Change careers in 2023 at 45 and I have no idea, how to move forward.

I wish it was a script in a movie and we know how everything will turn out in the end. But here we are at my current job and just 17 days to go. I am sitting in this classroom and wrecking my brain with questions about my career goals. Was it wise to quit without having a new job lined up? There must be a way to start doing something else entirely with the skills I have developed throughout my career. What is the best way to go about these things? 

Leap of Faith

Should you stay and just be dead inside and do everything on auto-pilot, or should you, just take a leap of faith and see where things will end? I guess I chose the latter one. There was no way I could have been at this job during the summer and just be on auto-pilot. 

The struggle is REAL!!

If you have been reading my blog for these past few months you would have noticed that the thing I struggle most with is changing careers and leaving my current career behind. But somehow I always get sucked back in and I don’t even know how. Changing your career is a struggle and a half. Changing it in 2023 at 45 and having no ideas is something else.

Ready to learn new things

My current role as a study coach differs from standing in front of a class but is still in education. I want to leave it behind, get some new work experience, and be challenged again. I am ready to learn some new skills. I can do this education thing with my eyes closed and it’s getting old.  As you know, I would like to do so many things, but this is also overwhelming. I don’t know what my first step needs to be and my brain is running around in circles. 

Books

I am reading so many books to find some answers on how to make this major career change. What I  need is for someone to tell me how to start. Of course, some of these books are helpful and I am enjoying them. It is still difficult to find my answers. Even when you Google these topics, it is difficult to find a simple answer. Maybe it is supposed to be difficult for you to enjoy the ending more. I don’t know but what I do know is that it is getting a bit stressful.

Regrets?

I don’t regret this midlife career change one bit but the struggle is real. One of the books that I have just finished today is You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero. I bought the book because of the title, who doesn’t want to become a Badass at Making Money? It was a fun read! If you have been reading books about manifesting and going after your goals it won’t be something new. It did however remind me of how I need to stop letting the “I can’t do it” voice take over. I liked the book because of her sense of humor and how she explained how she went after her goals. I thought it was inspirational. 

How do they do it?

I always see people say things like: “Oh, I was a beautician before but now I work in marketing.” or something totally different and I think HOW?? How did you know you were good at this and how did you get your foot in the door to make this change? I know I am a person that is willing to learn and I do learn new things quickly. I just need the opportunity to get started.

Where I am looking for jobs

I am living on Indeed.com these days to see what is out there and some of these jobs look so good. As I mentioned in a previous post as soon as I see something that I haven’t done before I just move on. I have also changed my LinkedIn profile and am looking for a new career path there. LinkedIn is daunting, don’t you think so too? Or am I the only one? There are so many career options on there but I feel like I don’t fit in because I feel like I don’t have specific skills that they are asking for.

Still a work in progress

My biggest challenge is to work on my confidence; it is still not where it should be. Some days I wake up and say: ” You are a BOSS and you can achieve anything you want!” The next day I wake up and say: ” Who are you kidding you are going to stay in this current position forever.” It’s a good thing that the first one is taking over more and more but I want it to be my everyday mantra.

Family and Friends

One of the good things is that I am surrounded by people who are encouraging me to find my dream job. They know how unhappy I was. I think deep down they might think this woman is wild…LOL…Here she is quitting jobs here and there without a solid plan. So happy that they love me and support me and I love them for that. To be honest, if a friend came to me years ago and told me this plan I would also look at them as if they must have lost their mind.

Contradicting myself

Being in the position I am now, I support everyone who wants to be happy with their careers. No matter how wild their plan is. Take risks and if you fail you can always say that you tried. You see how I contradict myself because I always have good advice for everybody but I don’t follow my advice. Anyway, I will always have my teacher’s degree to fall back on if push comes to shove and I need money for my financial obligations. 

Not Enough Time?

I know I don’t have much time to figure things out because there is still such a thing as age discrimination (unfortunately). People see your age and think well we can’t hire this person because they are “old”. It is a shame because we do have a lot of life experience which can be useful to a job. I don’t mind working at all even though I always make jokes on my social media about wanting a ‘”soft life”. What I do have is a strong work ethic and always go for 100% even if I don’t like my job. I don’t think my employer should suffer because I am an indecisive person.

If I could turn back time

I wish I could go back to high school and start all over again with the life experiences I have now. I would have done things so differently and would probably be doing something creative like singing, acting, or DJing. But choices were made back then and the only thing I can do now is make a career switch. There must be a good idea somewhere in my brain to make this change a bit easier. These years of experience must be good for something. A fresh start is needed. I will now be very happy with a job that lets me do remote work and has flexible hours. I just want to enjoy my working life and have a better work-life balance.

The clock is TICKING!

Three more Mondays and a whole lot of stress to find out what is up next in this little life of mine. I have been rambling again for quite some time now on this post. It is LONG but if you got this far, I do want to thank you for reading. If you have been in this position by going for a different career can you please let me know how you did it? And if it worked out for you? I need answers…LOL. I don’t know many people who are close to me who have taken a plunge into the unknown as I have. Is it even possible for an average person to start working in a new field without connections? I will stay hopeful and believe that the best things are yet to come. 

End of Ramble

Thank you for taking the time to read, I can’t wait to write about some good news on the job department. It will happen!!! My next post won’t be so long but I had some free time and I wanted to write a post about my job search. I guess I had a lot to say and now you know half of my personal life…LOL. Now let me go speak my job in a new industry into existence so I can enjoy the next step in my life! Talk to you soon! 💛

p.s I love how people DM me to tell me that they think it’s nice to see how I just voice what is on my mind. Also, feel free to share by clicking on the share button or clicking the like button. Thanxxxx ☺️