Making The Most Of Life Changes
Get The Most Out Of Your Transitional Periods
Hi there everyone! I’ve been so happy to see some new faces around here and over on Instagram so I thought I’d do a sort of check in blog post to let you know what’s happening with me. I also wanted to talk about the scary yet exciting moment when you realize you’re ready to make some serious life changes. Whether you’re making a career change, taking a trip or growing your passion project, I’ve come up with a few strategies for you to get the most out of those transitional periods.
Pursuing A Career Change
I plan to write a longer blog post on this topic soon, but for now let’s chat careers and when you decide to scrap them start anew. After a very long period of indecision, I recently decided to put in my two weeks notice at my job. For those of you who don’t know, I have been working in art museums and galleries for about five years now, from my college gallery internship days to my most recent position working in the Education department of an art museum. I had tunnel vision when it came to my chosen career path but soon realized I was running out of room to grow. Once I decided to pursue a new field, that’s where the possibilities started to open up.
So if you’re currently navigating a career change, then first of all congratulations for either taking the plunge, or at the very least, thinking long and hard about the direction of your future. While in the transitional phase of this exciting change, I would suggest doing as much research on your next career move as you can. Look into the types of jobs available in your new field, read descriptions and research companies. It’s also a great time to work on obtaining new skills for your field. Consider taking an online course in your free time. Don’t know what types of skills you need? Refer to those job descriptions! Give your resume a modern update to appeal to potential employers. And you can even start getting familiar with other professionals in your field through LinkedIn: look into their professional background and maybe even reach out to pick their brain over coffee.
Preparing For A Trip
I’m also currently getting ready for a big trip with my boyfriend Kyle, our first international trip together. We will be visiting London and Paris over the course of a week. This trip has been a long time in the planning phase and I’m obviously brimming with excitement that it’s finally almost here! If you’re also preparing for a big trip on the horizon, or you want to start planning one and you have a limited travel budget (like us) then here are a few tips:
The first thing I did in planning this trip was to look for inexpensive airfare for several months. I used the Scott’s Cheap Flights e-newsletter to get alerts for super cheap flights and kept an eye out for our destination of choice: London! Fortunately, the dates are usually pretty flexible and far enough out that we would have plenty of time to prepare.
The next thing to secure is hotels - Airbnb is an obvious choice for inexpensive accommodations but Kyle and I actually chose the hotel route for this trip. The list of cheap hotel booking sites are endless and you can use them as a sort of research tool or to book your room if you trust the third party situation. Sign up for email lists to take advantage of insider discount codes when booking.
When planning the day to day of your trip my top tip is to use Instagram as a search engine and bookmark locations into a [insert dream city here] folder over the course of several months. Then when you’re getting closer to the date you can compile everything into an itinerary so there’s never a moment wasted on your travels.
Growing Your Passion Project
One of the things I’m most excited about in this transitional period is the opportunity to work more on my online platform: blogging, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. My passion project was a huge motivator in my career change decision because it made me realize that I want a career where I can exercise more of my skills. I also realized that being passionate about my work is my number one driving force and something I need to feel in my day to day work. And I really believe that everyone should have something other than their job that they care about and work towards a little everyday, be it health or fitness related, a hobby or a side hustle. So what’s your thing? I know you have something that comes to mind and makes you feel instantly excited.
The number one priority is to find time in your schedule to do your thing. And I know everyone feels like they don’t have time but when you make times for something you love, you start to feel better about everything else you’re doing too. Why? Because you prioritized your interests over that of others. You spent some of your day doing exactly what you wanted to do.
Another good strategy is to schedule out this time period so that you can be most productive. If you only have an hour each day, make sure you know in advance what you’ll be doing in that hour: be it meditating, learning a new song or writing a blog post.
The last strategy is something you’re probably tired of hearing but it’s also the most important one: consistency! An hour a day or a week doesn’t feel like much but when you look back at how much you accomplished in a year, you’ll be wondering why you didn’t start sooner.
