Many clients come
to us wanting an epiphany; one event that will clarify everything, that will
transform their stumbling moves into a clear direction. They hope for one
defining moment when the clouds part and everything clarifies.
Some people do experience pivotal moments in which what
they are seeking is crystalized. But for every client who changes career in
response to some sort of trigger, as many fail to take the leap and another
third find a moment of truth in a trivial but symbolic occurrence.
The causal sequence is really the other way around: Insight
is an effect, not a cause. At the very start of a transition, it unsettles
clients that there is no story, just a long laundry list of possible selves.
Clients are also disturbed to find so many different options (apparently)
appealing. They worry that the same self, who once chose what they no longer
want to do, might again make a "bad choice". They want to make sure they are
going in the right direction, that whatever they end up doing is really
satisfying.
It is at least partly a question of establishing a new
identity. One of the central identity problems that has to be worked out during
career transition is deciding on the story that links the old and new self.
Until that is solved, the external audience to whom our clients are selling
their re-invention remains dubious. Our clients feel unsettled and uncertain of
their new identity. The story must explain why they must re-invent themselves,
who they are becoming, and how they will get there.
Early versions are always rough drafts. They get floated to
friends, families, and new contacts, whose reactions prompt revisions. Since
often our clients don't know exactly where they are going or what the critical
vents along the way will be, the story will necessarily go through many changes
before it is finalized.
Sometimes it takes many rehearsals before it comes out just
right. What happens in the re-telling is not just a more polished story; we help
clients finally settle on a narrative that can inform the next step. It is
important to have a good story to tell others, often to put it out into the
public sphere before it is fully formed. By making public declarations about
what they seek, our clients clarify their intentions and improve their ability
to enlist the support of others.
This is partially a problem of self-marketing, of
persuading others to take a chance on them. Potential employers come to know
(and therefore trust) when they know your story and can accept it as legitimate.
The diffuse hopes and dissatisfactions jell when you are getting close, the
result of having struggled and foundered in the transition. When events happen
that serve your purpose. you can weave them into the fabric of your re-invention
narratives to use them to explain - to yourself as much as to others - why you
are changing.
