Turning Tragedy Into Triumph With An Encore Career

It is coming up to the one year anniversary of the day that changed my life forever, so today I want to talk to you a little bit about turning tragedy into triumph with an encore career. Instead of mourning an ending, you can celebrate a beginning! I am doing just that, and eagerly look forward to helping others do the same.

In just about three weeks from now it will be a year since the day that took away my profession of thirty years, suddenly without warning, and with a startling finality. Of course that finality is all in retrospect. In real time, the weeks dragged on, one after another, with dwindling hopes of being able to return to the job that I really loved in cardiovascular nursing. That profession, and especially the dream job of my last twelve years, had a perfect balance of social interaction: working with people, coaching and encouraging, teaching and “cheerleading,” and as a part of an excellent team; and intellectual challenges in both the interpersonal and technological areas.

It was when my FMLA expired with my vision still impaired by damage to my cornea, my physical exhaustion carving hours out of the time that I could be active on any given day, and the nerve damage, brain damage really, with severe and constant pain, that required me to take serious pain medication day and night, that it began to dawn on me that my doctors were very unsure how to help and that I clearly needed to be considering the possibility of an encore career. Clearly, any encore career I could even dream about was going to have to be in a very different area of work and would have some stringent requirements, since it was obvious that my number one priority for many months was going to have to be recovery and a path to regaining health and wellness.

Having spent 30 years working as a cardiovascular nurse in the hospital setting, it had been a very long time since I had been thinking about learning new skills or developing natural talents. And to be very honest, I had never really thought about pursuing a career that allowed me to prioritize my health, or even myself. I had always worked at what was available, related to my education, and fit in as much as possible with the rest of my life situation. Most of my working life I was a single parent and didn't have the luxury of much choice in my work life. Necessity drove my work choices.

What an entirely unique experience to think about an encore career at such a very different stage of life! Now that my son is launched and raising his own family, my needs are simpler and less pressing. Now it is a luxury to consider what I really enjoy doing and explore interests and talents that were essentially unused for decades that might contribute to my financial well being and supplement my income in retirement. I had been assuming that my retirement would be seven or eight years in the future, not just around the corner!

Come back tomorrow for the best part of the story from the Encore Career Entrepreneur…………..

Katie Munch

P.S. If you are one of those individuals who skips ahead and reads the end of the story first and then goes back and reads the whole book, (CLICK HERE),  and listen to my friend and partner, Matt, share some valuable information with you in a free video. You can still come back here again for another exciting episode of my story. It'll be here waiting for you. LOL