[Guest Post by TheCoachman] Shifting Gear

This is a great guest post by Erich Jordan, about how to embrace change in your life when you’re hit by the urging need to shift your career.

10 years ago, Erich went from being a Christian minister to becoming a life coach. He’s now a happy successful man, doing what he loves most, owning his own business and attracting clients. He’s passionate about helping people to reach an abundant, meaningful and productive life.

Erich is also a faraway friend living on the eastern coast of South Africa and an ex-student of mine at International Coach Academy (ICA) in 2012, writing with a strong voice on TheCoachman.co.za.

In March of each year, I’m reminded of the same month in 1999 when I left the only world I knew to embark upon a new adventure in my life. I’d spend my early adult life preparing for and serving as a Christian minister. I was passionate about what I did and the spiritual welfare of those I led and could not conceive of myself in any other way. This was my calling, the purest expression of who I was. The nine years prior to my leaving the ministry had me serving as the pastor of a small community in my home town, a time I recall learning a great deal and making some of the best friends of my life.

Change is never easy and this was no exception, I was married, had two small children and a mortgage on the home we lived in. Looking back everything turned out alright, but looking forward that March of 1999 I was not certain about anything. What I learnt during that time I’ve had to relearn and reapply many times over. During the subsequent years I’ve come to accept that change is here to stay and is in fact one of the few certainties in life. The sooner we learn to embrace it and work it to our advantage, the sooner we’ll find true contentment and happiness in life.

Successfully shifting gears in life requires a vision that feeds our faith and creates the right type of action. Without action, change controls us rather than us harnessing and exploiting the new opportunities it presents us with. Were we not to change the gears of a motor vehicle as it increases speed, we can imagine what it might be like to have change forced upon us as the engine is destroyed. On the other hand were we to accept that everything in life, including second gear has a limit and learn to shift the vehicle into third might we not open up a whole new world of possibilities. Everything has a shelf life and nothing lasts forever, no matter how many preservatives we through at it. Accepting this, helps both prepare us to bury expired items along the way and be open to the new ones that cross our path.

Not all action is however good action, as we’d discover should the driver of our speeding vehicle shift from second to first rather than third gear. Many times when change occurs, we panic and do the first think that comes to mind, which is usually the wrong thing. We yield to fear and the belief that we’re unable to shift gears forward, choosing rather to return to what we know once worked than to move forward into a new gear and experience.

The action that brings success is the product of faith in our vision. Imagine our driver embarking upon her journey with the full understanding of how the vehicle worked. Imagine that she was prepared for the eventual need to shift gears from first through second, third and all the way to fifth or sixth gear. Her purpose, would in fact, be getting to the higher gears as soon as possible in order to make the speed she needed to reach her destination. When the time came to engage the clutch and shift from second to third, there’d be no hesitation, no delay, but only focused action. There’d be no fear at the moment of change, no concern that something was wrong as the old gear was disengaged. With confidence and faith our driver would shift the stick to the next gear, disengage the clutch and the journey would continue.

Recognising that we are reaching the end of something is not difficult. Usually the symptoms are obvious even though we sometimes choose to ignore them. It may be time to change career, to retire, to sell the family home, to start exercising, to stop procrastinating, to begin studying; whatever is coming our way, knowing what it is, is seldom the problem. What we struggle with is letting go and fully engaging the gear of our new future. Maybe it’s the familiarity, the comfort, control and confidence we had in the old gear that lingers in our minds. Whatever it is, we need to shake ourselves free from it and with faith in our vision create the action we need to move our lives forward.

Once we know where we’re headed the action needed might at first lead us away from this destination. Turning the steering wheel alone is simply not enough to alter the direction of our vehicle unless it’s moving in some direction. We may know that we need to head east along a particular highway in order to achieve our vision but cannot work out how to leave the parking lot without first heading west, south or in some other direction. So we sit, we wait for inspiration instead of simply moving, for only as we do so, do we discover the way out and are able to adjust our course to match our heading.

So as I celebrate the month of March I take time to consider and embrace the changes happening in my life, fully confident in the faith that only as I do so am I able to fully realise my life’s potential. As I move into the next gear I know that I’m gaining the speed I need to reach my vision. I’m prepared to head in new directions, to acquire new skills and learn new lessons in order to leave my parking lot. I’m on a journey and all that matters is that I stay true to my heading even if it means a detour from time to time.

The only question remaining is will you do the same, will you embrace the future of your life, even if it means changing down a gear in order to navigate a pothole or take a dirt road en route to your dreams? Have you the faith in your vision to create the actions needed to bring you home? If not get the support you need, ask for help and begin to move, in any direction needed to get you out of your own parking lot. The view is definitely better on the right road.