Some days you can just feel the stickiness around you.  It holds you like a butterfly in honey… stuck in your rut, trapped in your box, the walls of a life, a job, or a career, that you don’t want, but can’t seem to get out of.  You can see a million ways to change, but how do you know which option is the right one.

So instead of taking action, you hesitate.  You hesitate because you’re not sure that whatever you do will actually change things enough to make a difference. So why put in all that hard work? How can you know if you are strong enough, smart enough, or fast enough to make a lasting change?

And the truth is, you’re probably not really “doing enough”….. But this isn’t actually a bad thing.  Before you curse me in 100 languages,  let me explain.

Right now, you know you’re not “enough.” And in many areas of your life you may never be “enough”.  Because the moment you are strong enough, smart enough, or fast enough you’ll probably stop trying to grow. You won’t need to transform or improve that area of your life anymore because you’ll already be “enough.”

Life, Without Change, is Death

You already know that your Spirit, Body, and Mind are complete (and if you didn’t know, now you do).  Although you are absolutely whole exactly as you are, you can never completely fill the available space to grow. You probably feel the need to BE MORE every single day and define this as “not enough.” But the need to be more is the urge to expand our knowledge, our ability to love, and our freedom to explore the unknown reaches of reality.

All you have to do is purge the fear of not being enough without removing the opportunity to grow. Then you’ll discover you CAN BE stronger, smarter, and faster in whatever passionate goals you define.  It’s the fear that is sticky.  It’s the fear that inhibits your transformation into a better career, a stronger relationship, and a more enjoyable life. Take this moment to let go of your fear.

Take Another Look

You may not always be strong enough, but that doesn’t mean you are not strong.  Your actions may not make enough of the changes you want, but that doesn’t mean that you cannot act or that you cannot change.  We are not meant to do everything today, but we are meant to grow everyday.  So the only true failure is to allow your fears to stop your transformation.

Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one’s mistakes. ~Oscar Wilde

Stop fighting “failure” and start examining your mistakes.  But be discerning, be choosy with your energy.  Don’t worry about every mistake, focus on those mistakes that connect directly with your true Life Purpose. Whenever you recognize that you have not done enough passionate, successful work, then you have discovered a new opportunity to grow. It is much easier to solve a problem when you know it’s root, otherwise it’ll just keep growing back.

Transform Into Good Enough

Step #1:  Stop asking “What Should I be doing about this?” and start paying attention to where your mistakes and your passions align.

Whenever a mistake upsets you, write it down.  Use your journal as a powerful tool to document where you fell short and why it upset you. How does this mistake effect your life purpose?  What have you learned by making this mistake?  What goal was effected?

Mistakes are the portals of discovery. ~James Joyce

By examining both your passions and your mistakes you are led toward the areas in your life that have the greatest, most rewarding transformations. Harness this knowledge.  Be aware of it!  And then let your internal Voice, your Heart, your Creative Muse, and your Logical Daemon work together to solve it.

Step #2: Now ask “What is inhibiting me from reaching my goal?” and “What can I do to overcome or sidestep this mistake?”

Make a list. By making a mistake, you’ve learned exactly where you didn’t have enough knowledge, enough strength, or applied enough passion. How can you respond to this mistake with actionable steps that will directly effect the outcome?  If you want a new job but blew your last interview, learn and PRACTICE your interview skills.  If you want to change your career but haven’t transitioned from your current job to a better one, CONTACT a mentor or a career change coach for some practical help.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. ~George Bernard Shaw

Once you’ve defined a list, you’ll realize how much control you have over your life and your goals. The world will start to feel less like a box and more life a corridor of doors.  But, just creating a new ToDo list probably won’t be enough.  You have to break the sticky cycle of small actions, or you’ll end up doing nothing at all.

Step #3: Change the Rules of your Environment

Pick one area of your life and change it to provide encouragement around your passion filled goals in a way that addresses your mistakes directly.

Do you want to be a better leader but still can’t get a leadership role at you company? –> Consider how often you are reminding yourself of that goal… Have you posted your goal on your office wall? Do you read and learn about leadership skills every day? Do you reach out to leaders in your local community, online, or through a leadership organization and ask them for help?

You need to build a new reality that supports the improvements you are trying to make.  Remember, this is YOUR transformation.  You want to create your daily schedule, your surroundings, and your relationships so that it’s EASIER to reach your goals… EASIER to overcome your mistakes…. EASIER to align with your passions and your life purpose.

If you do each of these three steps, you will make significant strides in overcoming your mistakes, expanding your knowledge, reaching your goals, and achieving your Life purpose. But there is one more thing that can give you the most phenomenal Power boost to everything else you do.

Bonus Step: Believe

It’s so simply to write it.  So simple to say it.  But not so simple to do it.  You have to Believe. Believe that what you are doing will work, even when you make mistakes.  Believe that your goals are worthwhile, even when your peers say they are not.  Believe that living a life of passion is better than toiling away in apathy, even though everyone else seems to have already given up.  Just don’t give up. And you’ll already be closer to achievement than most of the people around you.

Your mistake does not define who you are…you are your possibilities. ~Oprah Winfrey

The life you want is waiting for you.  Your mistakes are just the guiding lights along the path.  “Not Good Enough” is a direct invitation from your New Reality to fly with Freedom.

Follow your Purpose, follow your Passion, Believe… and you will Achieve.

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What mistakes have been holding you back from your dreams? How have you used your mistakes to change your life? Share your ideas in the comment section!

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How many times have you promised yourself that you’ll ask for that raise, find a better job, or fight for the promotion you know you deserve?  Companies and hiring mangers expect you to have approximately 11 different jobs over your lifetime.  So if you’re 30 and haven’t changed your job at least 3 or 4 times, you may actually be reducing your opportunities for career advancement.

A new job doesn’t necessarily have to be in a new career field, or even in a new company.  But most managers expect that you will continually improve your technical and leadership skills, with training, and with a variety of different job experiences.  That means career change isn’t an option, it is a requirement for precedence in today’s competitive market.

Find Your Life Purpose FIRST

A significant career transition can take up to two years or more, depending upon the magnitude of the change. However, if you define your Life Purpose first, you may discover that you already have most of the transferable skills you need.  And more importantly, you may also find the passion to move forward toward a truly meaningful goal.  Choosing a career aligned with your Life Purpose will, automatically, put you on the fast track to success.

Destiny is not a matter of chance. It is a matter of choice: it is not to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.    – William Jennings Bryan

Career Choices

Whether you want a leadership role, a raise, or an entirely new line of work, making a change is making a choice.  A choice for which you are 100% responsible.  When you base your career decisions on your Life Purpose, you will have a strong foundation to stand upon when difficulties arise. When your family and friends question your efforts to take on more responsibility and gain more pay, which reason would you like to give them?

A) You choose this new job because you are willing to trade your precious, irreplaceable time for money and put off your dreams until later?

OR

B) You choose this new job because you can work with passion & focus everyday towards meaningful & significant goals–a life of Abundance, Purpose, and Achievement.

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”    – Mark Twain

I hope you picked B.  Otherwise you may need to spend some time to consider the Meaning of Your Life.  If you are unsure which direction to focus your efforts or how to get there, listen to your internal Voice, examine what you like & dislike about your current job, and contact a career change coach for guidance.

Change Requires Action

For many people, the biggest problem is simply finding the courage to take that first action toward a new job, a new career, and a new life of exciting but unknown opportunities.  They get overwhelmed by the number of hurdles they have to jump or the difficulties they envision ahead.  The good news, and the bad news, is that no one knows the future.  You can guess and you can plan, but until you take action, nothing will change except your age.

Don’t let apathy destroy your dreams.  Take your first step toward achievable career change right now. No matter what career you have now or what new career you want, you can begin a career change with any one of these three things:

1. Update your resume or hire a professional resume writer to optimize it for your specific career market. Make sure it describes the important and relevant new achievements, skills, and training that you have TODAY.
2. Contact 3 friends or co-workers and ask them to be your professional references. Make sure they are willing to provide enthusiastic praise for your abilities.
3. Increase your career network. Join a technical or leadership association, subscribe and comment on a career specific forum or blog, or contact someone who has already achieved a similar goal and ask them to mentor you.

STOP. Don’t just read those three options.  Pick one and do it NOW. I’ll wait right here until you come back.

By completing one of those actions, you’ve already created enough momentum to carry you through any career change. The law that “objects in motion will stay in motion” applies to your goals just as much as it applies to the dynamic forces of the universe.

Commitment to Your Career Path

Now that you’ve got the Law’s of Physics on your side, make sure you PLAN to keep moving in the right direction.  Set weekly, monthly, and (yes) yearly career goals.  Focused deadlines provide a psychological trigger toward accomplishment.  They help us recognize that if we don’t take action now, we may not have a chance later.

Reward those actions.  Celebrate them with family and friends.  Treat your mistakes as an opportunity to grow and become better in your field.  But keep going, keep planning, and keep moving along the path of purpose, the path of dreams, the path of passionate achievement.

One can never consent to creep when one feels the impulse to soar.    – Helen Keller

When you are truly committed to your career change, you will feel both responsibility, meaning you will “accept authority and take initiative”, and loyalty, meaning your will have “devotion or dedication to a cause.”  If you want a promotion, a raise, or an awesome job that you love doing, the only way to reach your goals and change your career is to continue taking meaningful and measurable action everyday.

The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.    – George Bernard Shaw

PS. Now that you are ready to act, make sure you’ve got the right goals, an actionable & achievable plan, and the motivation to reach your goals.   Contact me at writer@liravaughan.com, and I will help you take the next passionate, focused step toward career change success.

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What career change are you considering? How does it fit into your larger Life Purpose? Share your ideas in the comment section!

If you enjoyed the article, please subscribe to LiraVaughan.com and share it with your friends using the Share & Enjoy social bookmarking sites. Thank you for your support!