No time to change careers after 40? Try these 6 time-creating hacks (no 5am nonsense).
Sometimes the world surprises you.
Last week, two clients got the news that their roles were no longer required. It was a shock to both.
One emailed me to say:
"Of course, I'm worried. But I'm so glad I’ve started to prepare for change - before I needed to. I'd have hated to get this news and not already have begun preparing for my next career steps."
You might be thinking:
“I’m not quite ready to make change. I need to wait until…I have more time…When I have less on my plate… When I have a gap in between busy periods…. When the kids are less demanding….”
Please know this: There is never a perfect time for change.
No-one is ever ‘ready’ for change.
If time seems to be slipping through your fingers…
These time-creation ideas will help you make career changes after 40 that bring you more joy at work.
Yet so many of us wait. For that perfect moment.
When the sea of life is perfectly calm. And the sun is shining at the temperature of…perfection.
I waited for 2 years in my first career - waiting for the perfect moment. Doing nothing different. Waiting for the perfect idea for change to come and smack me in the face. (Spolier: it never did. I just wasted that time. And wasn’t any more ready when I decided that enough was enough!)
FYI: All of us are too busy.
Every. Single. One. Of. Us.
We each have our own distinct flavour of busyness.
We might be too busy trying to be half-decent partners - or searching for a half-decent partner.
By being parents of young people - or children of old people.
We might be too busy being bosses - or team members. By team-work - or alone-work.
Too busy trying to be noticed - or worrying about becoming invisible. Too busy trying to stand out - or too busy with the effort required to fit in.
Too busy with our must-do lists - or wondering about our one-day lists. With our save-the-plant-ism - or our Amazon wish-list-ism.
Too busy with our physical health needs - or our mental health desires. With their needs - or their wants.
Too busy with all the choices - or the lack of options.
By the hope of making it through today unscathed…while summoning the energy for tomorrow.
No one is ever ready for change. But you can become more ready.
By deciding to start…even though you know you’re not ready.
And the easiest place to start is to create tiny chunks of free time in your life.
Minuscule windows of opportunity. That you’ll barely notice.
Until you’ve created a few of them.
That transform before your eyes into chunks of free time. That you can deliberately choose to invest in…whatever your heart desires! (Including designing your work-life to be more enjoyable…potentially forever.)
Time creation is where to start preparing yourself for change.
Here are some tiny ideas to create chunks of time and energy to design your future work to be so enjoyable, you may never want to retire.
Day 1: The beginning of change
Day 2 : Faster meetings - 3 tiny ideas.
Day 3 - Invest 5mins today, create 15mins recurring.
Day 4 - A surprising way to boost your speed at work
Day 5 - a 60second habit that will gift you hours.
Day 6 - A little experiment that could save you up to 22mins (multiple times a day)
If you liked this, you might also like these:
How to choose the right career coach / career consultant (even if you’re not sure you need one yet)
The express train to career change after 40 (so alluring yet so dangerous)
The 5 most important questions to ask (if you’re feeling career stuck)
