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Keeping Your Career on Track and Moving!
~~ Terri Levine

With all the changes that health care reimbursement has brought, you may be searching for your professional calling or you may no longer enjoy working for a healthcare corporation. How do you assess if you are ready for a career or job change from the Physical Therapy business? We have all heard that if you do what you love, you never work a day in your life. Is it possible to not have a major distinction between work and play?

THE JOURNEY BEGINS:

Before you start on a new journey to find another company to work for, or different setting to work in, or different population to treat, or even a completely new career, decide where you are in your current career. Then you can begin your journey of finding a new job or designing a new career, that will bring fulfillment. To evaluate your current career, begin by asking yourself if you enjoy getting up in the morning and going to work. Look for signs that you may not be enjoying your job the way you did at one time. It could be that you no longer are willing to put in extra hours or you have stopped volunteering for projects. If you just can't wait for Friday's and then get the dreads on Sunday nights, chances are good that it's time to move on.

Examine your work. List all the parts of your day to day routine that energize you and then list those parts that exhaust you. As you review the lists, look for patterns with people, patients and tasks. Do you want to continue working in the same type of setting, with the same type of population, or do you want a complete change of career? Perhaps you just want to make a move to a different company. If you decide that you are not happy at work, determine why. Is it the types of patients? Is it physical therapy or is it your manager or your company? Think about what drew you to this job in the first place.

"WHAT DO I WANT TO BE?"

Review your strengths and your interests. This exercise is critical to seeing your value and boosting your self-esteem as well as helping you see your value to the organization you are working with. Think about the skills you enjoy using that you want to be sure are included in your next job. To start capturing or recapturing your professional calling, career coaches recommend picturing your ideal work day one year from today. Try saying, “Next year at this time I want to be ____________”. Picture yourself in this new job. Fine-tune the detail with a full description of what your job and your environment are like. Describe your surroundings, the people, or types of patients you work with and all of your duties and interactions during the workday. Now, compare the results of your visualized workday with your current circumstances. Those differences are the ones that you will want to focus on as you advance your career. You can now set specific strategies to make these changes.

If there is so much chatter inside your mind that it is difficult to hear your inner voice, you may want to keep a daily journal. A journal makes a great dumping ground for concerns, hopes, dreams and fears. It’s the place where you can really tell the truth. Look for patterns in your writings. Your professional calling is usually reflected in themes that reappear. If you are a visual person, make a collage. Gather stacks of old magazines and cut out words and pictures that attract you. Don’t censor anything. Be creative in building your collage and then paste it on poster board. Look for themes and values regarding home life, family, travel, sports, cultures, etc.

Take a step back and reflect on your childhood. Now answer quickly – what did you say when asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Think about the special skills that you used when you were younger and that you have forgotten all about. Look at your talents, skills and interests and how you can combine them to do the work you are passionate about. Try not to focus on figuring out your calling, but instead see what pops into your mind when you are taking a shower, reading, driving, meditating, or doing chores. Be receptive and listen to your nightly dreams. Dreams are filled with messages concerning our needs, hopes and values. The best interpretation of your dreams, comes from you.

HEARING YOUR PROFESSIONAL CALLING:

It may be easier if you begin with the end in mind. Write your epitaph or your entire eulogy. Plan how you'd like people to remember you when you're gone. Plan your own legacy or destination. Think of how you will have affected lives and expressed your values.

If you are an expert on something and others are coming to you for advice, begin to acknowledge that it might be a calling for you. There are many choices available to us, but we frequently become victims of circumstance. To find the right career and move ahead, we must start from the inside, learning what it is that we value, need, want and do well. Then, we must increase our personal network through constant learning, growing and having a take-charge attitude about our careers.

So many Physical Therapy professionals tell me they have become disenchanted with their current job situations. Many report slacking off or doing less than they are capable and are just waiting for something better to come along. This disenchantment with ones' profession, position or company can easily lead to the assumption that, "I want to be in business for myself". If you're thinking of going off on your own be sure you talk to others who have already done so and then consider if you have the financial reserves and personal stamina to sustain yourself and your family. Have a plan in case being your own boss doesn't work out.

If you are certain you are ready to move to another company or another career, ask yourself if you are running from something. If you are dissatisfied with the changes in healthcare, your company and its' response to reimbursement changes or if you are unhappy with the quality of services you can now deliver, then you may very well want to consider other alternatives. But, beyond that, there's got to be a positive charge, something you want to do or accomplish that pulls you forward. If you are just running away from a bad situation, you may find you get right into another one.

Healthcare is filled with therapists who are doing what they are doing because they are good at it, but who no longer enjoy it. You can develop skills, knowledge and abilities to move into a new career or profession, more easily than you can develop and sustain motivation for something you don't like doing.

BUILD YOUR FUTURE TODAY:

Today's healthcare environment demands that Physical Therapy Professionals rethink what is possible for themselves to bring about a future full of opportunity. One of the biggest challenges of career transition is going from something comfortable into the unknown, and facing uncertainty. However, transitions can also be wonderful opportunities to make a fresh start, get out of a career or company that drains you and spend time with people you enjoy and make choices about how you really want to live. Every transition provides an opportunity to live with more balance in your life, and a career coach can help you make a career change, start a business, reveal your life choices or make a personal or professional breakthrough.

What's your career vision? Get on the track and get moving forward again!

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Author info:
Terri Levine, The Guru of Coaching SM, Ph.D., MCC, is the best selling author of several books including the international bestseller Work Yourself Happy, Coaching for an Extraordinary Life, Create Your Ideal Body, the international bestseller Stop Managing, Start Coaching! and her newly released book The Successful Coach co-authored with Larina Kase and Joe Vitale was just released by Wiley. She is the founder the international coach training program: The Coaching Institute, www.CoachInstitute.com. She can be contacted through the web at www.CoachInstitute.com/contactus.html or by phone 877-401-6165.