What to do when you're scared to change careers

'I didn't have a single scary moment,' said no career changer ever.

Throw yourself, heart and soul, into any transformative activity, and you're bound to be excited, exhilarated, and sometimes really scared.

However you approach it, changing careers will always challenge who you think you are and how you plan to pay the bills. Exploring unknown territory, querying identity, income, purpose, and place – even the most adventurous humans go wobbly. It's what we do when change is afoot.

My clients' biggest fears are around:

• earning enough money in a new career
• making a' wrong' decision and ending up in another job they hate
• worrying that they lack sufficient skills and experience to do anything else
• staring into the unknown and not seeing a shift that might work for them

It's 100% normal to be scared, but it doesn't have to bring you or your career change undone.

Three reasons why we get scared

Evolution - fear kept our ancestors alive.

Smile your way through Dr. Russ Harris's clever seven-minute take on fear as a literal lifesaver. Learn why we're naturally risk-averse and hardwired to replay painful events.

Try his 'thank you mind, thanks for sharing' exercise next time your inner critic starts shredding your career change plans, picturing your penniless unemployed future, or berating you about 'that time when things went pear-shaped.'

Expecting the worst – we anticipate that changing careers (along with loads of other major life changes) will have awful consequences. And we're convinced we can't handle them.

Watch this quirky, five-minute animated review of Susan Jeffers's classic book, 'Feel the fear and do it anyway.' Then see what you can do about ranking your scary stuff on 'the pain to power continuum' and learning to swap 'I can't handle it 'for "I can handle anything.'

Equating all stress with suffering – we're often 'told' that fear and stress are bad for our health.

The physical feeling signs of fear and stress get a bad rap for inflicting wear and tear. But what if you viewed your racing heart and tingling limbs as dead-set proof that you're ready to tackle tricky business? Maybe stress is your friend when it comes to asking your boss for flexible hours or emailing five fab-sounding people you've found on LinkedIn.

Spend fourteen minutes with Health Psychologist Kelly McGonigal while she outlines the benefits of befriending stress and unlocking the 'biology of courage.'

Top career change fears and how to handle them

Start with your head. Challenge limiting beliefs about how capable you are, test assumptions about how the world works. Quieten inner turmoil, and you'll be in good shape to tackle these three career change essentials 'getting curious, talking to people, and trying stuff.'

Six kinds of inner turmoil

Any one of these six shades of fearful has the power to stall your career change.

Feeling dazed and confused

Direction and momentum can go missing at any stage of a career change.

Forearmed is forewarned.

Take note of these 5 sticking points for career changers and how to negotiate them.

Stuck in analysis paralysis

You’re overwhelmed, overthinking and your head’s about to explode.

Get out of your own way.

Believing you’re ‘not good enough’

There are loads of ways to end up here.

Letting your ‘lack’ of experience/qualifications/connections hold you back?

Work with what you’ve got.

Suffering a massive dose of Comparisonitis?

Try this antidote.

Believe your luck has run out, or you’ve exhausted your ‘God-given talents?

Check your mindset.

Waiting to be exposed as an incompetent fraud?

How to handle feeling like a career change fake.

Convinced you’ll never crack the ‘hidden’ job market?

Here’s a key.

Wrestling the money monster

Scared about staying solvent while you change careers?

4 ways to fund your transition to a new career.

Letting terror trap you in a job you loathe

You have a map and a plan, but you’re going nowhere

Three ways to quit your career comfort zone.

Being ashamed of not having ‘found your one true thing’

Drawn to a dozen different careers?

Maybe you’re a multipod.

Bored by ‘one thing at one time’?

Try a portfolio career.

Two daunting external events

You (mostly) can’t control how these unfold, and that alone can be very frightening. But you can choose how you let the state of the world or how others might see you shape your career change.

Because even if you’re scared, it’s OK to:

Go for it even when the world around you is upended

Worried that you’re bonkers to change careers during a global pandemic?

If you’re ready to change, now is as good a time as any to get going.

Here are 4 future-focused ways to change careers during COVID-19

Question the well-meaning advice of your friends, family, and network.

Feeling pigeon-holed by how other people perceive you?

Not letting other people set her agenda and ‘owning who she was’ helped Rhonda reshaped her communications career. Read Rhonda’s story.

Five ways to protect your career change energy and optimism

Changing careers can be exhausting, and exhaustion fuels fear.

Replenish your reserves of oomph and optimism with these five energy-efficient ways to keep your career change on track

Having a scary career change moment? Book a chat.

By Jo Green, Career Change Coach

I know that when you find what you love, heart and soul, your life changes. I work every day with people who are reshaping their current careers, starting new enterprises or searching for a new direction. Basically I help people who don’t like their job to figure out what to do instead!

As a Careershifters and Firework Advanced Certified Coach and experienced career changer myself, I can help you figure out what fulfilling work looks like for you.

Drop me a note?to organise a free 20 minute consultation to chat about your career change and how coaching could help.