How I Made A Change From A Corporate To A Creative Person!
I think the year 2020 will be written down in history as the year of “Embracing Change”. I am sure no one on this planet has not been impacted by this change. Whether it’s in the way we work, interact, travel, study, party, and live, change has made its presence felt. So how are we coping with this change?
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I will classify change into three stages:
The Three Stages of Change
1. Deny Change
At first, we refuse to accept that change is here to stay. As quoted by Mary Sherley,” nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change”. And this is true in many cases. We hope that this change is temporary, and things will go back to the “pre-change” state eventually.
2. Accept Change
In the next stage, we reluctantly accept that change is here to stay, but we tend to default to the “pre-change” state either in our thoughts or actions. We eventually adapt to the change, but we adapt to cope rather than adapt to win.
3. Embrace Change
The last stage is the most favourable but the toughest to achieve. This stage is when wholeheartedly, we embrace change and look forward to thriving in this. After all, if nothing ever changed, there would be no butterflies. But very few of us can achieve this stage as we are continually fighting the inevitable, i.e. the change.
Today, I would like to share my story of change with you and how I coped with the three stages to reach where I am today.
5 Must-Dos To Embrace Change Positively
My story of change started when I decided to leave my corporate job after 22+ years of working as we were shifting base to Singapore from India. For a person who is fiercely passionate about her work, this was a life-changing decision.
I was initially looking forward to this change as I was completely exhausted from multitasking the responsibilities of work & home. I was looking forward to a well-deserved sabbatical before plunging back into the corporate world. There is no denying the fact that the first few months were heaven with me indulging in doing things that I did not have time for. I became the best cook, the always available mom and an ever-smiling wife. By the way, I was not that bad while working too, but somehow the work pressures still show in our demeanour.
But slowly, I felt that I had lost my identity & was missing the usual work buzz and a sense of purpose. I decided to go back to corporate life just at the same time when the pandemic chose to raise its head. But most of the organisations put breaks on hiring by then, and the job market had slowed down.
This was the starting point of my blogging journey.
Accept The Change
The first big step that I took was to accept this change in my mindset that I am not a corporate person now. And even if I want to go back to the corporate world, it may take some months, thanks to the pandemic.
There no point in fighting change when it’s here to stay. As Socrates said, ” The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new”. Of course, I realise this now in hindsight and not when I was going through the self-pity cycle. Read on to find out what I did to realise this saying.
Explore Your Strengths
Having being pushed to the wall with no options, I started looking within. What am I good at, what are my strengths, what was it that people appreciated me for? I realised that I was good at listening to people, mentoring people & sharing my life experiences & learnings. Some of these learnings were picked up & implemented by these very same people & proved helpful. Therefore maybe I could do that with the rest of the world. And that’s where my blogging journey started. It’s been five months that I have been blogging & it’s been a fantastic journey. More about it as we go further.
So here is the point I am trying to make. Whenever you are in a situation when the change is getting at you, first accept that you are not happy and want to take some action. Then start exploring your strengths & how you can utilise these to change the situation you are in. The answers are within you. Remember, when things change inside you, things change around you.
Don’t Hesitate To Try Something New.
To continue the story, my blogging journey started with a concept. But writing a blog is not just about writing; it’s also about having a platform to showcase & share your thoughts. Hence I needed to create a website where I can host my blog. From here started another journey of discovering this new field called blogging. Believe me, it’s a different animal altogether, and you can get lost so easily here.
But the excitement of learning something new and creating your own space in this world kept me going. I made progress by taking baby steps and using my Flagpost theory approach to measure success. Click here to know more about this unique approach to life (Live in the Present Using FlagPost theory Approach). I started spending more time reading YouTube and learning Podcasts than I ever did in my entire life until now. The technical know-how of creating your website and maintaining it was quite overwhelming, especially for a tech-challenged person like me.
Here my corporate skill sets of perseverance & root cause management came in & I finally got what I wanted.
So again, do not hesitate to try something new in the face of a change. We may fail the first time, but nothing cannot be sorted or learnt if you have your heart & mind on it. But if you never try, You’ll never know what works for you.
Ask for Help
There is so much knowledge available amongst us, only if we reach out to the right people. We need to remember this especially true when we are trying out something new. While I had written my first blog and my website was ready, I was completely lost on promoting my blog on the right platform. Or rather, I was ignorant.
While doing a random search on top bloggers, I came across the credentials for this amazing lady, who I call my mentor now. Her name is Shailaja V & she has been in this industry for the last thirteen years. Enough to know what works and what does not work. I reached out to her for guidance & soon joined her e-courses. Her e-books and live sessions are my go-to for any queries and clarifications. She also has a dedicated Facebook group for people who have joined her e-courses, where she replies almost instantaneously to any questions we have.
For anyone who is starting their blogging journey or who need to course-correct, I hugely recommend her Courses on Pinterest, 20-day Blogging BootCamp & Blog Post Ideas. I have personally gone through these courses and seen merit in terms of my content & reaching the right target audience.
I am sure I made my point very clear with this example. Please do not hesitate to raise your hand & seek help from people when you are exploring something new. This is a critical step forward towards embracing change. As now you are seeking things that will make your change smoother & maybe more fulfilling.
Have Patience
In the corporate world, you need to know your customers well to provide them with the services/products they are looking for. Similarly, you need to understand what your readers are looking for and provide them with that content in blogging. In the corporate world, everything is in Black & White. You either meet your numbers, or you don’t. In my field of project management, it was either you delivered on time or not. There was no scope of ifs & buts in results. But here, you may have written a fantastic post as per your interpretation, but it may not resonate with your readers or vice versa. It’s so subjective.
Therefore one more essential thing I learnt is to have Patience. Even while you have embraced change, you need to have Patience for it to thrive to its full potential. And sometimes it may not also. Halfway you may realise that this was not the thing for me & you may want to course-correct. I read this fantastic quote from Louis E.Boone “Don’t fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have. “
My Takeaway
Today, when many of us are looking at starting something new, something of our own, please keep the above five lessons in mind. Whatever is the cause of this change should not influence your determination to make this one a positive one.
Here I would like to share a powerful TED Talk on Change by this mother that left me awestruck and made me realise that my change is nothing in front of what all people go through. But yes, the principles of managing change remain the same.
How changing your mindset can help you embrace change!
Well, for my story, it’s just the beginning now, and I don’t know where it will end. But all I know is that I am enjoying every bit of this. I am busier than I was during my corporate days. I loved my work then too, and I love this new creative side of me as well. So will I ever go back to the corporate world? Well, never say “Never”, but I am sure I will never stop blogging.
And, of course, one important thing that I forgot to mention. Two motivators helped me through this transition -Yoga & Painting—more about these in my next blog. So make sure you have some hobbies/ pastimes/ passions to keep your sanity through this change.
Life is all about Embracing Change, Trying New Things, Having Fun, Making Mistakes and Learning From It.
If you agree with me, please share this blog with your friends & family & encourage them to embrace the change in their lives positively.
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Motivating ???
Motivating ???
Totally agree with your thoughts… we all have to accept that change is the only constant in this life… once we accept this reality… we can move on to deal with it….
Change is not always bad… process may be difficult but most of the times the end result/ product is almost always good …but yes we have to go through that difficult process of change to enjoy the end results…
Superb piece of writing …keep it up
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