Unlock Your Dream Career: 6 Expert-Backed Steps to Make a Bold Career Change This Year

Have you reached midlife or beyond, gaining confidence and life experience, only to question if your current job truly fulfills you? You're not alone. Many professionals find themselves in careers that no longer resonate, wondering if there's a better path forward.

Transformation coach and host of The Midlife Entrepreneur podcast, Jo Glynn-Smith, who herself transitioned after 25 years in fashion, specializes in guiding people through this exact challenge. She identifies a common starting point: "The first issue is often that people don't know exactly what they want from their life because they probably haven't spent a lot of time thinking about it."

Glynn-Smith notes this is particularly true for women: "We spend a lot of time thinking about other people and what they need and what they want. You do find a lot of female leaders are in service to other people a lot. It's partly how we've been brought up; to be caring, to be thoughtful, to be helpful." This mindset often carries into adulthood and careers.

Many people follow a predictable path: "Go to school, get a degree, try and find a job, then we spend a lot of time in that job and we haven't really thought about whether it's what we really want to do. Then we get stuck in a career that probably doesn't resonate for us." With longer working lives ahead—"We're going to be working into our 70s"—it's crucial to pursue something you're passionate about.

If you're ready to make a significant career shift this year, here are six actionable steps to get started.

1. Go Back to the Basics

Glynn-Smith begins with a simple yet powerful question: "What do you like doing? What do you enjoy?" Break down your current job: identify what energizes you and what drains you. "Energetically, what lifts you up and makes your cup full and what drains your cup and makes you feel exhausted?"

She encourages digging deeper: "If people don't even know, we'll go all the way back and say OK, if I'm looking in your eight-year-old bedroom and you're playing, what are you doing? Are you outside? Are you playing a game? Because that's generally you at your very core." Also, consider: "What are you just naturally good at? Everybody's got a natural strength somewhere, and they will have built skills through their career."

2. Recognize How Much Fear Plays a Part in Your Decision-Making

"We feel safe in the 'what's known', our brain is completely driven by fear," Glynn-Smith explains. Transitioning from a stable career to a new passion can be terrifying, especially if retraining seems impossible. However, she highlights a shift in mindset: "What you'll see with Gen Z is that they don't see things in a linear way like my generation do. Whereas they've grown up with the idea of a side hustle, and the beauty of that is it can be a hobby that becomes a business."

This approach reduces fear: "It's something that you love, therefore it doesn't feel like work, and you just build it up over time, but at the same time, you're earning money, so you haven't got that same fear."

3. Research – It Costs Nothing

"The thing that you can do that's not going to cost you anything is research, it just requires effort," Glynn-Smith advises. Reach out to people in your desired field: "Could I speak to somebody who's got the career that I want, or is doing the thing that I love, and see what it took for them to get there? Are there any doors they could open for me?"

Explore educational options: "Is there an open university course? Is it something I can do part-time? Can I do it in the evenings?" Then, piece together a transition plan: "Is there a 10% you could knock back, an effort that you're making where you can create opportunity to start building something up?"

4. Rediscover Your Identity and Confidence

Life stages like parenthood can impact career momentum. Glynn-Smith notes: "Whether you are in your 20s, 30s or 40s, having a children or multiple children takes up a chunk of your life where you'll have the most amount of energy and potential in your career." This can lead to exhaustion and stalled careers, causing a loss of identity.

She shares common experiences: "There have been so many women I've spoken to who have said, 'I'm part of the furniture, I just do everything because they know I'm capable and I'm a doer, but I've got to the point of, what about me?'" To overcome this, ask yourself: "What are the stories you're telling yourself? What's the thing that's blocking you?"

5. Make a Financial Plan

"If you really see there's an opportunity, then I would do a financial plan," Glynn-Smith recommends. Assess your resources: "Do you have savings? Do you have a partner who could manage for six months if you had to retrain? Or do you need to do that as night school? Or can you go and be an apprentice?"

Consider timing: "You need to work out what's right for you and the effort that you're going to have to put in, and how long that effort is going to last. If you've got two small kids right now, is this the best time for you, or do you need your energy to manage just getting up twice a night, and doing the school run and managing your [current] job to the best of your ability? Could you wait for five years?"

6. Redefine What Success Means to You

Glynn-Smith observes a shift in priorities: "One of the things that I've noticed, speaking to entrepreneurs, is that for almost all of them, they want to earn a good income, but none of them are going in there to become multi-millionaires. They're going in there to be able to feel proud and do something that they feel really passionate about, that they're in control of, and their success looks very different to the success they may have wanted for themselves in their 20s."

She emphasizes that finding your purpose doesn't eliminate hard work: "A lot of people say when you find your purpose it doesn't feel like working – I don't believe that's true, I think it's a more joyful and fulfilling experience to be working in something that's your purpose – it's a joy but you still have to dedicate time and effort to it."