Midlife Career Change: Follow Your Heart

A midlife career change can be very good for you. It can breathe fresh air into what you may consider a stale life and give you the boost you are looking for.

Many mid lifers feel that a midlife crisis or rather a midlife transition is a turning point in their lives. Often their children have grown up and left home. They want something new to challenge them and unfortunately, these challenges aren't always for the good.

Many mid lifers often think it is too difficult undertake a midlife career change, and try to think of different excuses not to do so. In fact, it is very easy, because you may be more financially stable than you have been before, although that is not always the case. Whatever your situation, you may simply wish to follow your dreams. You have nothing to prove to anyone but yourself, and the amount of connections and contacts you would have built up will make it easier.

No longer is youth seen as the winning argument. Often employers are looking for experience; they want someone who knows the job. Also people with life experience are likely to be more able to learn quickly and adapt the skills they do have to any given situation. You do, however, have to consider your health and what skills you do have. You need to decide why you want to change careers and look at if your age and health will be up to it. A midlife career change might make you feel happier which may even improve your health. People around you will see the differences and will often encourage the career change.

If you have kept up to date with technology then you will be fine and you will be able to bring your wealth of knowledge and experience to any new job. My colleague, Dr. Fred Horowitz, and I did an interview with Ajay Pangarkar, President of CentralKnowledge. He recommends that you "attend webinars (online seminars), take virtual courses from your desk, join blogs (an online diary of an expert), if you are an expert write a blog, mentor or be mentored." When you start your new career, you will know what goals you can set for yourself and how to go about achieving them.

Although the thought of a sudden midlife career change, as you are nearing the end of your career, might be strange to some, others will envy you. Many mid lifers would love to be brave enough to follow their hearts rather than remain safe and stay in a job they will hate in years to come.

If you have a great supporting family and you truly believe that you can change careers, then go for it. You have nothing to lose and you might be very glad you did. If it all goes wrong then you can simply dust yourself off and start again. You will know though that you tried and that's all you can hope for. If you have made the right choice then you will be doing a job that you truly love and not many people can say that.


Dr. Frank Bonkowski writes about midlife career change, goal setting, education, self-discovery, and spirituality to leverage your midlife transition into lifelong happiness at Happiness-After-Midlife.com. Look for his forthcoming e book, entitled Take Charge of Midlife and Beyond: 52 Ideas and Activities for Dealing with Life's Challenges - Aging, Change, Financial Matters, and More!
For help with a midlife career change go to their Web site.

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Corporate Rat Race: 7 Good Reasons To Escape

Is your 9-to-5 feeling more like a 9-to-9 (24/7) in your life? Where your work is almost constantly on your mind, even when you don't try to think about it? Do you hate your job, but fear for financial uncertainty is far too great to risk making a move? A life of purpose doesn't have to be a fantasy or a cliché saying that only applies to the lucky few. Just anyone can escape the corporate rat race, assuming you believe in what you want and you believe in your worth!

The first step to quitting the rat race is realising that it is possible and that a better life is worth taking the risk; you just need to prepare yourself for the move. Here are some reasons why:

Stress

Of course, this is the most obvious reason to leave the perpetual corporate rat race. Your entire day is stressful, with few exceptions. You might even like what you do at your job, but if your mind is constantly thinking about what you'd rather be doing or who you'd rather be working with, for example, that job will always be a dead-end in your journey in life.

Health

Along with your mental health, stress will affect your physical health, even if it doesn't appear obvious on the outside. If your job is making you exhausted every day you're on the clock, this is a reason for you to start looking right now for a new career, one that isn't sacrificing your health for your success. America is the most overworked society in the world, by every major metric, you are not alone in this!

Excess

When your job is forcing you in one direction of conformity, it is only natural that people will seek to balance that out with self-healing in forms of pleasure and entertainment. There is no judgement here, however, it is far too common for these things to turn into vices that overcompensate the imbalance in life, leading to a life in excess that is hard to get out of.

Time

Part of the reason why people feel like they are locked in this perpetual 'corporate rat race' is that no matter how hard they try or how efficient they are, there never seems to be enough time in the day. Deadlines dictate your state of mind, even when you're away from work. This type of bi-polar relationship with time is not healthy, and it is also abnormal, despite what the rat race industry tells us.

Purpose

Money is important, no one is going to argue that it isn't, but it isn't everything. When you first enter the corporate workforce, money brings you so much happiness, it becomes enough of a motivator to ignore the rat race and normalize it as a 'good' life. As you get older and you stay running forward, while in the same place you were years ago, the money isn't as good as it was before. You finally realise that you are working harder and trading more and more time for money. Whether due to a weaker economy or a bigger appetite for success, the purpose of your job has outlived itself, and now you need to move onto something better. Suddenly, you don't feel fulfilled anymore with the corporate rat race lifestyle.

Cycles

This ties into purpose, where the very definition of a 'rat race' is that there is no ending. You'll just keep completing work with the same feedback loops until you're stuck in a zombie-like trance for 8 hours each day. The longer you wait, the harder it becomes to break this cycle.

Confidence

Last, but not least is the real reason why you should begin to think of alternatives to this rate race when you know that you are better and have far much worth than this job that is pulling you down. You probably spend hours thinking about other careers or ways to start up your own business, but don't trivialize those ideas and throw them away. Sit down and figure out the steps you need to take to make them a reality.

When the student is ready, the teacher will always appear. The moment you realize your innate beauty, your capacity and your worth are far more than what is being printed as your hourly rate on your bi-weekly or monthly payslips, the doors will open to a world of opportunities for you to embrace.

I am Madevi Andee and I have embraced the opportunities presented by the Digital Economy to change my lifestyle from a corporate rat race to that of freedom: Money and Time Freedom, where I work on my own terms, doing things I love and with people I love. It all starts with the creation of money because money creates choices and choices lead to freedom. If like me, you believe that freedom cannot be earned in a corporate rate race, then join me on my odyssey and learn the system that has created the first step to my freedom.

Let's connect [http://www.brainbeautyandmoney.com/digital-system/]

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Feeling Anxious? Then 'Watch' the News!

The human nervous system hasn't changed very much over the last million years. Its purpose is to keep us safe and help us survive; that means looking out for threat and risks that might lead to our demise or cause us harm. Naturally, like other animals, this 'alert' nervous system is crucial to our survival and keeps us scanning for potential danger.

Humans have developed the cognitive ability to use words, language and analysis to make sense of and communicate risk to one another efficiently. Humans can convey these messages about threat or danger with convincing and rich emotional content to highlight their relevance and importance. This superior intellectual ability has allowed humans to prosper and survive by organising communities, achieving social tasks, collaborating and problem-solving.

While living in tribal groups and small communities, our ancestors relied upon this ability to communicate warnings and risks to members of the tribe or community. A danger at the waterhole, poisonous berries, a lurking predator or an invading tribe were all risks that posed an immediate and relevant threat to each member of that tribe. Our nervous system is primed to be alert to such urgent warnings, especially when high emotion is present to convey urgency. Those who failed to attend would face danger and threat to their survival.

Community leaders throughout history disseminated relevant and important information for survival - the Town Crier and Pastors at churches became trusted 'news' bearers delivering information about community illness and death such as the Plague. Humans have learnt to pay attention when an announcement is made and our nervous systems are primed to do so!

The New Era

A lot has changed in the world since the invention of television, telephones and computers. The world is not constrained by geographical borders and tribal word-of-mouth communication. The millennial world features expansive social media influences with 24-hour news broadcasts, news updates to every device, news from every corner of the world, breakfast news, morning news, midday news, afternoon news, early evening news, late night news, and even news updates between the news!

If you are feeling overwhelmed just by reading that, it's obvious what the actual content of all this news is doing to our nervous systems. Physical arousal and stress are triggered by our nervous system's response to announcements and news that goes straight back to our primal need to survive and not necessarily because there is an actual and present threat to our safety.

Understanding the science of this can help us manage our responses to the world's events and to make decisions about protecting our nervous system.

We are inundated with announcements and information that are neither relevant nor an immediate threat to us individually. In doing its job well, the nervous system innocently attends to irrelevant messages, believing all news must be relevant and require urgent attention. In fact, reacting to information regarding a five-car pile-up on an icy motorway on the other side of the world has no immediate survival benefit to us.

While broader lessons can be learnt from the general information, this information can be used and conveyed in more considered and less dramatic ways to improve our society and keep us safe. The way in which this information is conveyed in the news is much more likely to trigger unnecessary and involuntary stress responses.

Tips to Look After Yourself in this World of Frantic News

1. Limit your exposure to all news media - TV, radio, newspapers, social media.
2. Limit the number of news organisations you follow on social media and notifications you receive.
3. Observe and calm your response when you hear the 'news music' or 'breaking news' sound effects.
4. Keep an eye on how many stories are being fed to you throughout your day on electronic devices while you are trying to focus on work, socialising or other meaningful tasks.
5. Try to listen to less hyped and dramatic versions of the news.
6. Follow the local news that is likely to be more relevant to your daily life.
7. Be more aware of the emotional content of programs you watch and their impact on your mood, nervous system and thinking. Does it feel like more relevant information conveyed calmly and factually or does it feel more hyped, dramatic and irrelevant to your immediate world?

More resources about anxiety and stress management:

First Aid for Stress: https://www.brisbanecitypsychologist.com.au/first-aid-for-stress/

What to Do When You Are Feeling Overwhelmed: https://www.brisbanecitypsychologist.com.au/what-to-do-when-you-are-feeling-overwhelmed/

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Finding YOUR Courage in 2020

If you want to make big moves in 2020, you have to take risks. But taking risks isn't easy, and it puts most people in uncharted territory. Uncharted territory can, in turn, often feel dangerous and cumbersome. The human mind loves familiarity, as familiarity usually means safety in some form as well as access to resources. This love of familiarity is literally hardwired into our brains from childhood. During our evolution, those who could remember where water holes and predators were located, well, they had a better day!

Tossing all of this familiarity aside and deciding to take risks and think outside the box can be very difficult and feel scary. Yet, it is critical that you realize that this is exactly what you may need to do to reach whatever goals you have set for yourself. Taking bold and decisive action at the right moment in time may be what separates you from the fulfilling life you want and living a life that is less than what you dream. Oddly enough, walking away from the security of the known and into the insecurity of the unknown is likely what you'll need to do to achieve your goals and/or happiness.

Risks are not "one-size fits all" affairs. If you are not accustomed to taking any risks at all, then even a small risk may seem huge. Keep this fact in mind as you move forward. You need to first think about what the risk is you are contemplating and then measure that risk against reality. Will your business or livelihood go "down the drain" if you fail? Or is the risk in question a minor or medium risk move? Understanding the difference can go a long way towards helping you decide just how cautious you need to be. The greater the potential downside of failure, the greater your preparation must be, period!

Finding the courage to take risks and think outside the box often comes down to motivation. If you want or need more courage to take the steps you need to take to be happy, then step back and think about what motivates you. Fully understanding what it is that motivates you will help you get the courage that you need. You can use these motivating factors to help you zero in and stay focused during times of weakness.

In many situations, the consequences of not taking bold action are so unpleasant especially over the long haul that you are left with no option other than to act. If you can't imagine not taking bold action and changing the course of your life, then you should have all the motivation and thus all the courage you need. So don't be afraid to think big in 2020. Then go ahead and plan meticulously to make the most of your out of the box thinking.

Dr. Madeline Ann Lewis is the President/CEO of the Executive Women's Success Institute, an award-winning author, speaker and creator of the online course "Crack the Career Code: How to Lead With Confidence, Charisma, and Credibility." Contact Dr. Lewis through the website: https://www.exwsi.com or E-mail her at info@exwsi.com.

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