It is recognised that most people will have two career changes in their life time. That means we are likely to have three different careers in our life.

In today’s world, I am sure that for the majority of the younger generations, they will have even more.

What have your career changes looked like?

Have they been radically different jobs or work in completely different industries?

Do you see a natural progression, where the skills learned in previous roles equip you for the work that you move on to?

Maybe you have changed tack completely, where you are required to retrain and stretch yourself to find your way in unfamiliar roles.

Personally, I was born and raised on a farm and was very happy working the land and animals with my father after I left school.

An opportunity arose some four years later though, when my cousin was to build his first marital home and asked if I could help him. I did so, and so began almost a decade working in the building industry and learning many valuable skills. Those skills would prove extremely beneficial when I bought my own farm in later years and different homes I have lived in. My first two careers had equipped me well for managing a farm and properties.

After more than a decade on the farm I moved to the other end of the country and found work in timber retailing for three years. Once again, I was able to build on the experience and knowledge I had gained from my previous work.

When I sold the farm in my early fifties, I moved to the opposite end of the state to study and remarkably, fell into a career in the funeral industry.

I have fallen in love with this work. Over the past 20 years, I have developed many skills, both manual and interpersonal, and I have never been happier or more content in my work.

Throughout most of the first 50 years of my life I was deeply involved in Church. Through that involvement, I learned about leadership, working with the whole spectrum of people and running a wide variety of programs. Looking back over a lifetime, it is both amazing and instructive to see how my experiences have connected and how my life has evolved and taken me to where I am today.

Currently, I am taking it a little easier and have added some volunteer work to my schedule.

I have been drawn to work in the end of life space again, visiting people living with life-limiting diagnoses and their families. I also assist an organisation in following up with families who are recently bereaved. More recently, I have begun recording the stories of end of life patients and having a book printed for their loved ones containing what they really want them to know and remember.

My volunteering roles are quite different from one another, but each is incredibly rewarding and gratifying.

Now, back to you.

Where are you at in your life and career?

Are you feeling bored or stale in your current role and sensing that you need a change?

Perhaps you have been presented with a completely random and unexpected opportunity that you are doubtful about or feel ill-equipped to take on.

Or, you may be weighing up the options and considering whether it is time to retire but you don’t know what you will retire to.

When the feeling of unease and uncertainty creeps into your soul, perhaps it is time to open your mind to what may come your way. That feeling is usually an indication that it is time to move on.

My assumption is that you are reading this because you have some interest in matters relating to the end of life.

If you have the interest and the heart for it, there are endless opportunities to be involved in this space, both in a paid position or as a volunteer.

I encourage you to remain open to consider whatever is on your mind and to anything that comes across your life path.

It is not something to ignore.

Ask questions.

Make enquiries.

Research.

Seek out people you know, or people you have heard about, and ask what opportunities they may have for you.

If you are open to the possibilities, a whole new world may be waiting for you to enter, whether as a career or through volunteering.

Doors have two purposes: to keep you out or to allow you to enter.

You will only know which it is if you gently try the handle.