I’m happy to have author of Kerry Hannon, What’s
Next? Follow Your Passion and Find Your Dream as my guest today. In the current economy, many people are out of work or trying to change what they do to earn a living. Kerry has some great tips! When you take control of your work situation, you give yourself more ammo to build the confidence to leave DoorMatville or stay out of it if you left.

Changing your work life can be risky, but it can be a successful risk–and even more so, a truly satisfying one.

If you’ve lost your job and are dealing with a second act as a necessity, it’s crucial that you don’t act out of rashness and fear, but rather knowledge of how you can use this life-changing event to your advantage. True, you may not have the luxury of savings socked away to tide you over while you gain traction in your new work. And you may not have a limitless time horizon before you need to start earning enough to support you and your family.

But, in reality, this may very well be the perfect time to move into a job that means something to you. With the cushion provided by a severance or early-retirement package, grab hold of your chance to try something you have always dreamed of doing, even if it isn’t on your time table, but your ex-employer’s whim.

We all wrestle with just what it is we’re looking for in our job and life. How many times have you been told life is short and not to waste it? To make a complete turn, though, usually takes spirit, strength, and a thirst to find meaning in this life. Not everyone is hardwired for that kind of transformation.

No two paths are the same. Each person I interviewed for What’s Next? Follow Your Passion and Find Your Dream was faced with a different set of challenges. But these success stories do reveal common threads:

•    Many of these men and women were spurred to discover what really matters to them and transform their work (and, in turn, personal) lives by a crisis or loss that starkly revealed the fleeting nature of a life.
 
•    No one acted impulsively. They paused. They planned. They bypassed helter-skelter approaches, and pursued prudent, well-researched moves.

•    Each person set flexible time horizons for his or her venture to make it.
 
•    If necessary, they added the essential skills and degrees before they made the leap. They often apprenticed or volunteered beforehand.
 
•    They reached out to their networks of social and professional contacts to ask for help and guidance.

•    They downsized and planned their financial lives in order to be able to afford a cut in pay or the cost of a start-up. Several were fortunate to have had the cushion of a spouse’s steady income or had some outside investments, retirement savings, and pensions in place to ease the transition to their new line of work.

But what really sticks with me is that they all share a clear confidence in the direction they have taken, never second-guessing their choice. They collectively work longer hours, but it doesn’t matter. They only wish they had done it sooner.
And that says it all.

Key Things to Contemplate before Making a Major Career Change
Marketing 101. How good are you at selling yourself? Really? This is a key ingredient for those of you embarking on an entrepreneurial second act. This is a genuine blind spot that wannabe second actors can possess.

You may have had a wonderful initial experience starting a new business or a consulting business but fail to understand that your confidence is only part of the battle; the other part is marketing yourself as you move along from those heady first few months or even years. For people who have worked in a setting where they did their job and delivered the end result to much fanfare, this change can be extremely difficult.

Greenhorn blues. It’s much tougher than you think to cope with being a beginner. It’s unnerving. You feel as though the rug has been pulled out from under you, and your base of support and confidence has slipped away. To have a second act hit, you must be sufficiently open to change in life. Career changers often underestimate what the transition will bring and how many things they actually appreciate in their lives. All of a sudden, they realize how they miss their old career or the trappings of it, and they are not really open to replacing those things.

Respect. We all like to be treated with respect. We enjoy the admiration, esteem, and appreciation we get from colleagues, people we manage at our current jobs, our bosses and others whom we come into contact with both socially and professionally. We take pleasure when those around us have a high opinion of us.

But when you move into uncharted territory, you’re a neophyte, the proverbial new kid on the block, starting over at the bottom. This requires some psychological adjustment and fine-tuning. All of a sudden, you are making less, probably making a few mistakes, and not being treated like the experienced professional you have come to be.

Look inside and recognize those feelings. You might even want to hire a professional such as a therapist or career coach to guide you through this more personal adjustment. A supportive partner or best friend might be all the shoring up you need, but it is a transition phase that shouldn’t be ignored.

Making mistakes gracefully. Easier said than done. Face it, the older you are and further along on your professional success ladder, the harder it is to accept criticism and responsibility for screwing up. Your ego just isn’t as nimble and forgiving as it once was. This is the reality, and it happens when you start anew. When you’re in your twenties you are better equipped to handle the inevitable screw-ups and missteps, let them slide off your back with a simple shrug, and move on.

When you can accept that trying new things means learning from your mistakes along the way, you will be in a healthier stronger place to move ahead. Doing things badly is just another step toward doing them well.
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Excerpted from What’s Next? How to Follow Your Passions to a Fantastic and Fulfilling New Career by Kerry Hannon Copyright © 2010 by Kerry Hannon.

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Kerry Hannon is a nationally respected personal finance editor and retirement correspondent for U.S. News & World Report. She has been a columnist and reporter for USA Today, and staff writer and editor for Money, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, and Forbes. Her work has also been featured in CBSMoneywatch.com, AARP Bulletin Today, the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Reader’s Digest, and Good Housekeeping, and she has appeared as a financial expert on ABC News, CBS, CNBC, and NPR. Check out her book, What’s
Next? Follow Your Passion and Find Your Dream.

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