In my experience, a professional reconversion is the most common lifestyle change. (A recent article in France stated that 93% of people want to change their jobs, or have already done it) The reason for this is quite simple. When we have a done a particular job for a long time and no longer find the challenges we are looking for, or quite simply cannot any longer reconcile your personal values with the job you are doing, the easiest thing to do is to change job. A job change can be done while staying in the same company or otherwise.
A professional reconversion is taking this notion a step further. In my opinion, this type of lifestyle change is the easiest to undertake as you move from a position of known income to another one where the income is also relatively well known. As such the financial risk taken is minimal in such a change and much easier to accept and mentally prepare ourselves for.
In addition, many companies (especially big ones) would rather not risk losing long dedicated employees and may support you in your professional reconversion. By training, supporting to find a role in the new activity, etc, are all things easy to provide. So if you are looking to move from an HR role to Marketing, or from Quality to Finance, etc the company can often easily support you and that the same time assures that a long term valued employee stays with them.
Taking this professional reconversion a step further is also possible. We have all seen documentaries or read articles about people who have given up their corporate roles to go and live in the mountains to raise goats and make cheese for example.
In the following video, you will see a simple case where Vincent and Julie work through the lifestyle change where Julie wants to become a Yoga Instructor. They use the financial simulation application, EFIYLM to support their reflections and to prepare their project.
When you are living in a situation as a couple with dual incomes, it makes managing a professional reconversion for one of the people much easier to manage and plan for. Even if there is a lag time income while the person doing the reconversion, the second income will help cover the gap until the new income in the reconverted job starts rolling in.
I personally know a couple who made the decision for the wife to reconvert to be a chocolatier whilst the husband stayed in his corporate role in a big company. A few short years later once the chocolate business was well established, he also left his corporate role to join his wife and help grow their chocolate business. (I provide the link for you as their chocolates are damned good, and I fully recommend them!) For me, this has been an inspiring lifestyle change planned in 2 steps that have worked very well and I often talk about it.
As for all big changes in life, solid preparation is the key. Preparing the financial elements is important, but preparing mentally in order to build confidence in your project is the most important and often more difficult, but once done, it makes all the difference in achieving a successful lifestyle change.
Are you considering a professional reconversion? What you are considering to do in the future? I’d love to get your feedback and experiences. Feel free to leave your comments below ⬇ and stay tuned for the 2nd article.
Photo Credit: Photo by Bryan Minear on Unsplash
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