TURNING POINT

Turning Points occurs at predictable times during our entire faces of lives. We make decisions at every turning point that affects the next seven to ten years of our lives, so understanding what they are and when they are likely to occur is vital to your life and career.

At a point, we engage in a particular journey of life not minding if we are comfortable in it. The big question we should and must ask ourselves is that "Do I enjoy the career I am into? Is it what I want it to be? if not, do something to change it. In other to implement this, you need to create a personal vision for your career that will take all of you into account, this will move you from a stressed level into a balanced cycle and it will set you on a path to your career that fits you and brings you greater success and satisfaction.

To begin crafting your personal vision, you need to stop what you are doing and take time to reflect on who you are and what you really want.

the stage of your adult development has a major impact on how you view your life, your choices, and whether or not you are motivated to make a change. So knowing your stage of life gives you a backdrop against which your own life and career will make more sense. First, you need to know if you are at your turning point. There are no single points in time but usually spread out over one to five years, each turning point is initiated by a crisis or a time when we feel like our lives are unravelling, they develop out of the stress cycle.

we make decisions at all turning point that affect the course of the next five to ten years of our lives, so understanding what they are and when they are likely to occur is critical to your personal vision.

The personal vision you craft when you are 20 will be very different from the one you create when you are 50.

People usually become open to new ideas when they are at a Turning Point. They feel more clearly how their lives do not express who they are,  they recognize the gap between how they are living and what want out of life, and they begin to consider alternative directions. 

At all Turning Points, we start looking for answers and try to find something new. Often the search for change is only outer-directed, such as a new job, a new hair colour, or maybe even a new spouse or partner.

This rarely leads people any closer to what they truly want to be doing, and may result in another round of the Stress Cycle. Instead, you must look inside first to discover the answers that can truly change your life. Each Turning Point offers a window of time during which you have more energy and interest to examine what you have and to search for something better.

Let’s take a look at the Turning Points and the questions you can be asking yourself at these stages:

High School To College 

 It is during this time that people decide whether or not to go to college and if yes, which college to attend. Questions to ask at this stage include:

• What relationships are about to change for me?
• What are my plans for a career? Why? 
• What are my main talents? 
• What dreams do I have about the kind of life I want? Why?

College To Work World 

This typically includes the transition from the family to the work world. Most decisions are entry-level decisions such as career choice and what relationships to enter. The key questions should be:

• Who am I?

• What do I want from my career? 

• How can I put myself in a position to do what I do best? 

• What kind of lifestyle do I want and is what I am doing leading me to that kind of lifestyle?

Age 30 Assessment

Regardless of the career direction in which we launch, we do some reassessment around age 30. It is often characterized by a great deal of tentativeness and exploration. There is significant pressure to commit, which leads to reassess whether you want to be part of the “tribe”, Good questions to ask include:

• Is this what I want to be doing? 
• Is it getting me what I want? What doesn’t fit? 
•  Am I really using my most important talent(s)? 
• Are there some talents I have that I don’t know about yet? 
• If my career keeps going the way it is now, where will I be in 10 years? 
• Is that where I want to be? Why? 
• What do I really want in life? 
• Is what I am doing going to get me that? If not, I need to do something different. If so, what else should I be shooting for?
• What do I want to add to make my life fuller?

Age 60 Assessment

Many studies have shown that having a Personal Vision for these years can make all the difference between living and dying, both emotionally and physically. Questions to consider at these two stages include:

• How do I feel about my daily life? 
• What things can I do to keep myself healthy and happy? 
• What can I add to my life to make it more interesting and meaningful? 
• What can I give back to the world? How can I do that? 
• Who would benefit from my knowledge and experience? 
• What losses am I dealing with? What changes would I like to make to obtain more balance and connection?

Without a Personal Vision, when you arrive at a Turning Point you can make one of two big mistakes: doing nothing or making sudden, catastrophic and ill-considered moves that will turn your life upside down. Having a Personal Vision gives you a tool to use now and in the future when you navigate change.