18 Steps to Reinventing Your Career
At twenty-three years old, I thought my life was perfect. I had graduated college a year early. My career ran as if it were on a timetable. Sales led to management and management led to executive positions. By the time I was thirty, I was the publisher of a computer magazine running a multimillion-dollar business unit. On top of that, I had a happy marriage and a home in Silicon Valley.
“I followed a simple mantra:
work hard, make money, work harder, get promoted, make more money.”
While my career continued to escalate and I continued to excel, the family I grew up in started to crumble. In a period of four years, I lost my mother, father, sister, and favorite aunt. My mother was chronically ill and disabled for ten years and was the last one to die. Looking back, I realized my job was the only place where it appeared I had complete control of my destiny.
After my mother died, I continued to delve into the most challenging projects at work. If they paid me—I would go. For the first time in my life, I got attached to the job, the power, the money, and the outcome. The death I experienced this time was not that of a family member, but of my spirit. My health started to suffer, my energy waned, and I could feel the light of my soul getting dimmer and dimmer. I decided to leave it all behind, including stock options, to find meaning in my life where there was once just money.
That first year after leaving my job was one of the most liberating and yet frustrating transitions of my life. Here’s what to expect if you’ve just left your job (by choice or not) or are thinking about leaving, and how you can reinvent your career and reclaim your identity.
Make the Decision:
1. Listen to Your Heart and Soul
You know the feelings all too well. You dread getting up for work in the morning. You fantasize about the beach while you’re in a high-powered executive meeting. You get sick all the time. These are all warning signals. Listen to them. After seeing how quickly human life can be lost, I realized life is too short to do something that has lost all its meaning.
2. Take Advantage of Timing
Plenty of times I thought of making a change, but the timing was never right. Either I needed the next year’s money to pay for the house remodel or I was in the middle of a big launch that would advance my status and compensation. When you’re ready, however, there are always opportunities that present themselves or put you over the edge. Look for those times and then jump before you’re pushed.
3. Don’t Burn Your Bridges
Give proper notice. Extended notice if necessary. Offer to help find a replacement. Talk to your staff and clients individually. Of course, it took a while for me to convince my staff that I was not terminally ill, pregnant, or insane! Send the proper official notices out to everyone necessary and keep the door open for future conversations.
4. Do Your Budget
Ideally, you’d want to review your finances before giving notice. I knew my husband and I were going to take a huge income cut, but I also knew that we could survive with less. I realized when I made my decision to leave that we had everything we needed and what we didn’t have, we would take out of savings. Isn’t that why we saved all those years? Calculate what you need, what you have, and what you can cut out! Also, if you’ve been let go, apply for unemployment benefits immediately to help soften the financial burden.
Cut the Cord:
5. Leave What You Don’t Need Behind
There will come a time for you to clean out your office. Some of you may want to keep your business files for the future. I’m not a keeper, but I was still surprised when it took my assistant and me only ten minutes to clean out over ten years of work. Leave your old “stuff” behind and take your new self out the door with you. There might also be relationships you wish to leave behind, which is okay too.
6. Take a Break
We type-A personalities have a hard time chilling out. A couple of days after leaving my job, I was so afraid of not doing anything and where that would lead me that I decided to throw a small summer BBQ for eighty of my closest friends. I spent weeks preparing the venue and the food, and it was a smashing success. But then I crashed. I realized it was okay to have nothing to do—to take a vacation and really enjoy it or to live at the spa for a couple of days. Give yourself a break and make sure you indulge.
7. Get Some Sleep
Right about the time I was leaving my job, Joan Lunden, a long-term host of Good Morning America was saying goodbye to her job. I remember reading an article in which she replied to the interviewer about what she was doing lately and she said, “Sleeping”. She had been sleep deprived for so many years that she was loving the fact that she could now sleep in. When I quit, I slept 9-10 hours a night for weeks. I needed to make up for all those years with no down time. Don’t fight the urge to sleep. You probably need it.
8. Do Something You’ve Always Wanted to Do
You know all those things you never had time to do while you were working? Maybe it’s planting a vegetable garden or starting a work-out routine. Now’s your chance. You’ve got no one to answer to but yourself and who knows…you may find a new idea for a career out of it. While I didn’t find my new career lining my kitchen cabinets or getting that tattoo that I’ve always wanted, I did get a sense of accomplishment. Find out what gives you yours.
Reclaim and Reinvent Your Identity:
9. Get a Personal Signature
I’ll never forget how I felt about a month into my time off at a women’s charity function—Naked! I wrote my name and number on the backs of other women’s business cards. After that, I decided that I didn’t need a job or a title to have a card or an email signature line. I had personal “social” cards made up that contained my name and contact information, and quickly added that info to my email signature. The best personal card I saw was from a man who got laid off after working for the same company most of his career. Next to his name were the letters “NWNW”, which he explained stood for “Not Working, Not Worried”!
10. Have a Storyline
In business, it’s called the elevator pitch. Something you could spit out at the drop of a hat to pitch your product, service, or company. Whether I was meeting new people or old friends, I realized that everyone asked the inevitable question, “So, what are you doing now?” So, I developed a couple of five-minute pitches. Mine revolved around my book, house remodeling, and my new tattoo. Yours can be as personal or as businesslike as suits your personality. These days, your story may be contained in one word: COVID.
11. Don’t Get on a Guilt Trip
There will be a lot of people that will make you feel guilty about leaving or losing your job, particularly if you don’t know what’s next. I began to turn the tables a bit by letting them know how lucky I was to be able to have time off to reset my life, and to take a break from that hectic and insane corporate whirlwind. Been there, done that, and don’t want to go back.
12. Get Tech Tools
If you’re like me and many other corporate execs, some of your electronic devices (computer, printer, etc.) may all have been given to you by your company. On the day I left, all of that got returned which left me with no technological tools to communicate or explore other business opportunities. Be sure to plan all of that in your budget.
13. Stay Connected with Old Colleagues
Just because you don’t work there anymore, doesn’t mean you can’t stay connected with the colleagues. You’ll still be able to talk shop. You may need the connections if you decide to go back to that field again, or if those people and organizations become possible clients in the future. I make a point to regularly call my old colleagues (those that I like) and get together with them.
14. Start Enjoying Your Own Company in Silence
I went from running a multimillion-dollar business unit with about seven department heads, fifty staff members, and two personal assistants to me, myself, and I. It turned out to be a period of great spiritual awareness, and I truly relished the time alone. It was during these moments of solitude that all my best ideas came forth. It’s amazing how you hear the most profound things when you reduce the noise level.
15. Volunteer
I never had time to volunteer for anything with the kind of schedule I kept so when I left, I decided to seek out organizations that I could be of service to. I was especially interested in teaching teenage girls about business and life skills and found a couple of organizations that did just that. It’s been one of the most satisfying experiences in my life. As a side benefit, I’ve met incredible people in all fields doing interesting things. And, they rarely care about what I did before, what I’m doing now or whether or not I have a title.
16. Rediscover Your Family, Friends, and Pets
In my old existence, I didn’t even have time to walk the dog. My husband used to kid me and ask if I could “schedule time for sex”. All of a sudden, I had time to call a friend for absolutely no reason or take my dogs to the park or lie on a hammock with my husband. Jobs are always replaceable but the people in your life are not. Always treasure them with your time and love.
17. Learn to Meditate
For years, I was told by massage therapists, chiropractors, and holistic doctors that I should meditate every day. It seemed like an impossible task with my 24/7 job. But once I slowed my life down a bit, I started to learn more about meditation and realized it was easy and satisfying. All it takes is a quiet room, some deep breathing, closed eyes, and clearing your mind of any thoughts. You can do it for five minutes or fifty.
18. Don’t Waver
It’s important to make sure you keep doing exactly what you want to do. Maybe you’ll decide to go back to your old line of work, maybe you won’t do anything, or maybe you’ll do something totally different. You’ll encounter all kinds of naysayers who think you’re crazy to give up what you did or that you’ll never be successful in your new venture. To them, I come full circle and go back to my very first point and that is, always follow your heart.
About a year after I left my job, I got a call from a recruiter who was looking for a CEO at an Internet start-up. The compensation and stock options were excellent. At the time, I had no income, a stack full of business ideas, and a half-written book. It was like waving cocaine under the nose of an ex-addict. I knew I could do the job with my eyes closed but it would mean throwing aside my dream. And for what: a fancy title, a more expensive car, or a bigger house? Not for me.
By Debbie Gisonni
P.S. Before making any decisions, check your inner guidance with my Free guided meditation. Click here to access.