“It has taken multiple job changes, a dramatic job termination, a few rejections, and quite a few great moments in between –it has been worth it and the journey continues, to develop self, others and transform the world around me.“
margaret ochieng
So now five years after I first started my career change journey, I am an organisational psychologist, I work in the area that of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, offering training, consulting, leadership development and coaching services.
Running my own business gives me the autonomy and flexibility that employment was never able to give me. I am managing my own growth, as opposed to waiting for the next cycle of promotion after which someone may yet decide that I am still not good enough, even after meeting all the demands set in the previous promotion cycle. Or that I don’t quite fit in, as I once was told.
I no longer need to dumb down, because my clients are willing to pay top figures for my talent. I have positioned myself between organisational practice and academia to enable me to continue satisfying my intellectual curiosity while using that to fuel my day to day work. It has taken multiple job changes, a dramatic job termination, a few rejections, and quite a few great moments in between –it has been worth it and the journey continues, to develop self, others and transform the world around me.
If there is something you really want to do, if there is someone you really need to be in this season of life, you may never feel ready, the time might never feel right but just go ahead and do whatever you want to or need to do or be. Life is precious like that!
A few key things may help; I would say, get clarity on your plan, think about how you are going to hold yourself accountable, surround yourself with people who believe in the power of your dreams, invest in personal and career development because it is worth it. Think about the relationship you have with your worst fears. One of the things that held me back for many years was the thought that I had to overcome my fears to be able to step out and do what I wanted to do in the world. And for the longest time, my fears just kept growing. It is until I decided that I was going to step forward with all my fears, learn how to work with them (even while I am still afraid), and work around them. It’s all about what I am learning about myself and about the world, and how I choose to comply or resist that matters.