A Change of Career

So farewell, then, the daily grind and the never-ending battle to survive. On Thursday I left my job as a Human Resources Officer to embark on a new, different and certainly exciting career. For I am training to become a hypnotherapist and counsellor. The course, which runs for three years in total, is run by Chrysalis who specialise in training people wishing to become hypnotherapists and counsellors.

Having spent more than seven years at my place of work, the time is right for me to move on. The daily grind, the daily battle against bureaucracy and the constant frustration has taken its toll. If you no longer enjoy what you’re doing then it’s time to do something about it. The same applies to life in general – if something isn’t working then you have to fix it.

When I finish my training my new career promises much. I started at Queen Margaret University just outside Edinburgh last November and the coursework is challenging but exciting and gives me a sense of achievement even at this relatively early stage in the three year course. With a lot of hard work and a bit of luck I hope to fully qualify as a hypnotherapist by the end of this year. Then, with even more hard work and quite a lot of luck, I aim to be running my own practice this time next year while spending a further two years training to be a counsellor.

I’ve had a lot of support from people I didn’t really expect and for this I am really appreciative. Of course, being Scotland, I’ve had a few cheeky comments including one from my former Managing Director who asked if I had put the Cowdenbeath defence under a trance when they recently lost 10-0 to the mighty Heart of Midlothian; at least two other people thought I had been in a trance for years and one person thought I had left months ago…thanks, folks.

My immediate aim is to catch up on my studies which have lapsed slightly due to recent events (getting married, Hearts winning the Championship, the price of alcohol coming down…) I shall be spending the next few weeks getting up to speed, as it were. At least I can now fully concentrate on doing this.

I know some people have questioned my sanity to give up my full-time job, especially having recently got married for the second time. But the change to my personal circumstances in recent years means I can afford to take this chance. I am wholly determined to succeed and make a success of my new career. The bigger risk would have been to remain unhappy in a high-pressure job and run the very real possibility of it affecting my health.

In the hugely successful BBC television comedy Only Fools and Horses, the main character Derek ‘Del Boy’ Trotter used to say ‘this time next year we’ll be millionaires’. This time next year I won’t be a millionaire (unless I win the lottery) but I do intend to be in control of my professional life and doing something worthwhile which will make a huge positive difference to people’s lives.

And, crucially, doing something I know I’m going to love.

2015 has already been a great year for the Auld Reekie Ranter. I just know, professionally, it’s going to get even better.