You spent years training for what you thought would be your lifes work. You were excited, inspired or maybe you just wanted to be able to support yourself and your family. But now you feel disillusioned and feel guilty for feeling disillusioned!

There are at least four reasons for your heart not to be in the field of work for which you trained.

First, the circumstances of the job are not what you expected. Sometimes you get disillusioned by the circumstances in which you have to perform the work. These circumstances were never intended to be part of the job and they may be caused by the economy or by the growth of bureaucracy or by any number of reasons. I think of many nurses who are crying out over this situation at present.

Second, you learn things about the job that you didnt know when you started. Sometimes you discover things about the profession that you had no way of knowing when you studied for it. So much goes on behind the scenes in any career, and most of those aspects of the work can only be learned on the job.

Third, there are things you didnt know about yourself. If you are an alive human being, you are constantly growing and changing. Throughout life we keep learning more about ourselves. You may discover that something you loved as a hobby is oppressive when you try to do it as a career.

Fourth, for you, the season has passed. Sometimes you simply discover that FOR YOU, the time for that calling, that enthusiasm, that career, has passed and it is time for something else. The Jerusalem Bible that translates Ecclesiastes chapter 3 in the Hebrew Bible something like this: "to everything there is a season and a time for every occupation ..." A change of season, whether in the economy or in you, doesn't mean you made the wrong choice when you chose your first training and your first career. That may have been exactly right for you at that time.

Whether you are burned out or laid off, this is a time for re-evaluating your circumstances and for listening more carefully to the divine voice within. Burnout, disillusionment -- and even fulfillment -- all have something to teach us.

The statistics change regularly but continue to show that adults should expect to change not only their jobs but their field of work several times during a lifetime! Soreplace your disillusionment with the expectation that this is the first (or second or ) of several changes you are likely to make!