“For things to change, you’ve got to change.”  That’s the hard part - YOU!   You’ve got to change!  Sometimes change is forced on us  and other times we initiate it.  But even if we initiate and welcome the change, it isn’t easy.  Change is new territory and dictates that you’re going to be facing a whole lot of unknowns.  Unknowns bring with them a bunch of challenges, frustrations and fears.  All of these tend to slow down the intended positive results we hoped for when we made the change.

The great outcomes we were looking for when we made the change often elude us because YOU take your eyes off the outcome you were looking for and begin focusing on the fears that result from the unknowns. Of course, you have to deal with the unknowns and that’s fine.  But we have to remember two important principles while we’re in the midst of dealing with  unknowns.  First, don’t loose your vision.  Keep your eye on your intended outcome.  Second, don’t let the unknowns create fears that slow you down or even kill your passion.  Easier said than done, but we have to do it!  Write these two principles down and hang them someplace where you will see them all the time.  It will help you keep your mind focused on where you want to go and overcome the hardest part of change; the YOU factor.

Keeping these two principles ever before us, we can then deal with the unknowns standing between us and the intended outcome we were seeking when we made the change in our life.  How do we eliminate the unknowns associated with our objective?  What are the best methods of getting past our lack of knowledge, experience or insight?  That discussion will be the subject of our next  visit together.  Please feel free to add your thoughts concerning the “hard part” of change.  Till next time, thanks for the conversation.

Jim

It is a very interesting new chapter in my life now as I actually step into that whole new world I’ve been thinking deeply about for the past couple years. I have finally escaped the work I’ve done for the past 30 years and the release I feel now is hard to describe. It’s like getting out of prison. Oddly, even though the current economy is the bleakest it has been since the Great Depression, I feel more excited about the future than I have for years. There is so much opportunity out there to do work that is rewarding and really makes a difference. And I am free to choose the work I want to pursue; what is most important to me. If I had fully recognized the way this change in my life was going to make me feel, I’d have taken the leap years ago.

If any of this rings a bell in your experience, you might want to think about where you are versus where you want to be. And then remember the expression, “For things to change, you’ve got to change”.

Thanks for reading,

Jim Vickers

You know, you come to a time in your life where you think, there’s more to life than this!  Maybe you’ve worked long hard hours for years and you’re tired of the same old daily grind. You might be asking yourself if you’re fulfilling your potential.  What have I been missing all these years?  By now, you are approaching your so called retirement but you feel in your gut that you haven’t turned every stone yet. You’re not ready to hang it up, even though you want to get away from what you’re doing now. 

For some, the recognition comes gradually.  For others, it comes in a flash of insight.  “Hey, I don’t have to continue living like this!  There’s a whole new life out there!”  The time comes when you realize that it”s time for a change.  If any of this sounds familiar to you, how to deal with this time for change is what this  ”Work Longer”  weblog is all about.

How your “time for change” works itself out may be different for each of us, depending on what you want from your “whole new life out there”. For some, it’s a matter of greater achievement, more financial security or higher recognition. For many, it’s the freedom to pursue personal passions, whatever they may be.  It could even be a combination of two or more of these objectives.  The point is, how do you make the transition from where you are now to where you want to be? What is your path?

The interesting thing you notice when considering the path at this stage of your life is that the path itself is now as important to you as the objective. It used to be that the objective was the paramount consideration. Now you recognize that the journey is as important as the destination. That’s different! And that difference is bound to alter how you go about the transition from where you are now to where you want to be.  In fact, if you look close enough, the path of transition is actually an integral part of “the whole new life” itself.

So the questions for you the reader are threefold. Does this discribe where you are now? How would you discribe the “whole new life out there” that you dream about?  And do you have a path for that journey?  We’d love to hear about you.