Once upon a time, Michael Lord practiced law, Susie Horgan’s life was a soap opera, and Dan Southern was one big showman.

And then they left it all behind. Switching careers happens…for a multitude of reasons.

 “Usually what precipitates a career change is some sort of dissatisfaction with your current job or career,” says Julie Jansen, a Stamford, Connecticut-based career coach and author of I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Know It’s Not This (Penguin Books). A pervasive unhappiness, a change in your industry, or a feeling of boredom and lack of meaning can be a call to action. Some may look for a change rather early in their working lives (Jansen says that many of her clients are in their 30s), while others may have their eye on retirement (the other common age group Jansen sees are in their 50s) and want something different for whatever work years remain.

Attempting to check the numbers on career changes throughout a person’s life, I came up empty-handed. This is due to the fact that the folks at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) have a hard time defining just what constitutes a “career change.” A person may be laid off and temporarily wait tables. Another may have a new job description or promotion, but stay within the same company. Yet someone else may take on a second job at night to make ends meet. One statistic I found says the average person can expect to change careers three to five times in his or her lifetime.

Wilton resident Kathy Caprino, M.A., a life and empowerment coach and a former co-founder of Living in Harmony—The Center for Emotional Health located in Westport, Connecticut—is the author of the upcoming book, Breakdown, Breakthrough: The Professional Woman’s Guide to Claiming a Life of Passion, Power, and Purpose (Berrett-Koehler, Fall 2008). Caprino experienced a career change herself, leaving the corporate world behind after 18 years, to become a life coach and career transition consultant. She says that especially around midlife, individuals can suddenly realize all they’ve worked for and achieved looks very different when viewed from the eyes of a 45-year-old. “Longings for meaning, purpose, fulfillment, contribution, balance, joy, health, and inner peace become stronger in midlife, urging us to take a different course than would have been compelling in our 30s,” she explains.

My own personal career change began in 1998, when my two children began preparing for their change: college. I had given up my career in advertising for full-time parenting after my first son was born in 1986. And I knew that once my home no longer rang with the racket of two boys, I would need something more to satisfy me. I anticipated long, lonely days and searched deep inside myself to come up with a way to maintain a connection to the outside world; a way to combine working at something meaningful with something I loved. So, I made a decision to return to school for a graduate degree. Three years later, degree behind me, I began to trudge down the necessary circuitous roads to launch my new career as a freelance writer.

No matter how you define “career change,” one thing is clear: these Wilton residents have managed to take courageous steps, sometimes operating on passion alone, to move their lives in new and often unknown directions. Though the leap can be daunting at first, a combination of faith and trust that something better lies on the other side makes it rewarding in the end.

Their stories are varied and interesting, proving that if you just have “one life to live” you’ve got to be happy in your career!