Truly understanding what makes you tick is fundamental to starting your career change journey to becoming a financial adviser. Read our tips to help your self-analysis

Motivation … do you find it a challenge sometimes? Particularly staying motivated?

Finding out what motivates you is a great place to start your career change process but becoming motivated means you’ll reap the rewards, like facilitating your self-development and achieving your goals (both personal and professional).

Have you every stopped to think …. how well do I know myself?

Truly understanding what makes you tick is fundamental to starting your career change journey to becoming a financial adviser. Some tips to help your self-analysis:

Identify your core values to help you focus on what’s important to you as well as what makes you happy. What gets you up and go to work every day, what do you love about your role and which elements have a positive impact on you?

Finding motivation and sustaining it is much improved when you understand what engages you. This means you can take action to focus on what will make the best version of you. Can you identify yourself from some of the major motivational styles below?

  • Power - helps us function in a challenging and unpredictable world and those who have power as their dominant motivator will love the feeling of winning.
  • Values - believing in a set of values, a mission or other driving force helps us create a meaningful relationship with the world, so a strong set of values helps us connect to the workplace and often results in people going that extra mile.
  • Work preference - “Pioneers” focus on opportunities and new experiences and relish the challenge, whereas “Guardians” need stability and processes to do their best work. Recognising your preference will help you find the right environment in which to develop your career.
  • Connection - affiliation is a powerful driver, meaning relationships and connection to others is important. Those who have this dominant style are “Integrators”, they love connecting with people, are diplomatic and want to understand the needs of others and how their decisions affect people around them.

Understanding your motivational style could be the key to achieving greater motivational success; focusing on the ways your career is connected to what matters to you should help revitalise your motivation.

Overcoming procrastination means remembering that you influence your behaviour. Your thoughts, feelings and beliefs drive your behaviour so it’s really important you identify your weak spots and what’s causing them, which will enable you to start to overcome them.

The heart and mind relationship is powerful so use it in a positive way to help you achieve your desired outcomes. Anticipate how you will self-sabotage in the future and come up with a solution to defeat the side of you that procrastinates!

Prioritise - focus on one thing at a time, know your most important task, dedicate specific periods of your day to work on your number one priority. Perhaps invest the first part of your day to ensure you achieve this. Practising a consistent routine goes a long way to helping you to stay the course.

Ask yourself the question ‘What task will have the biggest impact on reaching my goal?’

Control the controllables - taking control and making progress no matter what the circumstances are that interrupt you means you focus your energy on the things you can do to shape your future.

Anticipating future events and obstacles that may throw you off course allows you to build on what you can control and to find ways to manage what you can’t.

You’ll be amazed how much is in your control!

Energy is everything - there are only 1,440 minutes each day, so time is valuable. Energy management is every bit as important as time management.

Energy levels are cyclical so energy boosters help you make the most of your energy levels and increase your energy supply, which will increase your attention, focus, alertness, decision-making and productivity. View food as fuel, sleep as recovery, pulse and pause with work sprints.

Try drinking water, taking a few minutes of flexibility and mobility exercises, engaging in conversation, listening to music (a great mood changer), using scents – our sense of smell is much overlooked as a booster, or even taking a power nap at lunchtime when energy levels naturally drop. Natural boosters can have greater impact without the side effects of artificial ones e.g. caffeine.

The small steps… recognising your progress along your career change journey will build your confidence and fuel your desire to continue to your destination – that new job, the new career or perhaps starting your own business as a qualified financial planner with St. James’s Place. Each step is an important building block.

Finally, a reminder that we have all the power, wisdom and resources we need to live a life of joy, engagement, inspiration and purpose. Good luck on your mission!

The St. James’s Place Academy team are specialists in helping people change career to become a financial planner and wealth manager.