Why a Job Search is the No1 Catalyst for Life Change

When a catalyst for life change comes along, it is natural to assess how your potential new circumstances might fit into the broader picture.

In actual fact, assessing how the broader picture fits your desired new circumstances could be an alternative way of looking at it. You are making one positive choice for change, so why not align other life shifts alongside it?

There is an opportunity to reassess a heap of stuff that hasn’t felt right for a while during a job search. It is common to drift into a pattern that wasn’t entirely of your design (life rarely is) but making changes can seem daunting as you never quite know how things might work out. We convince ourselves that our life is okay, and we sit on our hands.

However, when a moment for monumental change arrives, such as a job search, it is an excellent opportunity to look inward and ask yourself what else “isn’t quite right.”

Being conservative and making one change at a time rarely works out optimally.

Sudden catalyst for life change

You might think that looking to change too many things simultaneously might be overwhelming. Still, each new direction can bring its own energy and momentum, creating a virtuous cycle for the whole.

A job search is often an arduous rollercoaster of emotions, hopes and dreams. If it is all-consuming, it can wear you down to the point of accepting second best. If, however, you have other goals alongside the job search that you are making progress with (such as losing weight, seeing more of your friends, supporting a charity or joining a sports team), achieving those secondary goals can offer a unique momentum to help you to keep going.

Change begets change. We all can transform our lives at any time.

We just sometimes need that catalyst to make it happen.

Because of the unknown nature of how a job search might eventually work out, most of us will have nagging fears and apprehensions that last months into a new role. Much of the time, we need that extra dose of optimism to get us through the inevitable teething troubles. It is hard to conjure positivity out of thin air, so you have something else to focus on when other changes gradually bear fruit.

Going sideways

Of course, there is always a slight chance that everything might go wrong.

No change is guaranteed to work out well immediately, but it is unlikely that (with the right intentions) nothing at all will work out. You only live once, and if you don’t take these moments to shift your life onto a better path, you will never know what might have been.

In my opinion, risk aversion is one of the biggest barriers to genuine contentment. Follow your heart, recognise how your life could be more meaningful, and double down on the opportunity to transform how you live when that crossroads for change comes along (such as with a job search).

It is true that constantly seeking to change yourself is exhausting (and probably not to be recommended), so make the most of those intense periods when change is thrust upon you.

You never know how you might emerge on the other side.

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This blog is shared with Job Seeker Duetists. 

Written by former recruitment ghostwriter Paul Drury (not AI).