Bring the change!

Well folks, Happy Easter!  I hope you got to spend some time with your family this weekend for one of the numerous holidays.

Some big news...  I'm making a big career change (I'll share with you in a bit), and after over six years working as a software engineer at Apple, this coming Friday is my last day!

It's been a dream getting to work at one of the biggest and best technology companies.  I remember growing up always wanting to work at an Apple or Microsoft because I thought computers were super cool.  Six years ago I remember starting my first day at Apple, feeling like I was super lucky had realized that young dream.

So why the change?  Well, for me I always believed that people should be the focus when it comes to technology.  People make the thing.  People use the thing.  People talk about the thing.  It's never about the MacBook Pro, it's about how we make it and how we use it.

With this belief, I became interested in how software engineers reach more of their potential and Apple was a great place to observe how this happened. Part of that observation was looking at moving into management,  Therefore, when the opportunity to learn about high performance came up I took it and fell in love with that work.  That was about two years into Apple.

For the last four years I have been working on helping others reach their goals faster as a certified high performance coach, when I wasn't doing the Apple thing.  The coaching started to fire me up more than working at an amazing company, so I needed to change.

The decision to leave wasn't easy.  I networked inside the company, reached out to some internal recruiters, and basically discovered there wasn't my dream position inside the company.  I wanted to help people at a higher level than my current job could.

Ultimately, that's why why it was time to leave.  And when I figured that out, it was time to make the plan to leave.

Change can be scary.  Luckily my coaching certification has tools to help you navigate change.

If you have a big change coming up, you need to understand the three types of fear that can trip you up.

1. Process fear -  Fear that doing the new thing is going to be painful.  If you were moving houses, this would be the fear that the truck is going to be a pain in the ass, it might rain, what if nobody want to help, etc.
2. Outcome fear - This is the fear that when we reach the goal, we won't like what we got.  In the moving example, it's the fear that the new house will not be as awesome as the current house.
3. Loss fear  - The fear that we will have to give up things to make the change.  In our example, this could be stuff like being close to our favorite park or restaurant, our proximity to our parents vs the new place etc.

We all have these types of fear during change, whether it's an organizational change, career, or personal change. 

The thing to keep in mind is that it usually isn't as bad as we think it will be.  Focus on what you will gain, what benefits you and your family will receive when things are complete can help keep you motivated. If focusing on those doesn't help, you might think about abandoning the change all together.