How Do I Stop Talking Myself Out Of Changing Career

“How Do I Stop Talking Myself Out Of Changing Career” Help from our Community “How Do I Stop Talking Myself Out Of Changing Career?” * Rob left his creative dreams behind to concentrate on a stable career, but now he's stuck in a profession that doesn't feel like him. Whenever he thinks about leaving, it seems there's always another good excuse to stay put. How do you make a change, when you keep talking yourself out of following your ideas? What's your career history and current job? Music was my first love. But I couldn't turn it into a career, so I studied history at university instead, then planned a new career in the legal profession. For the past year, I've been a part of the legal team at a large media company. How do you feel about your work? When I started my legal career, I felt comforted by the fact that it had a defined path to success â€"not something you often get from being creative. I also felt that the law was a recognised and challenging profession other people might be impressed by, and that it would be a career I could take anywhere. But after job-hopping within the profession for a few years, hoping in vain that the next job would be better than the last, I now know that a career in law isn't for me. I don't enjoy reading dry contracts and commercial documents. No matter how hard I try to concentrate, they naturally make me zone out. This means I sometimes miss vital details, which then have to be picked up by my colleagues later on. I also find it frustrating to be given creative advertising content to read through, but only to check if it's legally compliant. The longer I stay in my career, the more I feel my natural personality disappearing. I don't feel motivated to engage properly with the people I work with, because I find it hard to be myself in such a stuffy and traditional environment. I record podcasts in my spare time, I've tried stand-up comedy, and I've been playing my own music for years. But when I'm at work, I feel like that's a whole other life. What would you like to be doing instead? I've got a lot of ideas â€" all of them creative in some way. I love cooking and experimenting with food, though I'm not sure how I could turn that into a career. I've considered charity campaigning work, and I've also thought about creative copywriting. Every now and then, I rewrite some of the copy I'm given to review at work, if I think I can improve it. Better still, I'd go into comedy writing. My ultimate dream would be to collaborate with other writers, on a script for a TV show or a film. What's the biggest obstacle in your way? Whenever I think about changing my career, I find a new way to talk myself out of doing anything about it. For example, I'll convince myself that a chance encounter or a random event will eventually come along to rescue me from my legal career, as if by magic. There are a few creative writing projects I've thought about starting, just to see where they could lead. But then I remind myself that creative work is really hard to get into â€" which is something my friends and family keep reminding me about, too. I also feel that I don't really deserve to change things yet. I've worked hard and spent lots of money on my career so far, and I don't want to feel that was wasted. Part of me feels that I should wait until I'm fully qualified as a lawyer, because then I'll have 'paid my dues' before rewarding myself with a new career. Then I worry that by changing my work, I'll lose the things that made a legal career so attractive to me in the first place â€" such as stability, good pay, and an easy commute. I think of new excuses not to change things every day. But my dreams of a creative career are getting stronger, and deep down I know I have to do something about them. How do I change the negative conversations I'm always having with myself, so I can start following new ideas? Can you help Rob? Have you been in a similar situation, or are you in the same boat right now? How do you think Rob could move his shift forwards? Do you know anyone he could talk to? Share your thoughts in the comments below and click the thumbs-up button to show your support.