I've just started the second year of my two-year sabbatical, or to be more precise, special one-year leave until the end of next September. Like on sabbatical I'm exempt from teaching, but unlike on sabbatical I'm also be exempt from research and free to do whatever work I want. Having received a certificate as a professional life coach about three months ago, I've just started my experimental practice of Jewish life coaching online as well as the teaching of online courses that can hopefully supplement it. All of them are meant for speakers of Japanese.
The period of the so-called ten days of repentance between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur was a perfective time to reflect upon what seems to be my seventh professional shift and its implications. I also recalled the previous six ones and their respective obstacles I had to get over. These seven shifts are as follows:
- Age 18: Starting to major in language instead of some type of engineering as I planned before
- Age 22: Continuing my graduate study of linguistics
- Age 25: Continuing my PhD in Hebrew linguistics in Israel
- Age 30: Leaving Israel for Japan and starting to look for a permenent position at any Japanese university
- Age 41: Leaving Japan for Israel and starting to work as a lecturer in Hebrew linguistics at an Israeli university
- Age 46: Receiving tenure at the same university
- Age 57 (at the end of this one-year special leave): Leaving this university, hence academia and linguistics for Jewish life coaching
Though I'm still at the crossroads in this seventh professional shift, I can already say that it's the most significant one so far in that it also involves a fundamental change in the area and type of work - from academia to a helping profession, and from being an employee to being a self-employed.
As I moved from one shift to another, I encountered more and more difficult obstacles. What seems to be the most insurmountable obstacle in this seventh shift is also a totally new one to me - client acquisition. I knew in advance that it wouldn't be easy to find new clients, but this task has turned out to be far more difficult in the meanwhile. I've decided to hire a specialist to get over this obstacle, hoping that what I'll learn from him will help me accomplish the task of becoming financially self-supporting by the time I stop receiving my monthly salary in about one year. I've also been trying to implement a certain ultimate "technique" of Hasidic self-coaching, which I'd like to share with my clients-to-be in the future after verifying its efficacy on my own "flesh".
Since I decided to make this shift about a year and a half, quite a few people - mainly those in academia - have tried in vain to persuade me to reverse this decision of mine by scaring me. Through the teachings of Hasidism I started studying formally about a year ago to complement my professional training in life coaching I've come to a totally different state of consciousness and understanding, according to which I can't see any significance in the so-called academic research for myself. I can also see that no life experiences I've had so far, including the previous six chapters in my professional life, have been wasted, with each of them making some contribution, be it major or minor, to this new seventh chapter I'm daring to open.