For the past couple of weeks I’ve been brainstorming ways to help some friends in the Fast Track Your Dream program move more quickly through the process of discovering their calling and transitioning to a new career. It led me to put together information from different fields – marketing and psychology – to think about the stages of creative career change.

I sketched out my ideas then filled in some details. Then I went back and refined things to make them clearer. I wound up with a pretty good framework for understanding the process in general steps and knowing what people might need at each step.

The stages I came up with go from (1) dissatisfaction with work but not interested in finding a calling, to (2) wondering if work can be meaningful, to (3) beginning to investigate creative alternatives to a job-in-a-box, to (4) getting clear about the idea of a calling and seeing how to make it into a career, to (5) developing a plan to start a creative career, to (6) implementing the plan, then to (7) mastery of the new career.

So of course I took a look at my own career transition to see where I am.

Great news! As of last week I’ve started the move from Plan Development to Plan Implementation. I know, I know, I’ve been implementing along the way. In my framework people are gathering information and learning things while they develop their plan. I was learning by trying things out, and I kept getting away from the focus of getting a clear plan. Good thing I didn’t have me as a client. I would have driven me nuts!

Next for me come the stages where I get competent at the basics, then over time master my career. Fortunately I get to add new plans and pieces to my business along the way so I will have variety and new challenges, and I’ll go through many of the stages for each new component.

This framework of stages lets me think in terms of helping other people focus their questions, their research, and their effort. It gives them a way to figure out where they are in the process and focus on the next steps instead of trying to do a lot of different steps that are probably out of order.

If anyone stumbles across this post and has comments, questions, or feedback on the process of finding your calling and designing your life around it, please post comments here or e-mail me. I would love to develop a program that incorporates all kinds of individual differences and possible challenges but still quickly pinpoints where to focus your time and effort.

May You Know the Joy of Sharing Your Gifts,

Steve Coxsey