Let’s begin with: If you’re happy in your job it’s totally ok to stay where you are – in this video we’re addressing cases where people WANT to leave but can’t.
Increasingly, so many of us are attracted by the prospect of a new Air Era lifestyle (driven by purpose, freelancing projects, community-focussed activities), but there are several barriers in their way
I talk to many individuals on their transition, so I want to use this video to do a very very deep dive on what comes up in this transition journey over and over again, and I’ll also share what you can do about it, what strategies and mindsets need to be in place. You might think the obstacles people face in career transition are obvious, but I think the barriers for this are like an iceberg – on the surface everyone thinks it’s about fears of income insecurity, but some of the insights I’m sharing today go far deeper and are much more ingrained in our psyche that most people realise.
In today’s discussion I will talk a lot about the Earth Era/Air Era world, and while most of you watching will already be familiar with this broad world astrology concept, if you’re new to this you can check out links in the description for some of my older live webinars where I covered the Earth to Air Era transition in detail (that’s free on Youtube), or if you want to access my most recent presentation (at the time of recording) you can also find links to my recorded live event The Great Reorder. This one is chargeable, but for your purchase you also get my global forecast for late 2025 and 2026 for countries like USA, Japan, Ukraine, Singapore and so on. Ok let’s get on to our topic of career transition barriers.
#1 Money
Surface Obstacle: Air Era / Purpose-driven career ‘cannot replace my salary’.
For most people, your Air Era career transition constitutes a career change into a new industry or role that you have zero or little experience in – if you compare this to the salary you earn at a job where you have many years of experience, and expect to earn the same income, this is fundamentally quite unrealistic.
Ironically, there are those for whom an Air-Era / Purpose-driven career can actually earn MORE in income that a conventional Earth Era job. Certainly there are those who earn less than in their conventional jobs, but my point is the two careers you’re comparing are probably in completely DIFFERENT things, possibly serving a completely different market or needs, so it doesn’t make sense to expect one to pay exactly the same as the other.
Surface Obstacle: I’ll have to eat my savings if I take on a purposeful career
I’ve observed that many people think that a purpose-driven career means you’re doing charity work for free. Freelancers and self-employed people get paid, it’s not free. Now I know that for some of you…
Surface Obstacle: The work I want to do doesn’t earn much
This can certainly be the case, especially if you’re looking to serve a demographic that can’t afford to pay you much. However, there are a few counter-arguments to that thought.
– 1) You don’t just do one thing. Employees have one job. Freelancers can combine a number of things that come with its own revenue.
– 2) Unlike in your Earth Era job, as a freelancer you’re not stuck selling entire weeks and months of your life to a company. Your time is yours and it’s up to you to allocate it accordingly. This thing you wanna do that ‘doesn’t earn much’ won’t cost you 5 days a week, 9 hours per day. Which means that you can:
– 3) Combine different work for different target audience. A coach can do group coaching for at-risk teens at the neighbourhood twice a week for a low-income group, it’s true they won’t be able to pay much, but within the same week also take 7 other coaching sessions with bank execs who can afford to pay you at or even above the market rate. Or your other projects may not even be coaching related. Maybe you also design jewelry on the side, or teach a guitar class. Remember, in the Air Era you are no longer limited by having only one job, so you don’t die-die need every project to pay a full-time salary.
Surface Obstacle: There’s no income stability
This is actually not necessarily true. You can address income stability with two approaches:
- Lots of freelancers work on retainer basis, so there can be income coming in on a monthly/quarterly basis, such as Youtube videographer, social media managers. This works if you like to do a regular work scope, but if you’re the type who likes some variety of projects, then you can try
- Having a pipeline of projects – I personally know of freelance software developers and graphic designers who are so booked up with projects one after another they have to decline projects! I know many of you are fearful of the need to find projects, and that is a REAL obstacle I’ll address later in the video.
Self-employment income may be unstable in the sense that you may not bring in the exact same amount every month, but that also means there is a possibility for some months to bring in a bumper crop! depending on what projects you are doing, which you DO have control over.
#2 Security
Surface Obstacle: There’s no job security
Ok , so we have to address the irony that while freelancing and self-employment has always been associated with job insecurity, the truth is that my students and clients who have Earth Era jobs are telling me that jobs are increasingly insecure in their industries. Many are on contract, not perm-job status, which means that nowadays it’s the employees who have no job security. As a freelancer, you actually better retention over customers because you have a personal relationship with your clients, and you understand their needs and you probably customised some kind of service for them or their projects.
Freelancers also can plan and manage for when projects come to an end. In contrast, many employees are just one piece in a large organisation, your work is not customised and if you leave someone else will just come in and do the exact same job you did ie you are replaceable, and are unlikely to have any control or warning as to when a retrenchment letter may come your way.
#3 Lifestyle
Real Obstacle: Taking a pay cut scares me
Now I’ve found that rather than money being a problem in itself, the real issue with pay is a psychological one. So many people struggle with feeling that they have to pay a resource and lifestyle price for having a purposeful career. Which is not true, by the way – as I’ve said many self-employed people make more than their original job. But in the short run, yes, you’re very likely to bring in less monthly than what you used to.
So the big question is: Is this ‘pay cut’ an actual practical concern? As in, are you actually going to have problems paying for your meals, rent, bills? Or is it a psychological concern? As in, you just feel insecure that you used to see a dollar amount on your payslip and the new income is just a lower number.
Real Obstacle: I can’t give up my Earth Era lifestyle
You know what I mean. The Earth Era lifestyle comes with a lot of money sinks of unnecessary expenditure, major examples: lavish weddings, excessive home renovations, 5-star hotel staycations, business class plane tickets, branded accessories etc. There’s a major difference between ‘need’ and ‘want’. Earth Era concepts like upgrading to the biggest home you can afford, owning multiple properties you don’t need, owning a car… these things belong to ‘want’, not ‘need’.
Here’s something you may not have considered before. In my experience, once you’re in a purposeful, freelance career, you have no need to buy ‘rewards’ and compensations for suffering through a job you don’t love, things like bags, luxury electronics, latest phone model, vacations 3 times a year. It’s strange, but the craving for these ‘treats’ disappear when you’re actually in a purposeful job you don’t need a vacation from.
I’m not saying you have to give up all luxuries in life and live like a beggar. I eat at restaurants and go on holidays too. And of course, everyone is entitled to whatever lifestyle you would like to have, plus going self-employed doesn’t mean you won’t be able to afford these material trappings. My point is that you don’t want to give up the prospect of having a truly meaningful career just because you can’t give up luxuries like flying business class.
Real Obstacle: I don’t want to have a public profile.
Some people avoid self-employment because you think you need to be a live streamer, a social media personality, show your face on camera like what I’m doing now. That’s not true at all – for example, someone is filming me now, as I speak. Someone edits my video into smaller clips, someone writes the text that goes on my website and other marketing material. Someone posts all of this on my social media channels, and there are people who help me at events etc. All of them are freelancers, and almost none of them are required to be in front of the camera, ever. If you’re uncomfortable putting your face out there, there’s a wide range of services you can perform without being the face of the operation.
#4 Lack of Skills
Real Obstacle: I’m terrified of being on my own.
This stems from many years of being part of large organisations where you might only do one main job, while other people take care of the myriad of functions in the rest of the organisation. Most people have the idea that being a freelancer means you’re completely on your own, but that’s not true at all.
If you’re the loner, independent type who finds it a hassle to work with other humans, then yes, you CAN do everything as a one-man/woman show if you want.
Or you can collaborate with other freelancers who take care of business functions you’re not great with or that you don’t wish to do. You can team up with other freelancers to offer a joint service. You can cultivate multiple groups of people that you occasionally do projects with. Which brings me to another layer of the issue, which is:
Real Obstacle: I don’t KNOW other people I can collaborate with.
And this is a real obstacle, since most employees only hang out with other employees. If you are an Earth Era employee, chances are you never had to put in effort to find people to work with, because they were ready made for you when you joined the organisation. This passive style of work interaction could mean that you may lack basic skills of active networking, so in the Air Era you may want to pick up skills like participating in communities, joining professional groups, networking with other freelancers.
Real Obstacle: I’m not convinced I can really help people get results
And you’ll never be convinced as long as you stay in your current job and don’t start gaining experience in the new realm. You can do endless personality tests, see a hundred astrologers to ask ‘What am I really good at?’ and be told over and over again that you’d be awesome at something, but until you’ve seen actual people benefit from the magic you do, you’ll never be convinced. So it’s a chicken and egg thing: you’ll never know until you try, and you don’t even try cos you’re terrified of failing.
What I recommend is, start now, start today. If you’re not sure if you’re really that good, do it for free, do it for a token fee, do it for a free lunch, do it in return for feedback/comments. And don’t just try it once, try it ten times. Then reflect, improve it, and try it another ten times. Nobody gets it right the first time, that only happens in Hollywood movies. Before you know it, you’ve gained experience doing it 20 times, and you now have a good idea of what works better, and what sucks and doesn’t work at all. The worst thing you can do is give excuses and not try at all.
Ultimate Obstacle: I don’t know what I’d be capable of building
And it comes down to that, isn’t it? If you’re like most people, your career paths thus far would have been dictated by your past work exp, your education, immediate salary needs. If you’re like most people, you probably never gave too much thought to your interests, passions, what contribution or cause you’d like to serve in society.
What is really strange for me is how many people are afraid of, and actively avoid confronting the question of : What would you like to do with your life? I think most people DO have a good idea of what that might be; it’s just that they laugh it off as some unrealistic, unattainable career choice, just because it’s somewhat uncommon or unconventional.
Lots of people joke that they’d just live a tai tai lifestyle, travel, go for manicures etc., and there certainly are vacuous people like that, but if you’ve made it this far in the video, I know you’re not one of them. Most people want to make a meaningful contribution to society, and yes, they do want to make a reasonable, legitimate living out of their efforts. And while I was critical of those who spend their resources hankering after 5-star hotels and branded bags, most people don’t care for those things, and just want to live a simple life with their loved ones. I don’t think it’s a crazy idea that you can do something useful for society, serve people and causes you care about, charge a legitimate fee for your service, cover your basic expenses and a little more. When I put it that way, it really, really doesn’t sound crazy at all.
How would I suggest addressing the missing piece of the puzzle of: What do you do with your life? I’m an astrologer who’s spent decades now helping people discover that missing piece: based on your birth chart, which shows your skills, personality, priorities, life force, what can you do, where do you go, and who do you serve. We then use this information to work backwards and make a practical plan – perhaps you need to acquire some skills, meet specific people, join specific organisations, set up a specific type of business. If this is something you want to do, you can certainly sign up to attend my astrology course or come for a personal consultation – you can find links in the description. If you genuinely are interested in self-discovery I heartily recommend taking the course, because there I have time to cover everything, but I know most people want a quick fix answer, so you can go for a consultation with me as an alternative. Send us a Whatsapp message and we’ll be happy to walk you through your available options.
If you don’t like astrology and you know of other methods to help you find your purpose, go ahead, but do it. I recommend astrology, not just because I do it, but because I know astrology delivers a much more comprehensive, specific and purpose-driven answer than other profiling tools that just talk about preferences or personality or career suggestions.
If you’ve been an employee for most, or all, of your adult life, the ‘price’ to pay for self-employment seems like a massive and scary risk, much easier and comfortable to simply stay where you are, where the salary is regular and the work scope and work mates are all ready made, provided for you.
However, being an employee comes with a price too: you get no self-defintion, no right to choose your customers and beneficiaries, no real control over your earnings, no control over how, when or why you do the things you do – in other words, you didn’t just sell your time and labour for your salary, you sold your right to individual freedom as well.
The biggest problem now is that this is a very bad time to be an employee. If we’re still in the Earth Era and you have 20-30 years worth of it to ride it out until your retirement, then I would have said that yes, continuing to be an employee is a viable strategy. But the Earth Era ended in 2020, the Covid year, and traditional employment is no longer a viable plan. My dentist told me there’s already a machine that exists in the world that can clean human teeth, and if they can automate that, then they probably can already automate whatever it is that you do as an employee. There is no more Earth Era for you to ride out. You simply cannot assume that being an employee is a viable option for you long term.
This was a really long video, and I promise you I didn’t just film this to sell courses or consultations. In fact, I covered some very real obstacles of career transitions in today’s content, and I am seriously considering starting a community for self-employed people of all trades and skills, for both established as well as newbie freelancers, to solve the practical problems of freelancer networking, and to help people acquire some very basic skills to set up business of their own, things like how to structure a product or service or marketing your services. I’d like to hear from you, are you an existing self-employed person or aspiring to be one, would you want to join such a community, and what functions would you like this community to serve? Share your ideas with me in the comments, and I’ll see you guys in the next one.