Reframe negative reasons for changing careers into positive career change motivators.

We don't always appreciate career change motivators, especially negatives that prompt career change motivation, but understanding the reasons for changing careers can move you further in your Change Career Journey. Hopefully someday you'll look back with gratitude that what was once seen as negative became career change motivation.

"Chaplain Paul, here." (I've noticed that is how I usually answer the phone.)

Understand "Why" you are considering a career change. Reasons prompting career change thoughts are as diverse and unique as we are as individuals. Yet, some common career change themes do appear again and again.

Reframe your career change problems into career change motivators!

The change really begins in how we perceive ourselves and the events in our lives. What I thought was a negative situation I later viewed as a positive in that I was forced to move to a new assignment, or even change my ministry career direction.

1. Economic concerns: to me this was more than just needing extra funds. . .I am thinking of the bigger financial picture.

Stuff like poor earning capacity, retirement planning or lack of retirement planning in my case!. . . being stuck in a low paying job, and having the proverbial financial rug pulled out from under my feet!

2. Financial needs: needing funds for college, overwhelming medical bills, or lack of a retirement plan all have been the story of my life. Nothing prompts career change thinking like financial pressure!

All of these money deficiencies entered into prompting me to change my career. The truth be known, personal finance problems have been the motivation for most career changes.

3. Spiritual factors: to name this website career-change-with-purpose.com should be a clue that there was more to my career change decision than personal finance problems.

For me, God's purpose, the will of God, and discovering God-given dreams entered into my creativity in facing the future.

I was purpose-driven in changing my career -- I wanted to empower others to be all that God wants them to be. I find this to be true for many who are considering a new career.

4. Family Life cycle factors: for many, a midlife career change moves them into a completely new area of life fulfillment. I'll own up to the fact that my mid life career change resulted from a desire to explore career opportunities beyond what I was doing.

Others I have known change careers after getting married or beginning a family. I have friends who made a career change following a divorce or the death of their spouse. The Impact of Mental Illness Upon One's Career

Careers are definitely impacted by mental illness of any kind, even to the point of motivating career change. My own father made a change career decision because of the mental state of my mother.

I have met pastors whose decision to expand their ministry beyond that of the local church was based in part upon the mental illness of their spouse.

Often the motivation for changing careers due to mental illness was to meet the needs of some other family member, whose mental illness required a great deal of time, so they became caregivers. Click here to see my article on "Mental Illness and Career Change"

Another career change prompter is having to care for aged parents or other family members requiring constant care. For a free report on this subject, click on The Sandwich Generation, a paper I wrote when enrolled in an MFT (Masters in Famiy Therapy) program at Bethel Seminary San Diego.

5. Emotional factors: Burnout, discouragement, workplace frustrations, and boredom with a present career can prompt a search for employment options.

But if result is career fulfillment and joy with your job, even these negative emotional factors will prompt you to praise God for them. As I reflect on past injustices or micro-manging bosses, my griping turns to praising God when I see how God used negative situations to move me to new career options.

6. Personal Health Factors or Family Health Concerns: When my doctor walked in to the examination room, his first question was "How long have you had that rash on your forehead?"

His diagnosis: "shingles". I thought shingles was just a bad skin rash. But after learning more about medical cause of shingles, a deeper question hit me: "How will the diagnosis of shingles impact my life, my health, and my career?"

Now please understand that I work with people whose lives have been turned upside down because of debilitating illness and extreme chronic pain.

Being a healthcare chaplain brings me into the lives of people who have experience extreme trauma or had their lives affected by unexplained medical problems.

For me, my doctor's diagnosis of shingles was cleared up through time and medication. But there are some for whom the pain from shingles has prompted major career changes due to painful complications from shingles.

Even more have had their careers interrupted by a diagnosis of cancer or a discovery of heart disease.

How will career changes for medical reasons impact someone needing to leave a beloved career? Perhaps my answer at Health Factors Prompting Career Change. will help you understand your disease and career situation.

7. Entrepreneurial Drive: not everyone is a 9 to 5 type of person.

Perhaps you, like me, have been described as someone who "draws outside the lines". To be honest, I have always strategized ways to make more money, increase income, or somehow produce extra income.

My mind is always strategizing new ways of doing things and people around me raise their eyebrows when I verbalize a new career change concept or unique financial approach.

All of the above creative career thinking led me to make a midlife career change a few years ago. If you are curious, check out my personal career change.

Negative Career Change Motivators

Some of the most heartbreaking career change motivators are those that are based in various addictions.

One of the most difficult ministry assignments in my own pastoral career was working with families caught in the trap of pornography.

I was hired to help start a Family-Friendly ISP after pastoring for 30 years. Often I would talk to distraught wives who had just discovered their computer to be full of pornographic material, usually from the websurfing activities of her husband.

Because we offered filtered service, they would switch to ReachOne.com in an attempt to deal with their distructive addiction.

I wish I would have had available then what I will share with you now. You see, I could help with an internet connection, but I couldn't fix the heart of a man by a change of his ISP. For changing the heart I now recommend PureOnline for the following help:

30 Days to Purity - confidential help for pornography addiction.

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