I was just 19 when I had my first “career crisis.” I was completing my degree in psychology and was working as the assistant director of a student-crisis line. While I loved working with the volunteers, I didn’t like dealing with calls from students who had serious psychological issues – a bit of a challenge for my intended career as a psychologist.

By chance I came upon a job working part-time at the student careers office teaching people how to write résumés and find jobs. I applied, got the job, and discovered that I loved working with these students because they were highly motivated and simply needed a little guidance and inspiration to help discover their career direction. This vocational discovery taught me that my interest was to work with people who wanted to go from good to great, rather than from dysfunctional to functioning.

My second “career crisis” came at 23. As the career development director of a health-care union I had created several innovative programs delivering career-resiliency services to union members and employee-engagement training to hospitals. While more mainstream in organizations today, 16 years ago such initiatives were new and it had taken me close to two years of research, development, marketing and perseverance to get all of our programs up and running. Then, just as we were poised to start making a return on this investment, my whole department was laid off due to budget cuts.

After the initial shock wore off and I had some time to think, I recognized that I had essentially built a successful small business within the organization. Even though I knew that it wouldn’t be easy to get started on my own, this crisis was the impetus for me to become an entrepreneur.

My third crisis at 26 had several issues overlapping that led me to shut down that same business, call off my wedding and head off on my own to travel Asia for six months.

First of all, the majority of my business at the time involved career and re-employment training and coaching. I felt torn between trying to serve the best interests of my immediate clients – the people who were trying to create a new life for themselves – and the interests of the companies who hired me – who wanted these people back and work, any work, as quickly as possible.

Secondly, I had always dreamed of backpacking through Asia and had postponed my dream to pursue career opportunities that I thought were just too good to turn down. This dream was calling to me once again and, although I was engaged to be married in three months, I realized that my dream of traveling was something that needed to be done on my own.

Finally, I had received an offer of a junior partnership from a prestigious international outplacement company. Despite the fact that this was a very lucrative offer and a great honour to receive at my age, my gut was telling me that if I accepted I would be sucked into the “corporate world” of stress, politics, and burnout, never to be seen again.

Despite my fears of giving up my business, my fiancé, and this lucrative career opportunity, I knew that I needed to follow my dreams to travel or I would regret it later. I had no idea at the time that answering this call to travel would bring me to Japan, where I would eventually develop my own systems for helping people and organizations to create work and workplaces that are filled with passion, purpose and meaning.

I have learned that a career crisis is often not a crisis at all. It’s a calling – a calling to listen to your heart, discover your passions, and align with your purpose. We get these cues throughout our lives – intuitions, gut feelings, synchronicities and other messages that are trying to guide us towards meaningful work, vibrant health and a fulfilling life.

When we fail to act on these messages the calls become more insistent in mid-life and generate a crisis so we will stop ignoring them. Whether you are in the middle of a career crisis now or simply wish to prevent one, take the time to explore the messages you have been ignoring. It takes courage to acknowledge these messages and even more to actually act on them. The payoff, however, is worth it. And the price of not listening is high.

Andrea Jacques (kyoseigirl)

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