Moving Out of The Crossroads of a Career Change

An Exercise in Personal Rebranding

Johnathan Kobé
Aug 24, 2017 · 7 min read

Can you recall the last time you were at a crossroads in your career or business? Do you remember what it was like working really hard toward something (maybe for years or decades) and then reaching a point where you realized that you were not passionate about it anymore?

This experience stresses most people out, and rightly so. When we’ve been committed to the point of pouring out massive amounts of time and energy toward an endeavor only to have a change-of-heart, the feeling leaves us with a lot of potentially painful questions such as…

What was my reason to begin with?
Did I just waste a lot of time?
Was it all for not?

And maybe even…
Is there something wrong with me?

Reaching one of these moments in life kind of has that ‘game over’ feeling…you know, the one where you think there should still be tokens in the arcade machine, but alas…the writing is on the wall…it’s time to move on.

In reality, these moments don’t always have to be the ‘end of the game’. Rather, I prefer to look at them as game changers. They can represent new levels in our path toward that which we are meant to do in life.

This experience showed up for me a year ago when I was working exclusively as a freelance tech consultant. I had been helping small businesses in the health and wellness industry develop websites and other online content solutions. At that time, I was also putting a lot of effort into rebuilding my health after a 4-year struggle with drug and alcohol addiction. I had been sober for nearly a year prior to that point, so I wasn’t suffering from the mental, emotional, and social problems that come with substance abuse…but I was struggling to feel inspired.

Initially I chalked up the lack of inspiration to the years of brain damage I undoubtedly caused from all the drinking. So I did what any self-identified analytical left-brain person would do; a ton of research. I was determined to figure out how to get back to “normal”.

I came up with a few theories based on the information I acquired from the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and nutrition. My main goal was to feel inspired on a daily basis with no negative side effects. I’ve always been willing to experiment with things, and this time was no different. I went to work testing the purported healing techniques from modalities such as herbalism, meditation, exercise, and diet. After many “experiments”, I honed in on a group of techniques that seemed to have a synergistic effect. I found that a particular combination kept me in a state of feeling motivated, inspired, and emotionally resilient.

There was one catch, though; when I went back to focus on my tech consulting career, the feeling of inspiration would not hang around to help do the work. Almost every time I would sit down to work on someone else’s website, the inspiration would seem to just go out the door.

As you might expect, this is the ‘crossroads’ part of the story of which I referred to in the beginning. Here I was, after working diligently for over a year to get my inspiration back, and now it would not stick around to get any work done! After being with the frustration of these circumstances for several weeks, I started asking myself questions like:

When am I most inspired?
If I had to start over, where would I begin?
What has always inspired me?

I wish I could tell you that the story takes a momentous turn here, but in reality I was stuck at the crossroads for a little while longer. Working in tech was something I had been doing since college. It’s what had kept a roof over my head, paid the bills, etc. It was ingrained in my identity. Even family members knew me as the ‘tech guy’ they could call for help with their scrappy Windows computers (nothing personal, Microsoft).

I can’t say that I like to admit this, but I started feeling indifferent about my work. Sure, it was better than being in the depression I had previously struggled with, but it wasn’t inspiring.
I found myself standing at the crossroads almost everyday.

What happens when we stay at the crossroads of life for too long?

We get stressed.
We get burned out working for someone else’s dream.
We look for ways to be distracted.
We may even turn to addictive behaviors.

Well let’s just say that while I was experiencing the first 3 in the above list, I sure as hell wasn’t going to fall into the trap of addiction again. Fortunately I found some solace by reflecting on the last time I had been at the crossroads. Yes, this was technically not the first time. Back in 2012 I was coming to the end of a 4-year stint working for BlackBerry. When the company started issuing massive layoffs, I was just waiting for the day that I would get the call from my manager. When that day came, I had to make a choice. Do I jump ship and join the ranks of another company, or do I go out on my own? Obviously, I chose the latter, and I made it easier by mentally preparing myself for the transition before it happened.

So I did the same thing this time. I started my preparation by reflecting on the things that inspired me. I started talking to friends and family about ideas. Then the day came when I found it, or perhaps it found me.

I was sitting on the floor of my living room helping a friend brainstorm on the next phase for her non-profit organization. When we were done, she said something I didn’t expect…

“I think you’re meant to help people with the systems that you use to help yourself.” She may have been biased, considering all the times she had to listen to me rant about how great yoga, meditation, and the ketogenic diet are for one’s health. Even so, with her background in branding, she helped me come up with a name for this idea in the same conversation. A day later, she created a logo and emailed it to me:

Something else showed up with that logo…inspiration.

After a lot of deep soul searching for the past year, the concept of Systems for Optimal Living has crystalized into a business model and a new career path for me. With that, I decided it’s time to rebrand “me”. Here’s why…

Well, for starters, I’m expanding my niche. While I’ll still be working with businesses in health & wellness, this time it will be within the context of a partnership model (more on that in a future post). Under the new model, I’ll be serving business professionals who want to create balance between their work and personal life while doing more of what inspires them. As the name suggests, the content will be geared toward providing ‘systems’ that are designed to help achieve a work-life balance and become a catalyst for putting inspiration back into peoples’ lives.

Systems for Optimal Living will serve as an education hub; specifically a portal where experts across 7 different fields will share their ‘systems’ for living a balanced lifestyle with those in the fast-paced professional workforce. Knowledge without application is useless, so a framework for practicing these systems will also be a part of the model.

Hopefully this post sheds some light for my friends, family, and current customers on why I’m rebranding. For anyone else who is reading this and feels they are stuck in their career or business, here are a few tips for moving out of the crossroads

Talk to others about it. You might be surprised what a close friend or relative can see in you that you might have disregarded. Using the systems that had brought my life back into balance had become so routine that I had dismissed them from being something I could make a career of.

Ask yourself what you would do if it was ‘game over’. If your current job or business abruptly came to an end, what would you choose to do instead?Assume that your material needs would be taken care of, and forget about what other people would think.

Brainstorm on the branding. Whether you’re seriously considering a change or just exploring the idea, coming up with names, tag lines, and logos can invigorate your vision for something new. When I landed on a name and had a logo, my thinking quickly changed from pondering the idea to envisioning how I could get started. Having a name also helps when you’re sharing the concept with others.

Being labeled as the ‘tech guy’ has had it’s perks, but it’s time to be associated with something that inspires me…helping others find balance in what inspires them…and to do more of it.

To my dear Aunt Rosemary; you can still call call me for help with your computer. To everyone else, that only applies if we’re working together to share your system for optimal living with the world.

To stay in the loop and be the first to hear about the launch of Systems for Optimal Living, follow me via Medium.com

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Johnathan Kobé

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I help people overcome addictive behaviors and improve their mood for optimal productivity, motivation, and creativity.

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