If you’re currently considering a career pivot, you’re not alone. According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American will change careers after about four and a half years. That means that adults can go through the process of reinventing their lives multiple times throughout their career and it can be a very trying time. Because changing your career is no easy task, the adjustment can be really difficult emotionally, financially, and even mentally.
Don’t stress just yet! Luckily, there are a number of books out there to effectively help your transformation to get you back on your feet and striving for your dreams. You’re never too old to switch things up! Use these 7 books to assist you through your journey:
1. Damn Good Advice (For People with Talent!): How To Unleash Your Creative Potential by America’s Master Communicator by George Lois
Written by one of America’s most legendary creative thinkers, George Lois, Damn Good Advice is stuffed full of great advice, practical lessons, tips and tricks, finding out who you are and what you want, and inspirational messages to keep you moving forward. Even non-career changers can learn a thing or two about working their creative minds.
Source: Amazon
2. Siblings Without Rivalry: How To Help Your Children Live Together So You Can Live Too by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
You may be wondering how a book about managing your children’s relationship with one another can help with a career change, but bear with me. Even though this book isn’t about money or business, it offers some amazing lessons when it comes to professionally dealing with people that can directly relate to managing a team. So, if you’re in a leadership role or want to be, this book will teach you to really listen, empathize, and teach your employees to work together.
Source: Amazon
3. Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career by Herminia Ibarra
Working isn’t only about making money so you can pay the bills and survive, and there’s no one right answer. Working Identity is much different than most advice books out there because it is based on one very specific premise: you can’t know what you want until you try. Changing careers is a process of finding your possible ‘self’, not a straight path that leads to one predetermined destination.
Source: Amazon
4. The Power of a Positive No: Save the Deal Save the Relationship and Still Say No by William Ury
When it comes to business, you must learn how to say no sometimes. This trait can be the difference between handling the pros and cons of success and wanting to pull your hair out when things get stressful. The Power of a Positive No will show you how you can say no in a way that makes your intentions clear without sounding like a complete jerk.
Source: Amazon
5. Business Model You: A One-Page Method For Reinventing Your Career by Tim Clark
Perfect at forcing you to think in entrepreneurial terms, this book makes you, first, consider what you can bring to the table, and how. You will visualize different ways you can use your passions and ambitions to create an ideal career, and then learn how to apply the same technique to your work.
Source: Amazon
6. Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Switch understands that making changes in our lives is hard to do, and it’s all because of our brains. Based on psychology and theories on how the working mind functions, this book will help you understand and combine both your rational and emotional minds, which, ultimately, leads to dramatic success.
Source: Amazon
7. Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant
The premise of this book is that the most successful people, especially in the business world, are givers. With Give and Take, you’ll be able to map out and understand what makes you tick, which directly relates to the business decisions you make and who you choose to work with. Generosity may just be the key to achieving your business goals.
Source: Amazon
Have you ever considered changing careers or taken on the challenge?
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