Quarter Life Career Crisis?

I'm approaching the big 3-0 (well not until next year, but it's not far off) and I am no stranger to a quarter life career crisis, in fact I sometimes feel like the past eight years have been one big career crisis.  In saying that, I've always said that I don't think I'll do one thing for my whole life and why should I? We change so much as the years go on. I'm certainly very different to the person I was when I was frantically riffling through university prospectuses wondering what the heck I was going to study for my degree.

I've always envied people who know what they want from the age of 16 and have gone out and got it, climbing the ranks and ending up with a good, steady job that they enjoy, but it's not happened that way for me. I've always had a nagging feeling there is something else.  Most of my career to date has been in TV production which I have to say, on the whole, was great. It wasn't without it's struggles, as with any career, but I loved the buzz, the hard graft ethic it instilled in me and all the fun and friendships that came along with it too, but for many reasons, I always knew it wasn't forever.  

Before I knew it responsibilities and grown-up stuff crept up on me - a mortgage shortly followed by a marriage proposal and the realisation that I needed to do something about the little voice in my head telling me that there is something else out there for me.  Whatever I've done career wise I've always worked really hard but I think I became tired of putting in the hours for someone else and wanted all that energy to go into something I love.

I find that it's quite rare to speak to people who really do love their work and when you think of the number of hours you spend at work (a lot!) you're throwing a hell of a lot of your life down the toilet if you are not truly happy in what you do.  

In terms of my long term plans, they are very much still in the making but with regard to my mindset towards my career I feel I've come a long way, even if my actual progress is just a few baby steps towards my eventual goal of having my own business and having control over my time and the flexibility to live life how I want to live it.  

Everyone has their own list of what they want from their career and their life and if I could say one thing to anyone going through anything which may resemble a quarter life career crisis it would be to listen to yourself and if your chosen career isn't in line with what you want from life, change it. Changes don't have to be forever, I left TV and tried PR for a while which wasn't right, so went back to TV but who cares? Just because we are supposed to be 'growing up' at this age it doesn't mean we have to find the career that we are going to do until we retire.  I intend to try out lots of things, and for me that's what life is about.  There is so much out there and how exciting to have so many options and opportunities.

The starting point to tackling a quarter life career crisis, I think, is intention.  For example, the intention to have more free time, to earn more money, to get that promotion, to turn your hobby into your career, to love your work.  From there, your thoughts become focused on your intention and your goal, which in turn pushes you into action slowly but surely (if you want it badly enough).

I am a big fan of watching motivational talks on You Tube (seriously, I could spend hours listening to Oprah's words of wisdom!) If you find a good one, they can give you a real lift when you are feeling well and truly stuck, or even when you know what you want but just need a big fat injection of inspiration to go out there and get it.  If you have a spare 6 minutes have a watch of this one - Anthony Robbins: Find Your True Gift and Maximise Your Career

As well as being exciting and liberating, change of any kind is really hard, but then so is settling for something which, for whatever reason, doesn't quite cut the mustard.   

It's all in the smile

My friends and family would say I’m a fairly cheery person who, more often than not, has a smile on my face. Don’t get me wrong, there are of course times when I feel down right miserable and mustering a smile is a challenge too far, but for the majority of my waking hours I choose to be happy. 

But what comes first, the smile or the happiness?

Most of the time life makes me smile but I’m not grinning from ear to ear 24/7 (who is?!) so sometimes the smile has to come first, like on a recent miserable Monday morning...

I would have loved to indulge in my bad mood but wouldn't inflict this on my colleagues so arrived at work and unleashed a giant (admittedly forced) grin as I personally feel there is nothing worse than working with people who constantly moan and skulk about the office. With my smile, I literally felt my sour mood ease in seconds and my happiness levels soared. I know full well that if I'd not forced that first smile I would have spent one whole day of my life with, in the words of my dad, “a face like a smacked arse.”  Where's the fun in that?

And it's not just me who is a big fan of the smile. There really are proven benefits.

Smiling = feelings of happiness as proven by a psychologist whizz called Robert Zajonc in 1989. The subjects of his experiments were asked questions that pinpointed their emotional state before and after smiling, and they overwhelmingly scored happier after smiling.
Smiling makes you look good - 70% of us find women more attractive when they smile, than when they wear make-up according to a study by Orbit Complete. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t look a darn site better when they smile, as opposed to frowning or grimacing at every opportunity. Laughter lines trump frown lines any day!
A smile is contagious. Studies have shown that if someone flashes you a smile, responding with a frown is really quite hard. Smile and the world smiles with you. Corny, but oh so true.
A smile reduces stress - Even a forced smile can reduce your stress levels and make you feel happier as the act of smiling naturally releases endorphins (happy hormone) and lowers cortisol levels (stress hormone)

So if you’re not convinced by the above, try it yourself. Smile now, right now, and see if you feel any different. It really is very hard to smile and feel miserable at the same time. Check out this clip of Dr Michael Moseley proving this point with the people of Edinburgh who apparently are prone to being a bit glum -MakeYourself Happier Using Only A Pencil - BBC One

If you do nothing else today, SMILE!