Embrace change! Advice from Lucy Freeborn on how to pivot your career and change direction this year

As the world starts waking up again after a year of lockdown, many of us are starting to think about making changes to our professional lives.  After adapting to the huge shifts in how we work now and with home schooling fresh in our minds, how we can incorporate more time with our families and work permanently flexibly is featuring high in our priorities.

But where do we start? On Thursday 25th February, Lucy Freeborn from North Star Consulting, a life-coach specifically trained to help women switch up their lifestyles, find themselves again, get out of a rut and find a renewed purpose in life, took us through how to pivot your career and change direction this year.

The hour-long session first explored what change actually is and how to embrace it.

Lucy introduced the group to the Kubler-Ross Change Curve.  First identified by Elizabeth Kubler Ross to describe the emotions that terminally ill patients move through when being told of their condition, it has been universally adopted as the model to illustrate the process that we all experience during periods of change.

Although the peaks and lengths of the curve’s ups and downs depend on the size and impact of the change being experienced, every change we undergo – from big life changes such as redundancy, to little life changes like having to move to a new desk in the workplace – all follow the same process.

The process we go through when change happens is as follows:

  • Shock – that this change has occurred
  • Denial – disbelief that it’s happening
  • Frustration – and sometimes anger that this is happening to us
  • Depression – low mood and low motivation, the recognition that things have changed and won’t go back to the way they were
  • Experiment – initial engagement and the start of settling in to this new situation
  • Decision – we make plans on how we are going to be / work / live within the new situation
  • Integration – the change is fully integrated into our lives

Understanding that change is, indeed, a process and one we will always move through, is the first step towards taking control of your career and feeling confident and comfortable making big decisions to pivot or change.

Taking control of the change process empowers you to see beyond the ‘shock’ of an initial big change and see the bigger picture of what could lie beyond.

Lucy also talked us through identifying our values and passions.  Your values are your sacred ground & how to measure your own success.  Staying in a profession, a relationship or a situation that doesn’t sit well with your values leads to discomfort or ‘hollow’ success.  Reconnecting with your values will help you establish what direction you should go in.

Finally, creating realistic goals & putting a robust plan in place is key to making big changes to your professional life.

Work through what has stopped you from achieving success in the past. Be honest with yourself on what has stopped you before. Where will you need support / help / advice? Who can you turn to for help if you need it?

Build a timeline that suits you – if you want to take your time to make these changes gradually – do it!  Don’t rush into change if that doesn’t suit your personality. Likewise, if you want to go at 100mph – then make sure you have the support network in place to facilitate this.

Finally, reward yourself when you hit key milestones.  You are making bit changes to your life!  Recognise this and celebrate it along the way.

Read more top tips on how to get ready to make exciting changes to your professional life, here!

Lucy Freeborn

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