by Tasmin Sabar
There are a few things in life more nerve-wracking than starting over.
Whether that’s starting over in life following a divorce, the death of a loved one or restarting your career in either a different field or starting up a new business, these new starts all have one thing in common.
They put you “out there” and make you feel vulnerable in a way that you could have barely tolerated thinking about beforehand.
The sorts of changes that if you said to yourself “imagine if?” you would find it difficult to actually do the imagining. It’s as though that part of the brain suddenly becomes inaccessible. But once you’re in there, you have no choice but to go ahead and live it.
The scary thing about changes such as these is that there is no blueprint on how you should be living and it’s often a case of facing many fears and limiting beliefs as they arise.
All the while, having to deal with the ego rearing its head and telling you what you can and can’t do. Questioning your ability to do this thing that you are moving towards.
Who are you to start over?
Make a change?
Push through your comfort zone?
Live life on your terms?
It can be difficult to start over and even if you do, it can be tough to make real progress towards creating the life or career that you really want.
During my own personal starting over moment – leaving 15 years of a corporate career to start my own business, I experienced first hand what a rollercoaster beginning again can be. But, when you have the courage to face these changes head on, they can also carry some of your biggest lessons and/or opportunities.
Here are 6 success tips for starting over in your career.
1. Accept Where You Are
However you find yourself starting over, start by accepting where you are and make peace with it. If you’ve left a job recently without something else to go to, or are finding that your new business is not taking off as quick as you might have expected, just acknowledge that. Tell yourself “I am where I am and that’s okay”. Just doing this simple step, helps you evaluate your position without judgment, and encourages self-acceptance.
It keeps you optimistic while you work on improving things.
2. Appreciate How Far You Have Come
Once you have made peace with where you are, take some time to reflect on how far you have come. Sometimes we can make lots of progress but fail to acknowledge this progress as being enough. You might be starting over, but you are doing it with all the extra skills and experience you have gained and you will be taking all of that with you.
Chances are if you take the time to reflect, you will see that you have come further and achieved more than you thought, and in doing so will give yourself renewed confidence to go back at it.
3. Keep Yourself Uplifted
Keeping yourself optimistic and in a positive mindset is crucial. This might not seem easy so to help you through it, be proactive about seeking out inspiration. Follow people on social media who are already doing what you want to do, read the books that those you admire have written, create a vision board, write out your affirmations, keep a gratitude journal.
There are many ways you can keep yourself uplifted. Choose what works for you and go for it.
There is a quote I love by Zig Ziglar which says “people often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily”.
Seeking out different inspirations on a daily basis when you are starting over is extra crucial. When you are at the beginning of the journey it will keep you focused on where you are going, stop you dwelling on any negatives in your situation, keep you going on a bad day and help you keep the big picture in mind.
4. Set SMART Goals and Get Accountability
Get clarity around your next steps by setting SMART goals. Take your time to think about next steps, where you want to go and where you want the new start to take you.
Setting goals give you structure and a plan and keep you moving forward without which it can be easy to drift.
Break your big goals down into weekly, monthly and yearly steps and put them somewhere visible to help you stay on track. Be flexible as to your methods of achieving your goals and open to course correcting if necessary.
It’s not enough to just set the goals, you must put the plan in place – taking action on the plan is the secret sauce. As Stephen Covey says “Goals are pure fantasy without a specific plan in place to achieve them”
Build in some accountability and support into achieving your goals through working with a Coach of Mentor.
5. Celebrate the Small Victories
If you are the sort of person who only thinks they’ve achieved something when they’ve got to the end result of their big goal, you could be doing yourself a disservice and failing to recognise all the steps that you took to get there. Chances are whenever you are starting over, there won’t be just the one singular step to get to where you want to be, particularly if you decide to start your own business. There will be projects to plan, tasks to complete, to-do lists to get through.
Be kind to yourself and celebrate the small victories as well as the big ones which you deem more worthy of celebration. This will not only keep you motivated and show you that you are on track to your goal but it will be a reminder of your successes on the way to getting there.
6. Don’t Forget to Enjoy Every Day
This is the one thing that will transform the starting over period for you. Often, when you are embarking on a new beginning, you can be so intent on getting to the end result that you miss out on the joys of everyday life that are before you.
So take time every day to be truly present in as many moments as you can. Whilst you are working on your new start, life is still there to be lived and it is oh so beautiful.
Take time to bask in the sunshine, take the long walk in the park, turn up the radio and sing along at the top of your voice – do the things that make you happy and revel in the day to day.
Whilst the process of starting over can be challenging, if you embrace it, you will find new ways of surprising yourself and find new resilience shows itself to you.
And the absolute number one reason why you should not be afraid to start over? Doing so provides a brand new opportunity to build what you TRULY want.
And that is the most exciting thing of all.
Read more from Tasmin Sabar here.
Tasmin Bar said goodbye to the corporate world after fifteen years in the legal and recruitment sectors, before starting her own entrepreneurial journey. She found her passion as a Mindset and Business Confidence Coach and specializes in helping women navigate the transition from the 9-5, to their own business based on their own passions.
