Article

Stress-Free Career Change? What a Bunch of Bull!

Written by Marina Spence

Topic: Career TransitionPublished May 2, 2009

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I developed the Stress-Free System of Career Change. At least that’s what I call it. Someone once told me “Career change, stress-free? What a bunch of bull!”

Actually, he’s right and not right. For people with a pulse, there will be some stress associated with change–any change. I, for example, get a little bit nervous before doing practically ANYTHING for the first time, including trying out a new yoga studio. Sometimes I even have to push myself to go.

Changing careers is much more consequential than switching yoga studios!

If change and stress are kissing cousins, is it really possible to change your career change in a “stress-free” way? Yes, for at least 3 reasons.nn#1—Stress can be managed. The #1 stress-buster, according to Dr. Mehmet Oz, M.D., of Oprah Show fame, is…meditation. He says that meditation can start in a variety of ways, including prayer.

When I heard Dr. Oz say this, I smiled. Meditation happens to be the 1st of three “inner keys” in my Stress-Free Career Change system. I call it “tuning in”, and loosened up the meditation “rules.”

I’ve meditated for more than 25 years. I’ve also taught meditation to a wide variety of people–from family members to female prison inmates, from Manhattan professionals to women in a battered women’s shelter. What an amazing stress-buster it proved—simple and powerful! It’s also easy to adapt to other activities if you can’t imagine yourself sitting still for 5 or 10 minutes a day.nn#2—Stress can be reduced. Having a plan, and working the plan at your own pace, is one of many ways to limit the amount of stress you feel. A simple example: let’s say you have 20 things on your to-do list one day. You feel that you MUST do every single one that day. And do most everything perfectly. Consequently, you are stressed.

If you could learn to reduce your list and throw out the notion of being perfect, I guarantee that you will cut down on stress.nn#3—Stress can be connected away. When we feel isolated, we feel stressed. We have no one to talk to. For women, talking is important. Talking produces the chemical serotonin, which reduces…stress! Connecting with other women who are going through the same thing is essential for decreasing stress.

Stress-free? Maybe not. But stress can be managed, reduced, and talked away. That means, career change can be very near stress-free!

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About the Author

How would you like to be guided in your career change by an ex-Wall Street project manager? Someone who has changed and re-energized nncareers two times, and understands the uncertainty and fear that accompanies change? Someone who exudes calm and focus, coming from 25 years of practicing the #1 stress-buster, meditation?

That opportunity could be yours.

I'm Marina Spence. If you are considering critical career choices, I have the solution for you, It connects who you are with what you do. The system I teach is called Stress-Free Career Change. It's described in my book, Make Every Day a Friday! The Joy of Connecting Who You Are With What You Do.

The system all started with a disastrous career change, my first one. Let me tell you about it.

HOW I FINALLY CHANGED CAREERS WITHOUT STRESS & MESS
Career #1: social work. After finishing graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley, I became a community organizer. (Thanks to President Obama, most everyone now knows what a community organizer does!) I co-organized the first farmers' market in a California inner city, West Oakland.

Eventually, I left social work. It took me a tumultuous 8 years to start my next career. I seemed to make every career change mistake I could—not on purpose, of course, life just happened that way.

AVOID MY WALL STREET TEARS
In my late 30’s, I became a computer programmer and moved to New York City. Rather quickly, I was managing software projects and, over time, was managing large-scale projects. For nearly 15 years, this was enough. Then the career that seemed the perfect fit didn’t fit any more, at least not in the same way. Funny thing, I couldn’t admit to myself how unhappy I was.

It took taking some time off to see how to re-vitalize a career the stress-free way. I then started The Pink Edge, a company that empowers women in career change and enjoyment, to pass on the system to others.

Now? I'm back managing software projects, and doing so with more enthusiasm and energy, detachment and ease.

IF I SWITCHED CAREERS, THEN YOU CAN TOO
I know what a big step it is to look at your career with an eye for change. My advice is to follow a system, one step at a time. Learn ways to manage the stress you might feel in your current career, along with the stress of change. Managing stress is a learned skill, one that I've learned through meditation and other proven stress relievers. (Did you know that Dr. Oz of Oprah fame calls meditation the #1 stress-buster?)

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