Sometimes in life we have to change direction. In our career as well as life in general.
You know those times when you’ve had enough a long time ago, but you just needed some extra time to work up the courage. Or those times when something changed very quickly around you and not in a way you liked.
I’ve had many clients ask me what the difference is between running away and choosing to change direction. It’s almost the same as the difference between reacting and responding. It comes from the intention of the move and where you’re making the decision from.
Running away is a survival mechanism. Sometimes it’s what saves us. But the intention behind running away is a reaction – a fast response to remove ourselves from the thing that scares us, hurts us or makes us uncomfortable. I’ve seen many migrants and travelers over the years (and I’ve done it myself too!) who travel or relocate to get away from the thing that’s difficult, painful or sad.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, we just need to have awareness that this is the reason we’re doing it. Because no matter how far away we run, the past will always catch up. Most of us the wait to later in our adult life to deal with the things that really hurt us when we were younger. Sadly, many choose to keep running away, thinking the past will never catch up if they just keep avoiding it.
Changing direction is a very different thing. It comes from a place of strength, intuition and responding in a healthy way to the things that happen around us.
When you choose to change direction you take external things into consideration whilst making a decision that will move you towards what’s right for you. Some choose the path where they will learn the most, but that will challenge them a lot. Some choose a path of simplicity and removing negative or toxic people, jobs or actions from their life. I reckon there are as many paths out there as there are people!
There is true magic in changing direction. To learn to listen to yourself (again) and make decisions about your future that comes from your heart, your gut and a little bit of logic.
Most of us (myself included) don’t know what the future holds, but what we can influence is the steps we choose to take right now with the information we currently have.
If you need some inspiration or comfort right now, one of my favourite sayings is “it’s always better doing something than choosing to do nothing”. We will get things wrong and mess up along the way – that’s just the way life goes! Which is why changing direction requires courage, self love and a bunch of curiosity.