What’s the Secret of a Successful Career Change?

Written by Mike Campbell, Ed.D.

Career change happens for many different reasons. Your career goals may have changed. Your personal values may have changed. You may have discovered new interests or aspirations that you would like incorporated into your job. You may wish to make more money, have more flexible hours, to name just a few. During this change, however, it is easy to get pessimistic and take a cynical approach to change. Consider the following the next time you are serious about a life adjustment.

Negative Thinking Takes a Toll

Studies show that optimists are twice as likely as pessimists to have healthy hearts. They lead much less stressful lifestyles as well. Shift your mindset, stay positive, and stop worrying about the impending future. In short, don’t sweat the small stuff! Reducing the amount of negative thoughts and replacing them with more optimistic ones will help to reduce worry and decrease stress. When you develop a positive attitude and maintain it, you’re less likely to let life stress you, and you are more likely to enact change.

Job History Is Not the Whole Story

Your positive thinking matters. While past work experience may qualify you for specific job roles, employers are always seeking out achievers and motivated performers. If your past experience is limited, but you walk into your interview with optimism and confident energy, people will notice.

Failure Can be a Good Thing!

Ashley Stahl, in her article “The 4 Reasons Why Positive Thinking Will Get You Hired”, states that the next time you fall in love with the idea of a job and the employer doesn’t offer you the gig, guess what? You’ve been blessed with a wonderful learning opportunity! Instead of letting the rejection shape your self-image, let it add to your skills, education, or experience to plump you up for the job you were meant to have and pump you up for the moment when you actually get it.

Practice Self-confidence

Having self-confidence means that we have faith in our capacities. It is also means that we are much more likely to be authentic and happy being who we are, not trying to be somebody else. Positive thinking promotes self-confidence. If we don’t have self-confidence, it is rare to fulfill our true potential.

Many people don’t realize they are taking a negative approach in their job search. Why? Because a cynical attitude comes naturally. When past career endeavors have failed, we are prone to think “I only have one more chance” or “I’m doomed if I mess up this time.” So, if you catch yourself struggling in the Optimism Department, consider the four pointers above for developing a positive perspective as key to finding the job you love.

Image: CommScope on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0