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Change takes time because we usually have to cycle through identifying and testing possibilities a few times, asking better questions with each round of tests, crafting better experiments, and building on what we have learned before. Two different rhythms regulate this cycle.

Speed is of the essence in moving from making a list of possible selves-in our heads or on paper to actually testing any one of them. If it seems that relatively few people make the career changes they dream about it is because many of us just don't take the first step. Which self we test hardly matters; small steps like embarking on a new project or going to a night course can ignite a process that changes everything.

But, paradoxically, it is usually better to slow down in the testing phase, investing enough time to explore even those selves that seem less promising. We need time to fully internalize the self-knowledge we are accumulating with each experience. Even when taking our time seems unproductive, it is hardly so; we are mov­ing away from outdated images of what we "ought" to be, of meeting expectations or pleasing others-the hidden foundation that dictated our old working identity-and moving toward greater self-direction.'

The reinvention process challenges us to redefine ourselves. Contrary to popular belief, working our identities is not an exercise in abstraction or introspection; it is a messy trial-and-error process of learning by doing in which experience in the here and now (not in the distant past) helps to evolve our ideas about what is plausible-and desirable. The most typical problem at mid-career is not defining what kind of work we find enjoyable and meaningful.

Rather, it is figuring out how to transfer old preferences and values to new and different contexts and how to integrate those with changing priorities and newly blooming potential. It is a problem of recombining and re-anchoring. And the "solution" is never the job change itself. Self-creation is a life-long journey. Only by our actions do we learn who we want to be­come, how best to travel, and what else will need to change to ease the way.

Variations on the Theme: Not all reinvention stories start alike. Some clients quit their jobs to make space before they figure out what they want to do next; others stay, if only nominally, in old roles until the leap is a forgone conclusion. Which of these two paths our clients take is partially determined by the nature of their old career.

Generally, professionals - consultants, lawyers, financial services professionals, academics, and, to a lesser degree, physicians - are much more likely to continue in their jobs until the new identity is close to fully formed, or at least to withhold quitting until a pos­sible avenue is fairly well defined. Professionals also seem to have an easier time finding ideas for a new career. The reasons have little to do with graduate-education credentials and much to do with the nature of professional work. Professionals simply have more autonomy over their work schedules than do most other occupational groups. They can come into the office late or leave early and take days off when they need them (of course, the quid pro quo includes long hours, missed vacations, and taking work home over weekends). Professionals always have at least one foot on the outside-in their work with clients and their frequent interaction with members of the same profession in the world at large-and that always helps when it comes to reinvention.

Managers bogged down by all manner of internal meetings typically do not have a fraction of that freedom or flexibility. Con­sequently, they are more likely to suffer from tunnel vision more likely to need to stop, rest up, and refuel before starting to think about something new. Executive education courses play such a catalytic role for managers precisely because they get them out of the office. That tunnel vision, however, is also the reason why executive programs often involve enough time away to awaken a desire for change but rarely last long enough to point to a new direction.

Finding additional ways of stepping back is especially critical for this population; negotiating sabbaticals, chunking up vacations, moving to freelance work, or simply chucking it all without a safety net, are frequently used tactics by managers wanting to move on to the next thing.

The less time available to craft experiments, shift professional connections, and make sense of it all, the more people may need a longer time-out; creative take time and space to surface. Some clients end up taking more than one sabbatical: one to recharge batteries, another to focus on finding the new career. Clients who have lost their jobs (even if they have taken a voluntary severance package) are at the greatest risk of short-circuiting the process, since they don't have the option of staggering their time-outs.

Carving a smaller time-out within a longer fallow period-declaring a three-month moratorium on talking to headhunters or working the job sites, during which clients give themselves permission to explore things they enjoy doing even though they are unlikely leads to a next career-can make all the difference in the mind-set clients bring to the transition process.'

Mid-career transitioners need to reverse the "thinking before doing" logic to successfully change careers. That is not easy to do or to explain in our goal-driven society. Taking a sabbatical or going back to school is a socially accepted, "legitimate" way to dedicate themselves to exploration, to following crooked paths. Freed from the everyday working world, detours and serendipity become possible. A sabbatical temporarily suspends the rules and demarcates a protected milieu in which clients can toy with possibilities, knowing they will return to reality again soon. In the interim, they can test unformed, even risky or conflicting, identities in a secure environment, incubating provisional identities until they are ready to claim one or more as truly who they are now.

Women tend to make more use of time-outs as reinvention strategies than men, for simple social and economic reasons. Across cultures and occupation groups, it is still more acceptable for a woman to say that she is taking time to "find herself" than it is for a man. It is also more likely to be economically feasible, one way or another. Even in highly educated, relatively affluent circles, men are still more likely to be the primary breadwinners. But that is changing, and we have several instances in which members of a couple took turns at reinvention.

Obviously, the larger context matters, too. Societal cycles of economic prosperity and social change can affect the timing and form of professional renewal. Our experience and observation confirm however that the process of renewal unfolds similarly in both good and leaner economic times.

Another dimension on which to compare and contrast experiences concerns the outcomes of the career changes. We are asked one question more frequently than any other: Did anyone regret the move into the new? Many clients said they made at least one "wrong" move. But they learned from their mistakes and moved on to something else, adjusting their course based on their experiences.

Clients did make trade-offs: Some struggled with lower incomes when they chose to pursue their passion, and others gave up some measure of challenge or intellectual stimulation in pursuit of a more secure future. But we encountered great regret only from those who failed to act, who were unable or unwilling to put their dreams to the test and to find out for themselves if there were bet­ter alternatives. The only wrong move consisted of no move.

So can anyone, regardless of education, social class, or gender, make a major change at midcareer? Our experiences suggest that the answer is yes. The real question is, "Under what conditions are people able to break with the past and plunge into a new and happier future? "

There is no ten-point plan for making a career change. But we have noticed some important general guidelines. The section called Unconventional Strategies distills those guidelines as a set of nine unconventional strategies for reinventing your career: act, then reflect; flirt with your selves; live the contradictions; make big change in small steps; experiment with new roles; find people who are what you want to be; don't wait for a catalyst; step back periodically but not for too long; and seize windows of opportunity.