Become a Career Shapeshifter: 5 Benefits of Career Shapeshifter

Shapeshifting is a phenomenon loved by mythologists and fantasy writers. In layman’s terms, it is a process of changing one’s physical form to another being. Here, we are not concerned with the mythology of shapeshifters, but the real shapeshifters who exist among us. I call them career shapeshifters. These are the people who shift their career identity according to the circumstances prevailing in their surroundings. While many people think that having expertise in a particular area helps them in a long run, career shapeshifters on the other side do not agree with that. They see the world as a place filled with different opportunities should be taken to survive by creating the best possible circumstances.

Ever heard of immortality? Since the concept is hard to grasp for mortal beings, it is generally explained in fiction as having more than one life. Even if one is lost, the immortal reincarnate to live another new life. Having more than one career offer you that feeling of living several lives in one single life. For example, I had my first career life as a pharmacist. My second life was as an international diplomat. My third life was as an investment banker. Currently I live my fourth life as an entrepreneur, life Coach & author.

Career shapeshifting offers the following benefits:

1- Ultimate Control

It is a blessing to be in more control of your life than the external circumstances doing that. In an event like the pandemic, we saw people becoming helpless as their only career got lost in a few minutes. However, career shapeshifters simply turned to other careers to make their ends meet. No employer could discourage them by controlling their jobs, and they successfully diverted their attention to a career that was relevant to circumstances.

2- Adaptation

Shapeshifters have the courage and dispositions to change their identity in the time of need. On the other hand, non-shapeshifters neither change their identity nor build the courage to deal with the crisis. It can be understood by looking at the animal kingdom. “Raccoon”, classified as a generalist animal, can live anywhere and its diet is determined by the environment around it. The diet consists of almost anything you can imagine, fruits, plants, nuts, berries, eggs, insects, frogs, and rodents. With this kind of lifestyle, the chances of surviving are very high when changes and crises happen.

On the other hand, a specialist animal-like “Koala” which lives only in a specific forest and eats only a specific tree leaves has little to no chances of survival when change hits. They eat eucalyptus plant leaves that also fulfill their water needs and they do not have to climb down the tree for water. This habit diminishes their chances of being adaptive and increases the threats around them manifolds. Similar is the case with a shapeshifter and non-shapeshifter. A specialist or non-shapeshifter may not survive the change no matter how well off he or she was in the past. However, a generalist or shapeshifter can easily and smoothly do that.

3- Competetive edge

Shapeshifters also do this by their ability to quickly learn various skills. While many people think that only a person with high intellectual capacity can use different skills, it is more of a matter of learning and hard work. In the end, it comes down to how you can create new opportunities for yourself all the time and be ready for any change.

4- Foresightedness

When you become a career shapeshifter, you become unafraid of the future. Maybe a non-shapeshifter never wears the future glasses to foresee what would happen in the future due to uncertain and stressful conditions, shapeshifters keep track of the ever changing employment market. The world is quickly moving towards digital solutions and only up-to-date knowledge and skills can help a person evolve successfully. This understanding is high among the people who are career shapeshifters. They can forecast the change that is about to happen and prepare themselves to embrace this change. On the other hand, non- shapeshifters will find it hard to predict or read the change before it happens, because they are accustomed to the status quo and the only one thing or career they used to do in their lives. When it does, they are too afraid to react or respond to it effectively.

5- Breaking the monotony

Research has shown that a tedious and monotonous routine leads to burnout because learning becomes limited. Due to routine tasks and assignments, people stop making effort to achieve something and experience something new. With career shapeshifting, people are engaged in a variety of projects of different nature. They test their boundaries and challenge their comfort zones. At the end of this effort, we get entrepreneurs who bring a real solution to the problems of the world.