473: How To Stay Positive During A Career Change

Angela Barnard 00:01

It takes your power away, you know, when it's always based on something externally outside of you, for you to feel better. So I see that the people that create just really cool results in their life, it's because they focus on themselves, what they can control and keeping their energy high.

Introduction 00:22

This is the Happen To Your Career podcast, with Scott Anthony Barlow. We help you stop doing work that doesn't fit you, figure out what does and make it happen. We help you define the work that's unapologetically you, and then go get it. If you're ready to make a change, keep listening. Here's Scott. Here's Scott. Here's Scott.

Scott Anthony Barlow 00:46

Okay, it's Scott. But you're not going to hear from me in this episode, because I'm taking some of our HTYC advice, and I'm stepping away from work. And this time for an entire month to be able to spend time with my family, and unplug. So I'm not going to be on this episode, or the next few. I am leaving you in great hands, of the Happen To Your Career podcast team, I know you're gonna love it.

Angela Barnard 01:07

In this episode, we're talking about how to stay positive during a career change. Because let's be real, it can be really difficult to keep your spirits up when your energy is already low from the job you want to switch out of, right? So beyond thinking positively, we got some tips for you. We found it to be very helpful and keeping your energy up during the process of a career change. You are hearing from me, Ang, I'm a Career Coach on the Happen To Your Career team team. And then also, Phillip.

Phillip Migyanko 01:39

Hey, y'all, this is Phillip. I'm the Director of Client Results here at Happen To Your Career. And I'm so excited to be joining Ang. So we've got some cool tips. How many tips do we have, Ang?

Angela Barnard 01:48

We have five different tips. So tip number one. Tip number one is to acknowledge and validate that your mind is going to go negative sometimes during the whole career change process, and that this is a normal thing. So I'm going to geek out a little bit about how the mind works because that's how I do. Phillip totally knows this. I always have to bring back the science. We have to bring it down to the science like how our brain works. So if you think about your brain, you have the subconscious part of your mind, and you have the conscious part of your mind. So without getting into all the details behind that, the subconscious part of your mind is really tied to identity, patterns, habits, this controls 95% of the results you'll have in your life. And then the conscious mind controls 5% of the results. And that's just like your wishful thinking, like the things you would like to happen, that kind of happens in the conscious mind. So what happens when you want to make a career switch, you are changing so much of the subconscious mind, you're trying to, that is focused on your identity, you want to change your identity, well, you just need to know that that's going to bring up a lot of stuff for you, because you have so many habits around who you've been in your current role. So what happens is, the subconscious mind tries to keep the current program running. Meaning, keeping you where you are. So what do I mean by that? I mean thoughts like this, "is it going to be possible for me to get the job that I want?" You've heard of this, right, Phillip? All time.

Phillip Migyanko 03:17

All the time.

Angela Barnard 03:18

People are always asking, that, "what if it doesn't work out? Will I make enough money? Did I just waste my time doing the thing that I'm doing now? Do I have to go back to school? Why would anyone want to hire me when I don't have any experience in the field that I want to switch to?" So this all these thoughts will be triggered for you. This is normal, because the subconscious part of your mind wants to keep that program running. So it's kinda like showing you how it might be unsafe to step into this tack territory that is unknown. This is what your brain does to survive, it's what its been doing. What I'm trying to say here is that, you need to acknowledge that it's gonna happen, like, through this process, stuff is going to show up for you and some of those negative thoughts may show up for you. So in a nutshell, I'm saying that this is totally normal, and makes sense how the mind works. The next question we want to ask is now that we know that this is going to show up for you, how do we work with it? That's what we're talking about in our next tip. So the next tip is to notice and reframe. So I want you to notice the negative chatter that's showing up. I call this "my trash" kind of like you have trash in the house, right, that's building up. You don't just keep it in there, let it stink up everything, right? You take it out, right? Do something with it. So that's how I kind of see this. The mind trash shows up, some of those thoughts that don't serve you may show up, and now, what? You can reframe it, shift it into something different. So instead of thinking like it's not going to work out for me or thought similar to that, shifting it to something like it hasn't happened yet because something better is coming.

Phillip Migyanko 04:52

Yeah. Well, it's interesting because one of the things that's in there, so internally at Happen To Your Career, one of the big things that we do, first thing when people start the program or working with a coach is we try to identify, what are those mindsets. What are those things that are going to get you in the way? Essentially, what are those stories that you tell yourself? And the way that I talked about with clients, and Ang, I bet you talked about this too, and I use some Brene Brown language in here. And I talked about the Gremlins in the back of your head, what's that voice say to you in the back of your head? You know, the one that when you wake up at 2am, and that wakes you up, and you're like, you can't go back to sleep because it's an anxious feeling, like, what's that voice saying to you? Because often what we see with all of our clients or people who really start a big change is that they've got this internal subconscious story that they're telling themselves, that isn't actually going to serve them. And for every single person that we work with, and you might find this for yourself, too, is that they come with this baggage from good work experience, bad work experience. And I have a client I was working with a couple of weeks ago, and we were talking about that where he got to the point of burnout where he was going to take FMLA, and that's the Family Medical Leave Act, because he just was so burned out, and he didn't know how to talk with his supervisor about, "I'm burnout, I need some time." And long story short, we got down into the baggage and what he was struggling with was his last company before that. The last time he was brought up, he was burned out, so they put him on a performance plan. And you might be rolling right now like, "Oh, crap" when those performance plans, because for most people, what that means is they start managing those people out and that's what happened to him. So he came with a lot of this internal baggage from what happened to him previously, is going to happen to him now. And what happens for so many people is where their focus goes, that's where their energy goes. And what can happen here is that if we aren't at least acknowledging and validating what those are, then those scripts are actually going to be the driver of the ship and it's going to drive us right off course. And then what you and your coach do with tip number two is we notice and reframe it like, "Alright, what's that thing?" And then one of the good aspects about coaching is, you have an external partner to reframe a lot of those things in your head. So yeah, when you were talking about that, those are the things that I was thinking about and brought up, especially for how we see it a lot with our clients.

Angela Barnard 07:23

And it's so helpful to have that external person. And this is why, Phillip and I, were actually just talking about us having our own coaches, because we're not, like, we are all human beings, and we all, like, if you're listening right now, you have this in common with us that you want to uplevel in your life. So that means that the mind needs to change to align the habits. And what's helpful is when you have someone supporting you in this process, to be the observer and see that stuff showing up for you. Because a lot of times, we don't even notice it ourselves until it's brought up by someone else, and you're like, "Oh, yeah, I do see how that thought is not serving me."

Phillip Migyanko 08:01

Yeah, or even to reframe it into positive stuff too. Because it can go in both directions for a lot of people. So that noticing and reframing is huge here.

Angela Barnard 08:13

Yeah, definitely. And I was thinking about, like, I have some set beliefs or thoughts that I've run regularly. Because I constantly notice, like, my mind trash that shows up especially, like, when I wake up in the morning, like, I have this thought– it's like you're running behind, you know, something like that, that always shows up for me. That does not serve me because it causes me to feel anxious right away first thing in the morning. And it's like, behind on what? Like, I just woke up, you know, like, I want to have this conversation back with it. And anyway, so one of the things I always tell myself is like, "I will reframe it", I noticed it and then I reframe it to something like, I'm right where I'm supposed to be, and everything is happening for me. And that's what I mean when, like, going through this whole process is to work with your brain and how it works.

Phillip Migyanko 08:54

Well, this is how I usually talk about it with people who come into the process, or they might be thinking about this already, they started, and I was like, "Listen, this stuff is hard. There's a reason why most people are in roles that they really don't like and they're not engaged with. And it's mostly because that's the easy path." And that's not to judge them. That's not to say anything because sometimes life is just hard and that's, like, that's not your highest priority. And that's totally okay.

Angela Barnard 09:22

Oh my gosh, Phillip. So I was just thinking about, like, when I was in high school, I loved running, and I know you do too, but like I was a runner in high school, so I ran cross country. And I remember the sweater, you know, your coats on the back of your sweaters and stuff back in the day, the hoodies. So our sweater or team sweater said, "Of course it's not easy. If it was, everybody would be doing it." And it was because we had, like, eight people on our cross country team. But anyways, I remember thinking it was so dumb. When you're younger, you know, like, you don't think like you didn't know but I was like, "why do we even have this?" But now, I always think about that quote and I realized like when it comes to, living your best life and like doing work that is really meaningful to you, that gets you excited every day, there's a reason why the stats show that there are far like less people enjoying what they do than those that are hating, in a sense, what they do every day. There's a reason for that. Why? Because it's not an easy process to align with what it is that I feel like is meant for you.

Phillip Migyanko 10:23

Yeah. And the thing underneath the thing there, right, is that for a lot of people they can get stuck in the... "this is hard." And at least for what I do, sometimes, I see this for a lot of people, they take it then internally or they'll go, "Well, I must not be doing something right. I'm not enough. I..." Anything that then takes it back to one of those scripts that you're telling yourself what we were just talking about from before.

Angela Barnard 10:51

Because you make it mean something about you as a person, instead of separating it from yourself, which is what we're going to talk about in one of our other tips coming up. But you know, I said one of my favorite mantras, I call it a mantra is, "everything is happening for me." And I also have, "I'm right where I'm supposed to be." I also have, "I'm grateful for where I am, I'm excited about where I'm going." These are things I share with my clients. I share those things, and some people like to write them down, and they adopt that because it's like thoughts that I have found that have been really helpful in my journey to uplevel. So I'm curious, Phillip, for you, what is like one of those statements for you that helps you gets stay positive as you're upleveling, as I would call it.

Phillip Migyanko 11:32

So there's a couple things that I say to myself that I do. If you have ever been on a call with me or things like that, you know I have this giant wall calendar. And above that, I have this quote, I heard it from Tim Ferriss, but Tim Ferriss got it from somebody else, but it's basically, "Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life." I was personally going through this through my own career change a while back. And one of those things that for me, the reason I use that one is because part of this process, it's a high degree of participation, meaning that I have to make some hard choices here. And that this is actually really, really, really difficult. One of the other things that I use that I would say to myself the most often is I remember reading something. There's a whole bunch of books around the self help stuff and things but one of them that I actually liked, or at least spoke to me at the time, was almost gamifying your life. So I thought about myself as a character in a story. So I've pictured myself as like Frodo in the Lord of the Rings, or like Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. And like, you could tell we're all pretty nerdy here. But more of the story is that I thought about this more as a point in the process of the journey. And that, this was like an inflection point in the story. Do you have any other things that you do as far as to keep negative chatter from taking over?

Angela Barnard 12:58

Oh, that's a good question. I have a quote down here because I love my quote. So I'm just going to read this one, is "To nip the bud before you have to burn down the forest." So I always try to check myself. When I start to feel that dip in my energy or like I get mad or frustrated, whatever it is, I'm like, "What am I making this mean?" And really challenge that thought, and is that serving needs to have that thought? So I'm thinking about recently, like, sometimes I can have this thought of "I'm a hot mess", then that makes me feel like crap, you know, to think that. And then realize, and like stopping and being like, how true is that? Really, because the one of the compliments I get the most is that people are like, I feel like you're so intentional about everything you do. And I don't always feel that way. But when I started to like, collect evidence of that, I feel like it serves me to tell myself that I am intentional. And then I start to find evidence of that versus saying I'm a hot mess. So I just kind of like really pay attention to how I'm feeling, and then I have to stop and back it up and be like, "Okay, what are you thinking that's causing you to feel that way?" But it always starts with noticing the feeling first, and then I backtrack.

Phillip Migyanko 14:05

Well, it's something that you mentioned earlier, too, starting off the morning already feeling behind. And I know for me, if I feel behind, if I'm starting off the day feeling behind, then I'm going to like go to my email inbox and then try to respond to every single email and then basically rushed through the day like I am collecting, like, plates in this China store and then like breaking half of them and then I don't know.

Angela Barnard 14:31

Then you act like the person that is always rushing, but you start to act like that. And that's where the identity stuff comes in when I talk about, like, the subconscious mind, but this is a thing coming to our tip number three that I want to bring up which is, like, acting like it's someone outside of you, or separate from you that is saying those things to you. And it's almost like you're talking... you can talk back to it. So it doesn't run your life because what a lot of people do is they let that those thoughts run their life, they make it a part of them and their identity. So one of the best strategies, separate it from you. So some of my clients know that we've done this work, because I will often have people name that voice, name it. So mine is named Lucy. And I say things like, well, Lucy will often tell me things like, "I don't know if you can handle that", or like just negative thoughts when I want to switch and change something. And I know why. Because it's almost like a scared little child, that part of you that wants to stay safe. Your brain is wired for safety and survival, not for necessarily thriving and growing. Like it's more concerned with safety. So we know that about ourselves. So like, I think about it as like you have a vehicle, and like my person, Lucy, can be in the car with me, right? She can share her opinions on things about where we're gonna go and all that good stuff. But she's not gonna control the radio, and she doesn't control the steering wheel. And I'm like talking back to her, like, I see you, I can see why you'd be scared– you've never done something like that before. No wonder why you feel that way. This is where we're talking about, like, acknowledging and validating– validating those feelings are so important. And you will often hear coaches do this because it feels good to just have that part of you be seen and heard. Like, it always feels good to me when I have my coach say, "Of course you'd be stressed out, you have a lot going on in your life." And I'm like, "I know."

Phillip Migyanko 16:25

Well, this is... I mean, and this will bring us back into like the next hip, which is, it's the idea that we all have to take care of ourselves. So I often think about to kind of what we're mentioning here from a positive mindset thing is, it's way more complex than saying a mantra to yourself every day. It's more about what are the things that you're doing both from an internal and external thing to help make sure that you're taking care of yourself. So when I'm thinking about taking care of you, and that's really our tip number four, since you know this change is going to bring up stuff for you, and so much of that really is part of inner control and out of control, you essentially need to focus on what's in your control. And what happens for so many people in this process is they just focus on stuff that they can't control. I know, Ang, they come in, they talk about, "what's going on with the economy?" or they'll go, "I sent an email to this person, I've had to follow up three times, and they're not responding back to me." Or the focus on so many things that take them off of essentially what they can do and where they need to focus, what's in their control. And basically getting down to the basics of being human, which really means showing up. And how you show up the best is to be able to take care of yourself, keep your energy high, and really be able to always do your best, especially in this transition. That's the thing you can control. Did you do your best? Did you do your best when you're coming on with your session with your coach? Did you do your best when you're about to go into conversation? Are you doing your best even at the job that you hate? Are you going and going "alright, you know, at least I'm doing my best here"? And sometimes that's good. Other days, that's not. That's okay, we are all human here. And what I think for so many people, what happens in this process is they over time, and we're all human, me and Ang have both been there, is they do things to essentially take care of themselves less and less and less. So they'll get less sleep, they won't exercise as much, they won't spend as much time with their family, like every... if one problem happens, then a lot of other things tend to go away. So what I usually do for myself to at least counteract that, is that, if I am eating well, if I'm sleeping well, if I'm exercising, if I am prepared. So I do a lot of planning, I've got a planner, I do all those things. But essentially, the thing underneath all that stuff is, I like to feel like I'm ahead, like, I feel like I know what's coming.

Angela Barnard 19:04

You control what you can control, like, those are the things that you can control. And as human beings, we all have this kind of we want to control stuff. So control the things that you can. I think about it, like, you being intentional about the things that you can, give your energy to that, especially if you know it's something that makes you feel good, versus giving your energy to something that's out of your control, like the economy or what someone is going to say back to you.

Phillip Migyanko 19:30

The best way to think about this is we all have a battery every single day, essentially of our willpower. And the more thought, the more energy that you're giving to things that essentially are outside your control, that battery goes down. Which means, when you can start focusing on things you want to control, you're either at a much lower battery or you are depleted. So that then means that you're showing up for the things that you can't do in a way different state and essentially less effective. So what we do with our clients a lot is, or at least what I'm doing a lot with my clients in the first session is like, don't focus on this, don't focus on that, don't focus on this, just do this. And it's really like, controlling when you... the things you need to do. So focus on what's in your control. Ang you were just going into it, but what do you do?

Angela Barnard 20:20

So a big thing that I do is really just taking care of myself well, and making sure my energy is high, so I can maximize opportunities when they come my way, versus feeling like... yeah, I don't... I know this is true for you too, Phillip, it's like, the clients that really are able to land the jobs that are really in alignment with them, a big thing that they do differently is they keep their energy high, they take good care of themselves. Because let's be real, if you don't have the basics stuff, you know, the basic things, like, think of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, kind of thing. You don't have the basics of sleep, you're sleeping enough, you're eating the right foods, you're moving your body, you're going out in nature, like if you weren't even doing like the basics, then how can you expect to like uplevel, and maximize opportunities if the basics aren't even being met. So like in our, we're gonna go into this in our next tip, but kind of alluding to this is that it's really important, like during this process that you're really intentional with your time and taking care of you, like, taking care of you has to be a part of this whole process of your basic things. So like, for me, the things that I do, like, everyday, like, I call it "The Three M's." So it's mindfulness, movement, and mastery. So like every day, if I spent some time being mindful like, and I like to journal a lot and get my thoughts out, I kind of also think about this is like, when you feel really overwhelmed, this is a strategy that I use, is I start writing things out, I kind of think about it as like, when I feel like I'm slowing down, my energy is dipping, because I'm feeling overwhelmed. It's kind of like a computer that has too much stuff on it, and maybe I need to get a hard drive and start taking some stuff off so it can run faster. And your brain is really not meant to store a ton and ton and ton of information. That means, we really don't remember, like, a lot of things. So anyways, taking it out of your head, putting it somewhere else will really, like, free up more energy for you. So that's my form of mindfulness is that journaling component. And then movement, always moving my body, like, I show up better when before, you know, I have a session or even just like being a better wife, daughter, sister, and all the things, I show up better when I've moved my body and I'm taking care of myself and being a good, what I would consider a good all those roles I just listed. A big part of that is, like, me taking care of myself. So my energy is better in those situations. And it always involves some kind of movement for me ahead of time. And then mastery is where every day I tried to spend time working on something that I just want to move forward. That's for me. That's not just for everybody else. And that's when I feel my best. So a lot of times with my clients, I'm often asking them these kinds of questions like, What are you doing to get your thoughts out? Are you exercising? Like a lot of times, if you're my client, I will ask you a lot about your exercise routine and your whole life and all the things because I know that in order for you to be successful through this process, you got to be taken care of you. And that brings me to our next tip, which is really to be intentional with your time. So Phillip, tell everybody like one of the things that we make everybody do when they join Career Change Bootcamp.

Phillip Migyanko 23:26

Yeah, well, not only just join Career Change Bootcamp, but this is what we do when people join our team too, like, if I can make this requirement for every single person in my life, I would totally do that. But the thing that we do is like being really intentional with your time. And what that means in practicality is, we're having you basically do what we call a "master schedule". And maybe you've heard this before, maybe you're like, "Oh no, Phillip's gonna get on the soapbox about master schedule again." But really what this is, it's the concept of time blocking. I think if you boil down people to their top priorities, you can look at two different things. We can look at, one, how do you spend your money? And essentially, how do you spend your time? And essentially, your time is where your largest priorities, or where you're going to go. So this is the thing that I'm always talking with my clients is, I really appreciate when they come in and they go, like, "I put, like, blocks of CCB on here. I'm gonna work on this stuff all the time, and like, five hour blocks" and like, "That's great. Thank you so much for doing that." But hey, what are you doing for self care? Like, where are you doing the things that you enjoy? Like, let's make sure that time is actually blocked. So if self care or some sort of actual, whatever you have self care is actually on your master schedule, if it's not already, it should be. And to be more specific, don't just put self care on your master and go, "This is 8am to 9pm, it's self care time." And then what's gonna happen is you're gonna get to 8am and you're like, "What do I do for self care again?" Be as specific as possible about what that looks like for you, for a lot of people, it's different. But I'm just going to make an assumption here, probably what that means for most people is getting away from your phone or any sort of social media and technology, that generally means getting some form of outside or away from the busyness of life. And it also probably means moving in some sort of way. So for me, this means morning walks, sometimes this means exercise, sometimes this means run, sometimes this means just literally going to my backyard, and then just having lunch in my backyard without any technology, whatever that means that for you, this can also mean you are having time with people that you love, or scheduling time for essentially having fun. This will make sure that you are not only just moving through the process, but thriving through the process. Like I said before, and like Ang said before, this career change process is hard. And we essentially have to go, how do we make this enjoyable for you? And what I often find with a lot of our clients is that, if they are finding progress, and other points of their life, or having fun and other points of life, this makes this so much more enjoyable, because it's already hard enough anyway. So essentially, master a master schedule. Now, you might be in a position where you're like, "Well, I don't really have control over my work day. But so that's just blocks of time. So that doesn't seem as applicable to me." That's usually one of the things I hear all the time.

Angela Barnard 26:28

Yeah. And then it's like the time before and after, what do you have control over though?

Phillip Migyanko 26:32

Yep. And then also the weekends and things like that, or what's the stuff you can consume, even if you're on a commute on the way to work and the way from work and things like that. So if that happens, then we have to make sure that we are being very intentional with your time, because what can happen, that can go really fast. And this is what Ang and I also talked about all the time, which is, this is all easier said than done. I personally look at my master schedule every three to four weeks, and I go, "Is this still in alignment for what I'm looking to do? Am I honoring this? Or am I like looking at time and like passing by anyways? And how do I change this up? And being very intentional about where do I operate the best? Does my schedule reflect that?" and all those kinds of things. I know, this is something like being intentional with your time. But even this master schedule stuff, that's stuff, mean, you talked about, I know if it's every week, but it's probably almost every other week or stuff like that.

Phillip Migyanko 28:12

Well, it goes back to that. So the other thing that you might be thinking as you're listening to this would be, "That's easy for both them to say. They both work remotely, they can control their schedules, blah, blah, blah", any other limiting stories you might be saying yourself. And sure, maybe that might be true, that doesn't necessarily matter. What matters is that really underneath being intentional about your time, it actually has really nothing to do with time, it has actually more to do with priorities, like, how are you managing your priorities. And if you look at your calendar, and you spend your time sitting on the couch, watching whatever just came on Disney plus or Netflix or whatever streaming service that you have, and you're like, "I don't have time to read books", like, wait a second here. Let's look at where your priorities are. And it's high level priority management, which is a very difficult skill to learn. And that's one of the first things that we teach our clients is, how do you prioritize? And what we know is the better that you prioritize things that give you energy, like taking care of yourself as to things usually correlate is, it leads to better overall feeling through the process, and that then translates...

Angela Barnard 27:26

And the same is true for like with my clients, we are always having... we're always learning from our master schedule, like, you will potentially put things down that you're going to focus on, I call these "focus blocks", where it's like you're blocking out time and focusing on specifically myself care doing XYZ or focusing on, you know, quality time, like I put in my calendar... My calendar is filled with, like, fun things, it's filled with time for learning, time for creating, it's because those are the things I value most. The things that you value most should be in your calendar. And one of those top things that you should value most is yourself. So that needs to make it in the calendar, right? And then the time for fun. It's like prioritize having fun. That is the number one thing I hear people say is they're not having enough fun. And I'm like, "Well, are you prioritizing it? Is it in your calendar?"

Angela Barnard 29:21

Better results.

Phillip Migyanko 29:22

Better results. Exactly. So if you don't have time, it's usually not really a time thing. Sometimes it might, but generally it's not. But it's, what are your priorities?

Angela Barnard 29:33

It's a priority thing. And I think one of the things I'm, like, so passionate about is just like helping people intentionally design their life and that has to do with like looking at your time and see where it's going and then asking yourself, "do you want it to go there? Are you living in alignment with who you want to be? Truly? Are you?" That was something I asked myself a while back, you know, and I was like "No, I'm not." Because I don't want to spend, intentionally, spend my days watching Netflix all night when that doesn't move me forward in my life.

Phillip Migyanko 30:03

That happens to me when I'm like feeling really drained after each day of the week or looking at myself, I'm like, "why am I not getting anything done?" And then usually, that's what Scott always comes back to me and go, "So how do you spend your time? Let's look back at your master schedule." And what's the question you can ask yourself, depending on how much you have control over your schedule, if it's a little, if it's a lot, whatever it is, if you could wipe everything clean, how would you spend your time? And then literally, put that as your schedule. Now, there might be a distance between how you spend your time now, and where you're wanting to go, that's okay. The bigger thing is, what are the little things you can do to get there. So if your goal might be you want to read more, and on your master schedule, you have like hour blocked to read and write a whole thing, and like, "Phillip, realistically, that can't happen." That's okay. Instead, maybe that's 15 minutes, maybe that's 10 minutes, maybe that's you read a page. Regardless, you're doing one action to get closer to the life that you want, instead of letting the fear drive the bus, all those kinds of things we're talking about before and just hoping and wishing that something would happen without actually you putting it as a priority and doing something about it. Even a tiny action. This is what we... Ang, I don't know if you see this all the time too, people have this zero or 100 mentality, and it just throws people off, you're like, "No, you don't have to go do everything at once. In fact, that's not how things actually happen."

Angela Barnard 31:33

And that's not even how your brain works. Like, it's all like these micro changes that lead to the results that you want, you need to build the habit. So you want to start small, like you would build a snowball.

Phillip Migyanko 31:42

And that's part of the positive mindset here is it's not just about doing everything really big, it's trying to figure out and go, "what are all the little things that are going to get my way, whether it's the feelings that I have, the baggage that I'm coming in with, how I'm doing those things, and ultimately, essentially gonna do about it, like taking care of myself, putting it in the calendar, making sure I'm actually doing it when I put it in the calendar."

Angela Barnard 32:06

It's the "when" question. That's the thing that you really need to think about is like, all of us have these different goals and dreams like we all do in some way, even if you're like, you've made me feel like, "Oh, I don't know what my goals are", there's still things that you're desiring every day. So the next question to think about is like, "when are you going to work on that being that person?" I see people all the time who set goals, but there's nothing in their calendar that shows when they're working on those goals. And it's like, well, of course, it's not gonna be a reality for you when you... there's nothing like prioritizing– you're not prioritizing your time to be that person.

Phillip Migyanko 32:40

Yeah, I'll find the time, I'll find the time to do this or find the time to do that. And there's like, it doesn't always work that way. And part of having a positive mindset here is that you have to be making progress and things outside, essentially, of this career change stuff.

Angela Barnard 32:57

Yes, you're the common denominator, like between everything, you know, and it's like, a lot of times I see in this process that people always want something externally outside of them to change so much. And the reality is, it is like you have to change first in order to have that external thing change. And the fact is, like, if you always think like, "this job is gonna get me exactly what I want", like, it takes your power away, you know, when it's always based on something externally outside of you for you to feel better. So I see that the people that create just really cool results in their life, it's because they focus on themselves what they can control and keeping their energy high. And that's why it's so helpful to have a coach that helps you like, this is why Phillip and I both have coaches, it’s because we know, like, this energy stuff has to do with everything that we create in our life, like we really, like, and we're sharing these tips, guys. And this is stuff that we struggle with, like being intentional with our time as far as our master schedule. Like it's a regular conversation between us where it's like, "Oh, I noticed this really drains my energy. What if I shifted this?" Some of the things that we've even been brainstorming is, you know, we all have zoom fatigue, a lot of us at least, where you're on Zoom constantly and the same is true for our clients. And we're like, "Well, what if we could have more sessions where we walk to, and then we also get more exercise, and we also get out in nature, and that's what some of us want to do?" So it's like sometimes looking at your schedule and your time, like there's so much opportunity there where you can shift things around to align with how you want to feel but it starts with you actually like noticing the stuff first. Look at how you're spending your time, start to be intentional with it and realize that we're going to shift things around. We're going to learn from this whole experience. No one has ever created a master schedule. No one in history– I'm just gonna say, has ever created a master schedule and followed the exact thing to the tee. No, like it does not happen, like, you learn from it. And sometimes you realize too, you're like, well, that's kind of dumb for me to schedule something during that time because that's when my energy is the lowest, that makes no sense. And sometimes we call each other out, like, Phillip will be, like, "Why or do you have it scheduled out for you to work that late?" I'm like, "yeah"

Phillip Migyanko 34:59

Or people will put, like, "you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to work. I'm going to work on all this career change stuff right when I get home from my long commute." I'm like, "Oh..."

Angela Barnard 35:08

You're right. When I get home from the job that I can't stand, my energy's the lowest ever. And then I'm trying to feel inspired to work on this. It's like, I had a conversation recently with the client about this, more like, "you know, is your energy good here?" And she's absolutely not. I'm like, "Well, then why did you choose to work on that during that time?" It's like, "I have people calling me out on the same kinds of things."

Phillip Migyanko 35:26

I didn't say not to call you out, but to call you out. So Ang, she took this awesome, amazing trip to Italy. And she was getting back on a Tuesday. And she was planning on working on the next day Wednesday. And I looked at Ang, and I was like, "Hey, Ang, so just speaking from experience here. I know this is a trip, I know you want to get back in when it gets start working, but what I have learned is, on vacation if I get back, I should always take the next day off." And she's like, "I should probably do that."

Angela Barnard 35:56

And I was so grateful that you said that because I loved having that time to adjust back. And plus, it was a big time difference I was adjusting to, and it's just... we're all... the point here is that we're all learning through this whole process about, like, what can we do... I use this language of getting better into alignment, to design our life very intentionally, and it's not easy to do. That's why there’s so many people out there who don't enjoy what they do every day, who live a life where they feel like they're just going through the motions and they feel down. It's like they don't know how to be more intentional about it. And this is why we're sharing this podcast with you guys, because these are five things that we've learned that have been really helpful to people when it comes to, I would say, not only having a positive mindset during career change, but intentionally designing your life.

Phillip Migyanko 36:43

Those are super powerful. So yeah, so recap, what are those five tips?

Angela Barnard 36:47

So tip number one, just to recap here, is to acknowledge that your mind will want to go negative sometimes, especially when you're trying to change your life for the better, become a different person, it's normal, that's the subconscious mind doing what it does, trying to keep you in the same position. So I want you to acknowledge and validate that. Now you need a plan to handle that. So notice it, tip number two is to notice it and reframe it. So this is where some, like, pick a thought that really serves you and have that running like when you notice the negative thought play it back, the thought that serves you. This is not just about some, like, "Oh mantra. I am a statement, like, fluffy stuff here." This is you training your brain, training your mind to be who you want to be. And then the third thing is to name that negative scared voice, name it. Like I said, mine was Lucy. Then the fourth tip is to take care of you. Prioritize taking care of you during any transition, you're moving, you have other major life transitions, relationship stuff, all the things, prioritize taking care of you first. You need that foundation there so you can keep your energy up to deal with the changes that are coming. And then the fifth tip is to be intentional with your time. And you know what that means, you know what you need to do, you need to prioritize and schedule your time out, tell it where it's gonna go. Don't just wait for life to, like, take your time and other people steal your time, you decide very intentionally where it's gonna go. So you can be proud of how you lived your life. That's it. Mic drop. Have an awesome day, bye.

Scott Anthony Barlow 38:24

Many of the stories that you've heard on the podcast are from listeners that have decided they want to take action, and taking the first step of having a conversation with our team to try and figure out how we can help. And if you want to implement what you have heard, and you want to completely change your life and your career, then let's figure out how we can help. So here's what I would suggest, just open your phone right now and open your email app. And I'm going to give you my personal email address, scott@happentoyourcareer.com just email me and put 'Conversation' in the subject line. And we can absolutely connect you with my team. I'm not answering my email right now, but I have a team member, Kate, who absolutely will make sure that you get connected with our team and the right person on our team so that we can figure out the very best way that we can help with that.

Scott Anthony Barlow 39:20

Hey, I hope you loved this episode. Thanks so much for listening. And if this has been helpful, then please share this podcast with your friends, with your family, with your co-workers that badly need it. Here's a sneak peek into what we have coming up in store for you next week.

Liz McLean 39:38

If you are using your resume as the thing that helps you switch, what that's doing is putting you into a pool of other candidates. You're being evaluated based on that piece of paper, and they may have a traditional background in that career already with a good 20 plus years experience.

Scott Anthony Barlow 40:02

All that and plenty more next week right here on Happen To Your Career. Make sure that you don't miss it. And if you haven't already, click Subscribe on your podcast player so that you can download this podcast in your sleep, and you get it automatically, even the bonus episodes every single week, sometimes multiple times a week. Until next week. Adios. I'm out.