfilled and unhappy in your career, right. And it’s not just because you want a shorter commute, or you want to make more money, but truly you look and you’re not energized, excited, passionate about the work that you’re doing. You feel like work leads into your life, or you feel like there’s something more that you should be doing or could be doing. just changing scenery, right won’t solve the problem, not understand the root cause of your lack of fulfillment, and what exactly it is that you need your fulfillment framework to truly create the fulfilling career in life of your of your dreams, you will end up back in this cycle again in nine to 24 months, right where when the honeymoon wears off at the next new job, or the next new company, you’ll find yourself back in the same position again, because you’re not focusing on solving the root cause, truly understanding what you need to be fulfilled in your career in life. And really understand your secret sauce, transferable skills, so that you’re really creating and moving into a role where you’re spending the vast majority of your time doing things that you’re naturally gifted at. And then finally, understanding really how you work best and the right fit for you. Those three things are critical to really being able to position yourself and align yourself in a way that will truly create the career in life you want. And finally, why do we get stuck, because we falsely assume that we are staying safe staying in the same path. We feel like maybe we should just suck it up. And just keep doing what we’re doing. Because we’re successful, we’re making good money doing what we’re doing. But the problem is, you have no idea of the increasing risks that you’re creating, the longer you stay in a path that’s misaligned. That will ultimately lead you to a breakdown moment. And what I see consistently, it’s not a matter of if you’ll have a breakdown moment, it’s a matter of when. So what is a breakdown a moment, a breakdown moment is when we stay in a career or job or a path that is misaligned for too long. And ultimately, what ends up happening is over a period of months and years that builds to get to a place where eventually one of two things happens. One, you either have such severe emotional or physical burnout, that it drastically impacts you, I got to this point where like, I just didn’t even feel like I could drag myself to work one more day. Or you will get put on a performance plan or a layoff. Even if you’ve always been a top performing employee, your entire career, I can’t tell you I would be an incredibly rich woman, if I could tell you and get money for every single time a woman is said to me, I’ve always been a high achiever. I’ve always been a top performer I cannot believe, right that I’ve been put on a performance plan or asked to leave or separate from my company. It happens all the time. And it happens because we stay in a path where we’re not really able to give it our all because it’s not truly aligned with the path that we need. And you want to avoid that that is one of the greatest risks I see. And one of the things I wish I had understood is I was going down this journey. You know, I want you to know, the risk isn’t in creating change. The risk actually comes from staying in a path that doesn’t align. The risk comes from trying to do this on your own, only to move to something that’s more of the same or worse. It comes from making assumptions about what’s possible and limiting yourself. And the risk comes from believing that you need to take a financial or personal step backwards and wasting a lot of time and money unnecessarily.

Blake Schofield On the flip side, opportunity comes when you seek help from someone who has been there and done that and been able to do the same for others. It comes when you realize that you’ve spent a lot of time building up your skill set your career and your financial income. Far too much to put it at risk by staying in a path of increasing risk or by transitioning to something that you’re not really sure is the right and best match for you. opportunity comes when you get clear on exactly what you want and need to be to uncover your secret sauce, transferable skills, understand how to position yourself to stand in and showcase your value, and how to truly align yourself with the best and right match for you. risk. It doesn’t come from change. It comes from fighting the very change that you need, and from continuing to do the same thing, and hoping that things will get better. Thanks again for joining me today on The Bridge to Fulfillment. I hope today that you got value in understanding and shifting your perspective about what’s truly possible for you, and maybe identifying some of the ways that today you’re keeping yourself stuck. But you have the opportunity to open up and unleash so much more possibility for your life. Until next time, have a great week.