Joanna Penn - Career Change: Stop hating your job, discover what you really want to do with your life, and start doing it!

Career Change: Stop hating your job, discover what you really want to do with your life, and start doing it!

Joanna Penn

Copyright Joanna Penn (2012).

All rights reserved.

Updated and rewritten from 2008 edition.

Publisher: The Creative Penn Limited

http://www.TheCreativePenn.com

Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.

T.E.Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Preface for 2012 Edition

You hate your job but you dont know what to do with your life, and you dont know how to start to change it.

I know exactly how you feel, because Ive been there too. Over and over again. But lifes too short to continue feeling this way. Its time to change your life.

***

Last New Year's Eve I was at a party with some old University friends. I stood in the corner talking to Kate while the greatest hits of the 80s played on MTV.

Hows work? she asked. I told her about my latest novel and how my business, The Creative Penn, was going.

"Wow," she said. "You sound so enthusiastic and happy. Your face is just shining."

It was at that point I realized I had finally made the life change I had been working towards for the past four years. Because every other New Year's Eve for the 13 years of my corporate consulting job, I had always changed the subject whenever anyone asked this question. I had never wanted to talk about work because what I did every day wasn't my passion. But this year was different.

I originally wrote this book in 2008 when I was trapped in a corporate job that I hated and couldnt see a way out. I knew that I had to get out somehow and so I wrote this self-help book to try and help myself. I thought that studying how I could improve my situation might also help others, so I put the information into this little book.

At the time, I had no idea how following my own advice might actually change things but its now May 2012 and Im a full-time author-entrepreneur.

I have published two novels that have sold over 35,000 copies. Pentecost and Prophecy combine my passions for psychology, religion, art history and kick-ass action-adventure novels, and Im working on more to come. I run my own business, The Creative Penn , which helps people to write, publish and market their own books.

Im an international speaker, running workshops to help other people fulfill their dreams. I sell online multi-media courses which provide the backbone for my online business. TheCreativePenn.com has also been voted one of the Top 10 Blogs for Writers two years running.

I truly didnt imagine that my life could change like this, which is why Im rebooting this little book in 2012.

After I wrote the first version, I followed the steps I had outlined and changed my own life. Perhaps it will also help you to change your life and find the work that is most meaningful for you.

I want you to see that change is possible but that the incremental steps are often tiny. You may not realize how far you can get if you just look at what you achieve in a week or a month. But each step changes something in you. Over years, great things can happen and your life can totally change. Mine has.

Most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year - and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade.

Tony Robbins

Introduction

Call to action

Work doesnt just have to be a way to pay the bills.

Our lifes work is part of what defines us, but for many people that doesnt equate with what they do every day. Many people dont enjoy their jobs and dont know how to change the situation. You may be one of those people

If so, congratulations.

You have taken the first step in moving towards the day when you will enjoy what you do.

This book has come from 13 years searching for happiness in my own work.

I have experienced the highs and lows of starting my own business (more than once!), worked as an IT consultant in large multinationals as well as small boutique consultancies, and volunteered for charities. My search for the right job has taught me about myself as well as my requirements for enjoying work. But it has taken a long time.

Some of the processes along the way have been painful, but important to the journey. As I have retrained, traveled and soul-searched, I have come to realize that there are significant factors that can help us enjoy work now and also move us towards real purpose.

This book is a not a get-rich-quick scheme or a way to stop work altogether.

It is about helping you find meaning and happiness in the job you do now, or in the career you would like to have. Its for those who want to make a change for the better. It contains ideas and tips towards a happier and more fulfilling working life, with easy-to-follow diagrams and processes that you can use right now to start making changes.

This book is a call to action.

Whatever you think you can do, or believe you can do, begin it.

Goethe

How To Use This Book

This book can be read from beginning to end in chapter order, but you can also navigate your own path based on your particular situation.

Part 1 outlines the problem of workplace unhappiness and how it affects physical and mental health.

If you hate your current job, you are not alone. Some people say that you just have to accept the way work is nowadays, but the statistics on workplace stress, weight gain and depression show that being unhappy in your work might be slowly killing you. In this section you will learn to recognize the signs that things need to change. Because hating your job is killing you.

Part 2 focuses on how you can make some immediate changes to enjoy your current life situation more.

This section is specifically targeted at the most common problems people have in their jobs. It focuses on self-development to help you through boredom, and to enable you to identify and follow other opportunities. It will show you ways to take control of your stress and use strategies to manage and reduce it.

There are specific chapters for when you are feeling under-rewarded or trapped as well as ideas to help you take control of your finances in order to maximize your choices in life. There are ideas on enhancing your work/life balance by developing new skills and creativity, and re-focusing on areas outside of work.

Part 3 is designed to help you find out what you really want to do, and move toward that goal .

It is about finding out who you are and what would be best for you. The Career Change Process is an easy-to-follow map for changing your career, and includes ideas on how to implement those changes.

There are many reasons why people dont enjoy their jobs, so not all chapters will be relevant to you. To find the most useful chapters, identify the key categories that apply to you in the following list and then select the appropriate chapters.

There is also a free Companion Workbook that you can download from www.TheCreativePenn.com/careerchange. This workbook contains areas for you to write your thoughts and answers to the questions within the book, as well as copies of the key diagrams for you to fill in. There are related exercises in the workbook whenever you see the Workbook icon as follows.

So lets get started!