When you’re used to doing things in a certain way, it’s easy to get stuck inside the box.

I remember when I was making the transition from headhunting into corporate (campus) recruiting (or when I started my own career coaching business);  chock full of uncertainty and completely new territory!

My early attempts at marketing myself as an able campus recruiter met (frustratingly) with little to no interest from employers…and when I started my own business…well, it’s one thing to coach people, but it’s entirely another to also market and operate your own business, soup to nuts; talk about EEK!

It would have been very easy for me to simply not like what I was feeling and stubbornly refuse to see that what I was doing wasn’t working and that it was only ‘my way or the highway’.

Or, I could have gotten sucked into the ever-dangerous game of ‘compare and despair’ (ever felt that?) that was creeping around my noggin, i.e. thinking about this person on TV or that person I know and how they did it all ‘seamlessly’; why did it work for them and not me? What do they have that I don’t?

[Insert imposter syndrome here.]

And guess what would have happened if I had chosen either of these two options? I would have kept running in circles and given up, in defeat…stuck in the same exact place I had wanted to escape from.

So what helped me to avoid the compare-depair-imposter creepie crawlies and move past the uncertainty and overwhelm?

*Getting real.
*Giving in to the fact that I didn’t know it all (and that I didn’t have to know it all).
*Realizing that I needed to take different action to achieve a different result than what I was getting.
*Finding the right people/resources that could set me in the right direction (and help regain my confidence, focus and momentum).
*Doing it NOW vs. waiting for the ‘right time’.

[Psst! There is no ‘right time’…and the more you wait for it, the longer you’ll keep waiting.]

Fast-forward to you, in your current career transition endeavors, present day.

*Are you unsure of how to translate your past experience into your target career? (what’s relevant/transferable/valued?)

*Do you feel overwhelmed and stressed out at the thought of having to re-do your resume, cover letter, LinkedIn profile AGAIN?  (“Selling yourself” is not your strength)

*Have your transition efforts met with zero results (i.e. you’re stuck in the resume black hole and the thank you, but no thank you’s of online applications)?

*Are you overwhelmed at figuring out how to market yourself to employers and navigate the inner workings of a new industry/functional area (perhaps in a new city to boot)?

For everything you don’t know or are unsure of, here’s what you I’m certain you DO know:

*What you’ve been doing isn’t working.
*It’s time to do things differently.
*The time is now.

After all, it’s almost 2016! 

Don’t let another year go by stuck in the status quo.
Don’t let another 12 months go by in an unfulfilling, stagnant job that’s NOT you.

Give in and get REAL.