When and How to Execute Your Career Transition

Sunlit Path - 2022

Grand Teton National Park, WY

 How to Make Solid Progress on Your Path

Your career transition is one of the most significant events of your lifetime that marks the beginning of the next phase of our life.

Most often, joy of anticipation is part of the experience but may be accompanied by some apprehension. Whether you are looking forward to it or not, the creation and execution of plans is essential to your success.

As you work to envision and create your new lifestyle, you’ll probably find that it’s well worth it.

Challenges and Opportunities

My personal experience, as well as consulting, has reaffirmed certain challenges that must be recognized and managed effectively through proactive, timely planning. This goes a long way to banish the stress of the unknown and help make the process a much more positive experience.

What are these challenges and related questions?

What Seem First Should Not Always Be

The first thing that most physicians naturally try to determine is their projected end date. This seems to be a fairly straightforward question but the answer is usually not.

The reason is the emerging recognition that there are a lot of unknowns about this unfamiliar process. There are personal and professional questions that must be answered as well as practice matters that are your responsibility to deal with. 

It becomes very evident that without a fairly clear picture of what needs to be done over what period of time, it’s very difficult to determine your transition date.

The key to resolve this matter is to recognize that your career transition is a process, not an event. To shed light on this, you can embrace a methodology that includes creating customized plans and implementing them. This provides a method that is executed in a logical, sequential manner that will lead you to achieve your goals.

If Not First, Then What?

The absence of a clear vision and plan can be a serious impediment to ending your career. In that instance, the experience if often marked by false starts, detours, hesitation and delayed decisions. All this may be accompanied by increased stress and frustration. It does not have to be so.

It has been said that “The time you want the map… is before you enter the woods.”

The “map” is a triad of plans that are designed to be created and executed in a certain sequence in order to best guide you to success.

The first of these is your Post Career Lifestyle Plan. 

Post Career Lifestyle Plan - Personal Perspectives 

This is basically about what to do or not do.  It’s about how you want to live your life and much more.

It’s very important to begin with a very private perspective, a personal review. The clarity of your conclusions will facilitate subsequent questions and decisions you will encounter.

Begin by reaffirming the core of Who you are as a person, your character… and how this relates specifically to your career transition. Consider that Who you are and your professional role are really two different things. It’s also important to keep in mind that while your career will end, your purpose in life will endure. As you progress, consider your ongoing needs to fulfill your life’s purpose as well as your desires for fun that are important to nourish your fulfillment. 

Think about those professional activities that fulfilled you and remember that it’s a profound, positive feeling that you will probably want to continue to experience. It will benefit you to recognize this and find various ways to continue to feel it.

Desires for fun and relaxation may be found in activities or hobbies that you may not have been able to enjoy much during your career, primarily due to time limitations. The pursuit of these add enjoyment and balance to your new lifestyle.

This Post Career Lifestyle Plan is best created prior to your Post Career Financial Plan.

Post Career Financial Plan

This plan is different from your retirement plan. It is designed to determine whether your financial resources support your Post Career Lifestyle Plan.

If it does, you will have increased confidence to proceed. If it doesn’t, you can make adjustments to your lifestyle, financial plan or both.

Either scenario will have a direct, beneficial impact by adding clarity of your circumstances and facilitate determining your projected transition date with confidence.

End of Career Transition Plan

This is the third component of the methodology. It’s the actual roadmap to bring your career to a close by focusing on practical matters that include professional, business and practice matters. 

In a previous article, these plans are described in more detail.

And so…

The end of your career is a major life event for which it’s possible to prepare proactively in a timely manner. 

Deliberate, customized planning and execution will usher your new lifestyle as you have dreamt it to be.

Plan. Prepare. Prosper. _TM   

Date Updated: May 26, 2023

PS: Would you like to learn more about how to prepare yourself and your practice for the end of career transition? You may be in solo practice and wish to carry out a succession or outright sale; perhaps you are in group practice or are otherwise employed. I provide consulting/coaching services that are tailored to your specific needs. Click here to request a complimentary introductory conversation.