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The Best Reasons to Make a Change of Direction in Your Career

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Career Change|The Best Reasons to Make a Change of Direction in Your CareerIf you’re going to make a significant change in your career, it’s important to go about it in the correct and proper way. A big part of that is knowing why going ahead with such a change is right for you. It’s certainly not the kind of decision you want to make without ever really thinking it through.

With that in mind, we’re going to talk today about some of the most important reasons to make a change of direction in your career. If you’re experiencing any of the issues discussed below, it’s certainly a good idea to at least think about changing the direction of your career in the years ahead. So read on to find out more about those reasons.

Your Current Position Isn’t Making You Happy

If your current role simply isn’t making you happy, that’s definitely a good reason to make a change in your career. Everyone deserves to do a job that makes them happy on some level, and if that isn’t happening right now, you certainly should make a change. Your career takes up a lot of the time you have available to you each day, so if it’s a drag on your mood that’s definitely not okay.

You Think It’s Time to Follow Your Passion

It’s definitely a good idea to follow your passion if that’s something that you find important. Of course, you have to be realistic and ensure you have a realistic path to where you want to be in terms of your career path. Creating a plan and finding realistic paths to the career you want for yourself is important. If your dream is incredibly unrealistic, it might not be financially prudent for you to pursue it. But if you have a plan to get to where you want to be, go for it.

You Feel as if a New Challenge is Needed

We all need a challenge every now and again. If your current career path is boring you and not testing you in any way, it’s very easy to start to feel restless. Without those regular challenges, it’s very easy to get downhearted and unhappy with your situation in general. Finding a new path in your career might present you with more of a challenge that gives you something to get excited about.


Your Values and Priorities Have Changed

People change over time, and there’s nothing at all wrong with that. If you feel like the values and priorities that led you to your current career path are no longer relevant to you, it might be time to look for new opportunities elsewhere. There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging that things have changed and that you now need something different.

You Want to Make More of a Positive Impact

Wanting to make a positive impact on the world is not an unusual feeling. Lots of people feel that way and they want to feel as if their career is having an overall positive impact on the world. If you feel that your current career path is not doing that, it might be time for you to make a change if that’s something that matters to you. Maybe you want to help people by doing a job in the medical field. Or maybe you always wanted to complete a Veterinary Technician degree and help animals. There’s a wealth of options out there.

You Feel Like You’ve Stopped Growing

When you feel like your job isn’t helping you to grow as a professional or as a person, it can be quite depressing. We all want to grow and improve as people as time passes, and there’s nothing wrong with being unhappy when that’s not happening. So it might be time to look for growth opportunities elsewhere.

You Lack Any Drive When Heading to Work in the Morning

If you get up in the morning and immediately dread the thought of heading into the office, that’s a sign that you’re certainly not in the right job and maybe not in the right career at all. If you lack that drive and you don’t feel any desire to start work each morning, change might be needed.

As you can see, there are lots of reasons why you might want to change direction in your career. If you feel like any of the points above apply to you, it might be time for you to think about the direction you need to take next. There’s nothing wrong with making a change in your career when one is needed.

Outstanding Career Ideas If You’re Good With Your Hands

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Career Ideas|Outstanding Career Ideas If You're Good With Your HandsYou might be stuck in a career where you are unhappy and no longer look forward to going to work. This hasn’t been helped by several lockdowns and being forced to work from home, which a lot of people have struggled with. If you are on the lookout for a new job and a new career path then think about where you want to work. A great way to find your perfect job is to think about what you are good at. If you are good with your hands then there are plenty of jobs out there for you. Take a look below for some potential inspiration.

Surgeon

For this job, you need to have steady hands, super steady hands. You also need to be qualified and this means heading back to school if you don’t already have those skills and qualifications. You will need to decide which type of surgery field you want to work in as well. There are many different types including orthopedic, pediatric, and cardiac to name a few examples. It may take some time to get into the working environment but if it’s something you enjoy then it will all be worth it in the end.


Architect

If you want to design things then this is the perfect job for you. You will be in control of designing buildings and overseeing the construction to make sure it matches your vision. You may even get to work with some amazing people in wonderful places. Every building you see around you someone has designed. That someone is an architect, so if you love to draw and design buildings then look for a way into the field. Take a look at Gene Gross of Denver Co to find out more about being a top architect.

Landscaper

If you want to help people and get your hands dirty then why not think about being a landscape gardener. You not only get to meet people, but you also get to design their ideal garden and make it become a reality. You could change someone’s life by giving them a garden they have always dreamed of. You can start your own business or you can join an existing landscaper to work alongside them. There will always be people who are not able to work on their own garden, or simply don’t know what to do with all the space they have. This is where you come in to make their home complete with an amazing garden.

Chef

Finally, if you like making things and serving people then being a chef sounds like a career for you. People think chefs are just individuals in the kitchen making basic food. This takes a lot of intricacies and making sure that food is displayed in the right way. How food is displayed makes us want to eat it more, it is all psychological. You can go to culinary school or become an apprentice to learn all about what it takes to become a top-notch chef. You could even get to a point in your career where you earn stars for your cooking.

Are You Living Your Life Goal?

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Life Goal|Are You Living Your Life Goal?We are all born with a unique life map. A plan for our lives that we realize when we become adults. We can know we reached this point when we make conscious and independent decisions. When this happens, our life plan gets activated and opportunities arise accordingly, except if we aren’t ready. There can be big traps on our path; it all comes down to becoming truly self-reliant.

When you aren’t independent enough, life can become challenging and you may realize that you are just drifting, or feel like you are living someone else’s life. Living this way doesn’t allow you to realize your true life plan. Why is it important to live what you came here for? Because we are here to learn and evolve. And we always need and should want to learn something new.

When You Don’t Enjoy What You Do

When you get off your path, don’t have your life plan within reach, you should readjust your senses. Chances are, you got so busy with other things that you forgot about your goals and the things you wanted to learn. So, you should start evaluating how much you enjoy the things that you are doing. Can you learn from them, and are these lessons adding to you? We all have a life goal, but if you aren’t living it, you shouldn’t get discouraged.

You should find a goal that makes you happy. Like helping others, feeling content with yourself, learning skills to improve yourself, living by faith, learning to control your mind and get rid of your fears, and so on… What is my goal in life? Everyone asks this question at a certain point in life. Some people earlier, and some on their deathbed. If we would all strive to live our life plans and could make them happen, there would be greater order in the world.

Seeing Your Goal

If you are just trying to see and realize your goals, it is hard to achieve them. What matters is that there are people who realize their goals and learn from their experience, it doesn’t matter who will become a soldier, lawyer, or teacher… The worst thing can be when you forget living, let alone realizing your goal. If you don’t move ahead, life cannot happen, and you can regret not experiencing things.

You shouldn’t want to keep figuring out what your life goal is or asking this constantly. What should you do instead? Take action, try different things. Start something new today. By going through it, you can find a route that better works for you. A happier path in your health, learning, relationship, faith, or whatever. Don’t forget, living is moving; if you do not move, you don’t honor your life and its opportunities to develop yourself and help others who cross your path do the same.

Strive to Live Authentically

When you make new friends, it should come from your heart. When you pray, do your best to be present. If sports make you happy, give your all into that. Remember that whatever you want to achieve, you make it happen through your body. Therefore, you can only become great at something, if you learn to listen to your body and are ready to work together. Each pain is a signal, and we are so good at neglecting it. Because we seem to be weak and problematic.

But this leads to numbness. Does it solve anything when you learn to suppress your feelings? Just because you wanted to appear strong and painless. Where does this state lead? Can you live in an emotionally suppressed body? Yes, of course, but only much shorter. When your car or washing machine breaks down, you contact the repair service immediately.

We only don’t do so with our bodies but wait until the problem is really serious. When your body signals, you need to ask for help. Help from a doctor, masseur, a chiropractor… Anything answering to the signals of your body can be helpful. Don’t be afraid of what’s going to happen if it turns out that there’s a major problem; the sooner the better and the easier to help.

About the Author

Russell Ridgeway is an American writer based in Budapest, Hungary. He writes in business, tech, and fashion as well as creative fiction. He also writes regularly for Lensa – A job company with soul! You can reach him by email ([email protected]), or on LinkedIn and other social media platforms.

If These Signs Seem Familiar, It Might Be Time To Change Your Job

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Change Your Job|If These Signs Seem Familiar, It Might Be Time To Change Your JobIt can be difficult to accept that your dream job no longer reflects who you have become as you have got older and grown.

We fasten so much of our personas in our work, and to even consider changing that is extremely difficult.

Acknowledging that things are no longer working is difficult, but staying in a negative place that makes you feel less than great can be even worse.

Most people do not have a career path that is perfect or even linear. We all have times when it seems unfocused and unclear, with no real sense of where we will be in the next year or two.

Here, we look at some signs that you might just be ready to move on and find something else.

You are no longer engaged

If you have halted or reduced spending your discretionary work time doing things that may strengthen your work performance or other elements of your company, such as working on a shared project or a fundraiser supported by your company, you may not be as interested in your job as you once were.

Everything feels routine and boring

Routine work consists of simply going through the motions, with tasks running on cruise control. Working on a new project that once excited you but has now lost its emotional luster is an example. If you dislike routine work, a job change may be in order. You need a job that excites you – maybe teaching with Teach for America jobs, for example – no two days will ever be the same in that line of work.

Your colleagues are outperforming you

If your coworkers are getting more in terms of recognition and praise from your boss, or are standing out from you much more than they used to, it can be understandably discouraging. If you feel like you are not putting in the effort to get praised or your hard work is simply going unnoticed or unappreciated, it may be a sign that a change is in order.

You are no longer focused on your job

This essentially means that you are spending more time thinking about activities while you are at work than the work itself. This is not unusual, and while you will often have thoughts about activities at home or outside of work, if they become a fixation, you may want to consider changing careers or jobs. This usually occurs when you begin asking a lot of repetitive questions or you begin to find new things hard to understand.

Your progression has halted

When your opportunity to climb up the ranks stops or slows, or you realize that your depth of knowledge or experience is diminishing, it is reasonable to contemplate moving on. If you find yourself reporting to people who were once your colleagues, or even worse, if you hired them to work for you, it is time to move on.

Sometimes we are too near to the signs to notice them, or the signs appear little by little. We all become familiar or complacent with our jobs at some point. If this contentment causes you more discomfort than happiness then it is time to start to think about a change.

“Covering” Your Career Trajectory: Climbing up the Insurance Industry Ladder

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Insurance Industry|“Covering” Your Career Trajectory: Climbing up the Insurance Industry LadderEvery career path usually comprises a ladder of sorts. Arguably, the only exception to the rule is those working in the creative industries. But if you have been eyeing up a career path in the insurance industry, what is the best trajectory?

The Wide Variety of Gateway Roles

You could start out as a broker or claims agent, as well as numerous other roles, but this gives you a thorough grounding to progress within the industry. The insurance industry is a very mobile one. And it is common for people to gain experience in multiple career paths. The best thing for you to do is to try a role that feels like the best fit. And one of the best ways to gain access to mobility in the industry would be to obtain a CIP (Chartered Insurance Professional) designation as early as possible. There are a wide variety of ways for you to improve your knowledge, from the Ambetter contracting opportunities to short courses online. But once you get an understanding of the gateway roles that can provide you with an idea of how to progress, you can venture into one of the four popular insurance careers:

Underwriting

Underwriting provides a thorough base knowledge of a wide variety of policies. The more complex the policy works, the wider the knowledge you get. It gives you an opportunity to liaise with customers directly while also protecting your employer from risk. As such it can be the perfect opportunity to build strong relationships with both sides and you can get recognized and rewarded for the right choices, which can help you progress up the ladder.

Sales

Quite a hard-nosed approach, but some people take to it like a duck to water. It’s all about achieving sales targets while also keeping customers happy. The best approach to progress up this career ladder is to develop a wide variety of knowledge and demonstrate a commitment to continuous learning. You can then become a subject matter expert or progress on to a supervisor or management role.

Claims

One of the positions that require a significant amount of contact with customers. It’s not for everyone because of the contact center nature of the role. But it’s a perfect place to start your insurance career trajectory by doing the grunt work. By getting a wide variety of knowledge through this career route and learning to handle all your claims adequately, you can get recognized for progression. It can lead towards manager or supervisor roles, and you could become an independent adjuster that represents a wide variety of insurance companies.

Actuary

One of the most important roles in insurance because it requires taking exams. However, it becomes a more fulfilling role in many ways because you work on projects that require various degrees of risk while analyzing trends and establishing premiums for products. It requires a wide knowledge of niche subject matter expertise, and is a fundamental component of the insurance industry.

Climbing up the insurance career ladder is not just a singular journey. As you can see, there are a wide variety of roles suitable for anybody looking to make their mark.