Hey everyone!

Thanks for subscribing and reading. I know how valuable your time and attention are, so seek to ensure that I add value.

Every Sunday I bring you an article, an interesting quote that has been on my mind, and a journal prompt, all related to working and living better.

If you know someone that you think would find this content useful, please forward this on to them! I want to be useful to as many people as possible.

Please reach out (tim@timparkins.com) if you have questions for me or topics you’d like to see me cover.

​

Heed The Call: How To Know It Is Time To Change Things Up In Your Career

​

Are you happy with your work life and career? Or have you locked your dreams away, convincing yourself that you will get started on making them a reality when the ‘timing is better’?

Don’t kill your dreams with false promises of tomorrow. We both know you are lying to yourself.

Many people are doing work that doesn’t cut it for them anymore, especially after having had some career success. After all, you’ve built up all this career capital; a reputation for delivering results, a good salary, and stability. But yet there is something missing. You aren’t happy. Maybe you even feel guilty for not appreciating your job when so many people face increasingly tough economic circumstances.

If you feel a general sense of unease about your work, you need to consider if it is time to make changes – before life forces change upon you.

Knowing it is time

The following signs are clear warnings: it is time for change. If you see any of these warnings, please do not ignore them.

1. You feel disengaged. If you’re feeling disconnected from your job, don’t feel motivated, or have the sense that the work you do doesn’t matter, it may be time to consider making a move. When you’re feeling disengaged from your work, you can’t be effective. Your work quality will diminish as you aren’t fully engaging with it. This will be detrimental to your overall success.
2. You’re getting cynical. This is especially dangerous. When you believe the work environment, systems, and processes will not allow you to be effective, you need to consider making changes. This belief leads you to be cynical about everything. Nothing will drain your energy and engagement quicker than not believing you have the power to produce the results you are looking to produce no matter what you do.
3. You aren’t learning. If you aren’t learning and growing, you have outgrown your current role. A lack of growth leads to stagnation. Spending a bit of time in your comfort zone is alright, but to reach long-term success, you must work on expanding your capabilities.
4. You feel unappreciated. We all crave recognition, needing to feel that we are making contributions that matter. When you don’t feel that your work matters, you inevitably won’t bring your full self to the work and the quality will suffer. This leads to a loss of confidence in yourself and saps your motivation.
5. You’re bored. Boredom can be tricky. It is normal for work to be occasionally boring. Not every task will keep you on the edge of your seat; that is not realistic. And in today’s environment where technology is constantly pulling our monkey brains all over the place, we are quicker to become bored. But if your work consistently bores you, pay attention to that signal. Boredom breeds complacency, which is harmful to long-term career success.
6. You don’t feel supported. Feeling like you don’t have the resources or the support you need to do your job successfully can lead to feelings of frustration and helplessness. Change of some sort is required if you’re consistently asked to take on more than you can handle. Feeling like you can’t keep up will lead to stress and burnout, and prevent you from doing your best work.

If you experience any of these symptoms, it is time to consider which aspects of your working life need to change.

And change is hard.

Spending half your waking life doing a job that isn’t aligned with what you want to be doing is hard too. You can’t keep doing this over the long term; it is not sustainable. You will eventually break.

If you find you are not happy with your work, you have 3 choices:

1. Suck it up and wait for the weekend, vacation, and an eventual retirement.
2. Change jobs.
3. Change the aspects of your job that you don’t like.

Since it is the easiest path and means maintaining the status quo, too many people choose the first option.

Please don’t do that.

It may be the easiest solution in the short-term, but the long-term consequences are serious. I chose this path before, and was rewarded with a devastating burn-out and time in a mental institution. Totally not worth it, trust me.

The first step is to recognize and admit your career needs fixing. The next is to commit to making change.

That is where I can help. As a career coach and work architect, I work with successful professionals just like you get their work lives back on track.

It won’t be easy. Transforming your relationship with work won’t happen overnight and will require commitment. But one thing is certain; it will be an exciting adventure that will pay benefits for years.

If you want help in reclaiming your career, click the button below. Please do not wait until you are in a crisis before taking action.

​

​

Quotation that I have been pondering

This quote from Catherine Booth, co-founder of the Salvation Army, was on my mind this week as I contemplated the challenges of ‘change’. A key insight around change is that most people want to change something in their life changed, but few people will do things differently. There is a huge disconnect there. Change only can come about through doing things differently.

Your life today results from the actions that you have been taking consistently. What is a change that you can commit to making? It doesn’t need to be big, but it needs to start today.

​

Journal Prompt

Making change requires that you take on a new identity; you must become someone else. This can be scary. But it is one of the biggest obstacles to change and is a necessity.

One thing that can make it easier is to identify someone that you admire, and then imagine how they might respond to a situation you are facing. By imagining the potential response of a role model, you allow yourself to imagine new possibilities that your current self might not have considered.

I encourage you to explore these questions, taking notes on what comes up for you. Journalling is a powerful tool for transformation.

​

Connect with me…