Do you every feel like you’re in the wrong job? That you chose the wrong career path? Probably so.
Well there’s no need to feel alone. Lots of people are in the same boat.
And there’s no reason to beat yourself for making the “wrong” decision. After all, it’s very difficult for most people to make a perfect decision about their future and their career when they’re 17 or 27 years of age. People of that age don’t have enough experience to even know what all their choices are.
Unfortunately, many people look at their work in the same way they look at their marriage … that it’s a permanent thing. If it’s not what they happen to like, well … they’re stuck with it. They just have 15 more years before they can retire or whatever.
As Peter Drucker, the management consultant, points out, “People worry because they think a career decision is like marriage, to be broken only by failure or death. This just isn’t so. You have to accept your uncertainties as normal. Only musicians and mathematicians and a few early-maturing people — and the number is very small — know from adolescence onward what they want to do. But the rest of us have to find out.”
The truth is it’s never too late to change your mind or change your career. No matter what field you choose, there’s always room for one more person. People in that field are getting older; they’re leaving or retiring. If you can take some time to figure out what field you want to get into, chances are you can get into it … if you’re willing to make a few sacrifices. It might mean going back to school, or starting all over at the bottom, but if you want it bad enough, chances are you can get it.
Don’t spend the rest of your life wishing you would have done something differ