How to Face a Personal Career Crisis and Come Out Smiling

How to Face a Personal Career Crisis and Come Out Smiling Its hard to know when or if a midlife crisis will hit you. These days, research suggests that midlife crises are no longer confined to our forties they are happening in our thirtiesand even in our twenties, in the form of a quarterlife crisis. Typically, if you do face a midlife crisis, it willtake the form of a career-identity crisis. You may lose your sense of purpose in life and your sense of identity. Rather than just hating your manager or feeling bored atyour job, you may feel that your entire chosen career path is meaningless.The good news is that there are plenty of things you can do to effectively manage your personal career crisis and come out the other side smiling. Hereare fourtips to help you do just that.1. Take Some Comfort in the Fact You Are Not AloneReports suggest that around half of workers may feelunfulfilled intheir c urrent jobs, so chances are thatplenty of kindred spirits exist around you in the office. These are people with whom you can share your pain and from whom you can seek advice. You can bounce ideas off ofthese people and clarify your thoughts. Some of these peoplemay have already gone through the same crisis, and others may be currently going through it, but all across the board theymay have some practical suggestions.2. See Your Crises as a Career Transition InsteadWe live in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world, a time of boom and bust, a global environment in whichcompanies and political regimes rise and fall seeminglyovernight.This volatility is felt in thework world the traditional job-for-life has all but evaporated. Todays worker may have between 15 and 20 jobs over the course of their lifetime, according to certain predictions.Furthermore,a 2006 study from New York Universitys School of Continuing and Professional Studiesfoundthat todays professionals ar e expected to change careers three times in their lifetimes just 28 percent of present-day professionals expect to have lifelong careers.Becausecareer changes are so common and normal, it may serve little purpose to view your career shakeupas a crisis. Instead, take the more productive route and view it as a career transition opportunity.3. Go on aVision Quest (Metaphorically Speaking)A einbildung quest isa rite of passage practiced onNative American cultures. It is a meditative exercise in whichthe individual spends a fewdays and nights secluded in nature in order to do some deep thinking and find spiritual guidance and purpose.Now, this exact activity might not be everyones cup of tea, but the concept of taking time out of your normal life to open your mind up to newpossibilities is a sound one.Why sit around your office orapartment, moping and wallowing in self-pity, when you can go on a retreat, take a few days vacation somewhere, and let the answers find you? Youll be able to t hink outside of the box and consideryour career in a much more liberated way, freeing your mind and enabling you to come up with some solutions to your crisis.Dont rule out any options at this stage, however strange the may seem. The professional vision quest is a brainstorming exercise, so just enjoy the journey. Therell be plenty of time for realism soon.4. Come Back Down to Earth and Make a PlanOnce youve had time to brainstorm on your vision quest, its time to make a plan, which involves conductingyour own personal SWOT analysis.Lookat your strengths and weaknesses, your career opportunities and your career threats. Try tomatch your strengths and desires to viable alternative career options and opportunities. Understand what youll need to do in terms of training and thesort of title or status sacrifices you may need to make in order to be a credible candidate on your desired new career path. Also, identify the likely career transition period how long will it take you? Six mont hs? A year? Two years?After following these steps, you should have acareer transition strategy and a positive direction in which to enthusiastically channel all of yourprecious, nervous energy. It could and should be the start of a wonderful journey