What challenges are you facing in your career? Are you considering a new job or different career path? Are you feeling overwhelmed at work? Are you struggling to find a healthy work-life balance? Have you relocated and found it difficult to adjust to the local culture?
Our careers present us with many trials and tribulations, and international careers can be even more challenging. This is a topic Dominic Junghaenel, founder of Mindful Career, knows a thing or two about.
Seeing challenges as growth opportunities
Back in 2010, after graduating from university in his home country of Switzerland, Dominic was offered a job at an international company in Tokyo. While he was excited about the idea of living in Japan, he was also anxious about leaving friends and family behind, adjusting to a culture so different from his own, and the pressure of doing well in his first full-time job.
At one point, he felt so overwhelmed that he almost decided not to go. He recalls: “My fears were pretty intense. There was the fear of the unknown, the fear of change, but also the fear of failure; what if I didn’t make it? What if I had to admit defeat and return to Switzerland?”
Overcoming fear to pursue your career goals
Mindful Career has a mission to help others build a successful and meaningful career
In the end, his fascination was stronger than his fears. He moved to Japan and ended up living there for over 10 years. Dominic eventually became a Senior Manager at a cross-cultural marketing agency in Tokyo, and for many years he would travel extensively all over the world to establish partnerships with the agency’s clients and customers while leading a team of people from various cultures.
Looking back, he says: “Moving to Japan was the best decision of my life, even though I struggled a lot. I often thought that staying in Switzerland would’ve been the easier path. But deep down, I knew that the one feeling worse than all the fears I had experienced was regret.”
“Life is basically a series of challenges, and each time we’re faced with a new one, we need to decide whether and how we take it on. The key is to shift our mindset and see challenges as an opportunity for growth.”
Achieving clarity and building confidence
After returning to Switzerland in 2021, Dominic established Mindful Career with a mission to support others in overcoming their challenges to create a successful and fulfilling career. The two pillars of his coaching process are clarity and confidence.
“Clarity means figuring out who we are and what we want,” he explains. “Working with my clients, we dig deep to really get to the core of that. Clarity is the foundation for everything else, like establishing a vision or setting good goals.”
Confidence is about building the courage to move forward. “I was 40 years old and had two young children. Many told me this was not the right time to start my own company. And I had my own doubts; I couldn’t see myself as an entrepreneur, “I don’t have what it takes to be successful on my own” was a thought that was somehow stuck in my mind,” Dominic recalls. In coaching, this is referred to as limiting beliefs - false beliefs that prevent us from pursuing our goals.
Moving forward with Mindful Career
Identifying and removing limiting beliefs while having absolute clarity about his core values and his mission were what eventually allowed Dominic to achieve his goal of being self-employed in a profession that provides him with meaning and purpose. It’s why he is so passionate about sharing his experiences and helping his clients achieve their own version of success.
If there are any challenges that are holding you back from having a career (and life!) you really want, then book a free, non-binding call with Mindful Career today.
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