Are you due for a career change? How can we tell if we are? Our body can be indicators for many things but, did you know that a change of career was one of those indicators? Many signs cue us it is time to move on from our career, and our health is how our body mainly signals us a change is overdue. When our health declines due to our current job, we should consider assessing how it might be affecting us. We should ask ourselves if the feeling of exhaustion comes from waking up in the morning or after work. If it’s before, most likely our career is weighing us down. Being held down by our job isn’t ideal, not to mention it adds a constant stress to us. Consistent pressure, even though we might deal with it daily, is a major indicator when it becomes a hopeless kind of stress. Stress has many links to heart, blood pressure and mental health conditions.
Our mental health suffers when we begin to experience this kind of stress. It can cause us to be negative and carry the negativity around until we start to feel bitter and unhappy. We should ask ourselves if this behavior happens more often at work than outside of work? If we notice we’re starting to change into a person we don’t recognize then it is time to change our career.
The happiness we experience can be attributed to many things such as love, passion or purpose. Once we lose these three factors in our work, we find no meaning in our career; therefore, there is no purpose. A loss of passion for what we do means we’re starting to grow tired of our work and stop believing in what we do. There is lack of concentration and performance on our part when it happens. Happiness is critical to our performance and advances in our career. So, if we find that the job we took for the great salary is running us out of steam to continue, move on. Money isn’t everything, and it’s okay to leave if the money isn’t driving us to work.
Career change can also stem from our work environment. When we aren’t valued for our talents, it can be difficult to stay motivated, put forth the effort, and be loyal. Employers who don’t appreciate our talents might be an indication the job might not be the best fit. We need to value our potential and shouldn’t let it be taken for granted by anyone. However, there are moments where our employers recognize our value and work.
Sometimes recognition of our work can lead to rewards. With the way workplaces are changing, we are becoming more of our own managers and accountable for the rewards we receive. Rewards aren’t based solely on emotions but on the qualitative and quantitative measurements. What does that mean? It is the way an employer invests in our careers such as higher salary, bonus, leadership, mentorship or promotion. If we aren’t receiving the rewards based on the industry’s standards and for our work, then it is time to move on. We don’t want to spend our years working for a company where our professional growth is a stunt.
A career where we are unsatisfied, unfulfilled or bored cues us it is time to assess our job and ourselves. We should ask ourselves if we’re in a comfort zone restricting our growth or have we done all the growth we have? Another question we should ask is, how our employer is investing in our professional growth? An unchallenging career leaves us at a comfortable position with little room to grow and mature in a professional setting which is fine until there’s no fulfillment in the job we do. Being in a job position where we are professionally stunted can be a way of suppressing our brand.
When we are not authentic to ourselves it can be difficult to contribute, participate and perform at our best levels. If we have no room to grow, we are most likely to lose interest in performing for the job. In some cases, we run the chance of being demoted to a position that is well under our potential and how we work. Finding ourselves in situations where we are suppressed from growth and being authentic marks a need for a career change. Our decision to change course on our career might be steered by the social interactions at work such as work culture.
Work culture has become such an integral part of the workplace now that it can determine where we choose to work. Of course, the work culture we enter now might change as new employees come and go since every person brings something new to the table. A work culture deemed untrustworthy is reason enough to leave, even more so when we face a hostile environment we have a hard time trusting. Our work environment impacts our performance and advancements, and if we don’t have a work culture we can trust, move on to better things.
We shouldn’t fear to leave a career for another that will make us happier and less stressed. Remember our well-being is above everything else.