S4 Ep. 250 Navigating Life's Transitions: From Career Shifts to Personal Growth

Speaker 1: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good everything. Wherever you are on the surface of the earth this very instant, hear my voice. How are you doing? Welcome to the Word Cafe Podcast. How are you doing? What is it like at your end? Yes, what's happening? The weather, you know life and all of that. I know you're good, I'm good where I am. Yep, I'm good, thanking God for life, thanking God for grace, thanking God for his mercies, thanking God for everything. Ah, yes, like I always say, this is my safe space. Whenever I come into this, be it virtual or physical, as you may want to call it space, I come alive. Yes, because I have one thing that makes me so, so happy Words . Yep, for me, they are the unit of creation. Ah, yes. So so what are we going to be doing today? A lot has been going on, you know, a lot, a lot. Recently, I was privileged, honored, you know. I was invited to like share some thoughts on career transitions and I was so glad. That's by the Gemstone Foundation, that is, by my mentor, sanfella Durutui, and it was quite pleasant, I must say. Now, it's not just about career transitioning. Now for me, you know one big chunk of our lives that we cannot do without no matter how much you try, it will never go away is work. Yes, we express our lives through work. You may call it vocation, occupation, profession, whatever you want to call it, the bottom line is work. As somebody said, there's dignity in labor, labor as in work. There's dignity, you know, and there's a lot, our lives. Work practically sorry, practically defines who we are. We are known by what we do, just like what Scripture says, by their fruits, they will be known, you shall know them. So if you want to have a good knowledge about anybody, look at what they do for, as we call it , a living, what brings you up in the morning, sets you under, you know on your way, and you go out frantically, moving from one end of the earth to the other. Work, yep and Yep. And it was exciting. So I want to share, you know, some thoughts from that meeting, what I shared. But now I'm looking at it beyond the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the worlds of work. I'm looking at it, even our lives. You know, there's something that we deal with every day of our lives change, how to move from one point to the other. We deal with it, be it in our personal space with our kids. For those of us who have kids with our wives, our husbands, our spouses, as the case may be, there's always this change. You know, even if you look at it internally, there's change going on. You know, when you put food in your mouth, you know the journey it makes from your mouth to the point of metabolism and your body takes in the nutrients and releases the waste. All of these processes, they are facilitated by the phenomenon called change. So you must have courage to change. I take that again. You must have courage to change . Sometimes you need to initiate change, yes, to break out, and change follows a pattern, a process. Yep, it follows a process. You know, just like you for a musical piece, you see the way the transitions come, how you jump from one note to the other. But there's something I've come to realize that every form of change takes this energy from us , be it a physical exhaustion or a spiritual exhaustion. You know like you need to exalt yourself. There's this change that comes, but it's driven by energy. So I'm going to begin this conversation from looking at it, from the thermodynamic principles you know, like for those of us who did physics in school or chemistry, you want to bring about a change in the system. You consider things like pressure, volume, time. The minute you change one of these factors, or rather the minute you alter one of these factors, there's a change you have initiated into that system. Like when you look at, uh, the energy levels in our electrons. As we're told I mean basic uh, our physics when an electron wants to move from one energy field to the other, it's a question of being excited. It receives this jolt of energy , this bolt if I want to use that word now of energy, and boom, it moves from, it becomes excited and it jumps practically from one level of energy field to a higher level. That is change. But all of this is hinged on that principle of energy. Yeah, energy could be physical, it could be spiritual, but you need, for any change to take place, we need energy and we need courage to manage this energy. So, mmm, I'm going to go through it now. Uh, enough said, okay, let's continue this journey. Now, what I did that day was on career. You know career transitions. You're switching from one industry and you know changing from one industry to the other, or you're moving from one career path to the other. So let us view it like you're going on. So it is like moving from you're climbing some set of stairs. You know you're moving from the lower end of the stairs. You know upwards flight of stairs, even if it's ascending or descending, as the case may be, but there's this energy you need to like, gather to take those steps as you move. Now I want us to look at it from this point. You don't rush into a new career. No, you don't rush into it. You don't just jump into a new role without identifying the skills and knowledge you need. You know who result you jeopard at where you are presently the job you're doing, the role you're covering, as against you know the new role you want to uh , you want to like a step into you. Look at that. What do I possess now in terms of skill sets and all of that as against the competence is required in, in covering that role. It's like saying somebody who wants to like get married. You know, you think you're of age, you want to get married. What I say? Skills, you know to like cover this role. Do I really have it? You ask yourself all of these questions before you jump into it. So you carry out that gap analysis to know, okay, what is required. This is what I possess presently. What do you think I need? Like to, like you know, a new rule and all of that, so you don't just jump into it. You actually ask yourself these questions, you know, and you will see it will come up. Then you know your why. You know, before transitioning, before that movement, you need to ask yourself necessary questions. This new career I'm going into, why you reflect on? What are the motivations? What's motivating you? Why do you want to go into that new role? Is it because, like the famous saying, job satisfaction, I am not satisfied and job satisfaction, I am not satisfied . I want to, you know, get more out of my job and all of that. That is, why. Is that the reason? Is that why you want to go into that? Well, if so, why not? If not, you jump in. Yes, why not? If not, you jump in. But you must ask yourself, you must know your why. Or another reason again, is that you're looking for flexibility, like what you're doing currently is giving you so much. What I say is not allowing you, you know, know, like, do other things, so you need flexibility is affecting your work, your life, your home and all of that. So you now begin to think okay, what would I do that will give me time to like, fulfill all the others that all of this must come from knowing your why. You know knowing your why. Then again, after you've known your why, you become self-aware. You just have to be self-aware. By understanding your strengths , weaknesses and boundaries, you know you can make a more informed decision about whether or not a career change is good for you. Know your why yourself. You must know yourself. Who are you? Who am I? Now that I know my why? Because I want to transit. Who am I, you know, are you a patient person? You ask yourself. Look at yourself in the mirror. Yes, look at yourself in the mirror and ask all of those questions, because if you don't know who you are, the likelihood of transiting becomes like a big, big, big problem for you. So you must know that when you do the leg walk, you don't just sit down and you know wish. You know wish. No, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. So you want to, you want to like fit in or supersede your talent and all of that. So you must know you just have to. You go out, you do the legwork, make the necessary research. You know the industry and all that. Recently I was looking at this report about profitable businesses globally. You know that, the most, the 10 most profitable businesses in the world. So I was going through the list . We just had two industries. You know two, yes, that's the tech space, and oil and gas, or what we call energy. You know, within the energy spaces, you, you hear names like saldi, aramco, uh, exxon mobil and what have you all of them. You hear big names like that. Then in the tech space, things like apple, you know, uh what, google and the rest of them. So the question now is these are the most profitable 10 most profitable businesses in the world. So it tells the resources on the earth. You know a given, a good chunk of it will be within the spaces. So if I want to like also get in there, I have to like understand these spaces, how they work and all of that. So I had to do my research. You know, like you, you hear people who find themselves within the culinary space, maybe fashion or, uh, tech space, and they just say I want to pivot, I want, I want to, I want to transit, I want to like that, and you ask certain questions that they don't have an idea. They don't have a clue of where , of what happens in that space that they desire. But listen, you just have to, like, get yourself involved in the space. How Research, ask questions, yeah, you take a course, do courses. You know on those areas. Like, I want to go into the oil and gas space. What do you know about oil and gas? Or the energy space, renewable energy and all of that. What do you know about it? What do you know about oil politics? Do you have a good understanding of oil politics? So these are the things you begin to ask yourself Okay, I want to go into the tech space. What do you know about the tech space? What is happening today? You know, with all the artificial intelligence flying everywhere and all of that, the narrative. So you do the leg walk. You don't just sit down there, you do the leg walk, then you grow your network. It is very key. It is very key. You know you be on the lookout for professionals you can relate with in your desired career. This relationship doesn't have to be direct. I say it could be a virtual relationship I mean relationship , I beg your pardon where you follow these people as thought leaders or in what they do. You find yourself within them. A good example is like, okay, I want to go into the leadership space, I want to go into that industry, that career or that space. I look for a big name there, somebody like maybe John Maxwell . I look for a good, a big name there. Somebody like maybe John Maxwell. I look at John Maxwell, I look at the people that follow him. I see maybe names like the catalyst, larry Lushola. I see names like the nation builder, safela Durutwe. I see people like maybe Vuzitembe Kwayo and the rest of them. And it's like, okay, and the rest of them. And it's like, okay, and you go follow them, see what they are doing. You know the kind of structure they have and the kind of materials you see within their space. It's like, okay, these are the kind of things they do. So you begin to follow, you know you follow. In Nigeria we say follow who know road. So you're following, you know them in that and you're also growing your capacity. This will help. You know you leverage on their experiences or social connections to succeed in the industry. Yes, you encounter them. So you don't just sit down and tell yourself, okay, this is I wish, I wish. No, you don't just wish, you move, you move, like, make those move, you move and all of that. And you have to understand you don't have to be selfish here, you don't have to be self-centered. Even if you're becoming self-aware and knowing your why, you don't have to be self-centered. Rather, you need to reach out, you know, break out of that cocoon and create the network and from there you begin to, like you know, grow. These principles can be applied across board, not just in career alone, managing our homes . Change is a constant. We live in the bubble of change . Every day we wake up to one form of change. You know are within us again, just the head, and you know the head. You don't rush into a career, don't rush into that decision. Take your time, know your why, yes, know your why. Then you become self-aware. Knowledge is key here. Being aware, you know, is self-aware. Then you do the legwork. Aha, you work, you do the legwork, you don't just sit down , you do the legwork. Go, go around, search things out, you know, and all of that. Then you grow your network. You are not an island. No, you are not and you shouldn't be. You should be a flow, you should be flowing, you know, and all of that. Well, guys, this is what I came to do on the show today, just to share this with you. I hope you've learned one thing or two from this. But listen, in all of this, have it at the back of your mind Work defines who we are. That's why we're here and we can make the best. We can make the best of it. All right, guys, you know how we say it on the show Till I come your way again. Bye for now.