Even if you are super excited about a new career opportunity, there can be a few things that make a bit of time to adjust to, especially if your career path is totally different or a first time experience. Here are a few things that may help keep you motivated during what can be a trying time:
Dealing with Exhaustion - When you are starting a new venture of any sort, if you want to be successful, you will put your all into what you doing! Whether you are studying for a license or accreditation, learning a new job or working totally different hours than you are used to, all the changes can not only be physically exhausting, but, mentally as well. Along with that, your time at home with the ones you love may be strained because they are going through those changes with you! You won't be working all the time, but, your mind will still be working on things you are trying to learn even when you are home. Make sure you really give yourself time to let go and relax each day, so the next day can start off with a new, more fresh you! This exhaustion won't just disappear after the first week. You truly have to train yourself to "turn off" each day if you can. In the beginning this will be more difficult than as time goes on. But, practice makes perfect so start right away at planning your "down time" in your schedule.
Allowing for Mistakes - Realize right now that you WILL make mistakes. Lots of them. Anytime you learn something new, you will go through a process of knowing what works and what doesn't. No one learns perfectly right off the bat (if they do, they must be some miraculous super person!). New techniques, new protocols, new personalities you work with, all will take time to learn and adjust to. I learned from my boss at my current job that if I make a mistake I need to move on, not beat myself up over it. Wasting energy on the fact that I made a mistake is lost time that I could spend working on something else. Most mistakes can be easily corrected. Does that mean I get lax in how I do my job because "everything can be fixed"? NO NO NO. I still work at doing my best each and every day. But, if something does happen, I pick myself up and I do my best to move on. Mistakes help us to learn and remember what we need to remember. Keep that in mind.
Your Dream Vs. Reality - You may be super excited when you start a new career! Excited over all the possibilities, you may even begin to plan how things are going to go and what may be in your future! All of this is good and healthy to be positive and to dream, however, most of the time those dreams are nothing like what the reality is of that new job. Does that mean that the reality will be worse than your dreams? No, not necessarily at all! Most of the time it will just be different than what you expected. It will be better in some things and some things you thought might be what you really wanted, turn out to not be that important down the road. As time progresses you begin to see so many things with different eyes because you have changed. As you learn and grow, you find out what you enjoy and what is more difficult to deal with. In my job, I started out preparing flyers! I had an incredible fear of dealing with people and now, I can honestly say, I love dealing with people (most of the time!). Helping others is a great feeling! A lot of the details of my job were very overwhelming at first, but, as I tackle each new thing I am finding some things I just love to do and those I don't, I find the best way possible to deal with them as best as I can. All in all, the reality of my career has far surpassed anything I could have dreamt up on my own!
Adjust Accordingly - During the course of your new endeavor, you will have to pivot every so often to change the course of where you are going with this or that. You have to be flexible. For someone who doesn't like change, this was really a hard step to get over for me. In fact, I am not t totally over it at all! But, I have gotten better not to dwell on the fact change is happening and just learn what I need to learn for that change to go as smooth as possible. So instead of instant panic at any sort of change, I just learn what I can about what is happening and face it head on. I adjust accordingly.
Of course, just like anything else, sometimes things just don't work. You find you aren't cut out for a certain job at all and you need to move on. This is okay, too. You still have a whole arsenal of new tools in your tool belt from having tried something new and different. In the process you learn not only about your strengths (and weaknesses) but also about other people, tasks and habits that you need to change or the ones that benefited you the most. The experience sometimes is well worth all the change, stress and effort. All you need to do is try again with something else! You know the tools you need to help get you through the new things you are facing, so face them with your head held high and your mind fresh and clear for the new path that is ahead of you!
Until Next Time!
Jen Lush--Associate Broker, F.C. Tucker Emge Realtors
Photo Credit: Saulo Mohana
