Chris Judd on the challenges of leaving football

One thing you can be sure about in life is change. A career can change dramatically throughout a lifetime, and occasionally, that transition comes naturally. But more often than not, a career shift can require some mental adjustment, too.

When I retired from playing football, I found flexibility, visualisation and patience absolutely critical in helping me work out where I was going next.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time since I retired thinking about why so many players struggle so much when they leave the game. Retirement from elite sport is a time in your life when there are multiple significant changes occurring at once. Loss of income, structure, fitness, purpose and camaraderie are all challenges retiring footballers face at the same time.

The other thing that occurs which doesn’t get spoken about as much, is the loss of status and the importance that holds for people. From the day players are first drafted, they’re treated as special by people around them, which eventually leads to players thinking positively about themselves as the increase in social status provides a positive feedback loop. The inverse of this holds true for footballers in retiriement, while still the same people, are no longer treated the same way by others, leaving many to question their self worth.

I think in a lot of ways, it’s the same for anyone going through a job change or retirement who’s been heavily focused on their work and linked their identity to their profession. You’re faced with that same essential loss of status – being around people who need you, or who look to you for something every day.

No matter what kind of work you’ve done, or where you’re going, if you can find a way to be flexible and open up your thinking about yourself, it can make all the difference when it’s time to take a new course.

When my time as a footballer was wrapping up, something I found useful was visualising the kind of week that would make me happy – other than kicking a footy around every day! I looked to other things I enjoyed – things I hadn’t necessarily thought about turning into a career before.

Today’s society defines success as reaching the top of your chosen profession, while personal success could be defined as the amount of time you get to dedicate to things that make you content. If you don’t find contentment chasing the things that society values, stop chasing them.

When taking a new career path, make sure it’s something you’re actually good at, or at least have the potential to be good at. There may be pressure coming at you from others to do what they want, or you might even be putting pressure on yourself to do something you think you should be good at. But your best bet is to work out where your skills really lie, and focus on that.

At one point, I had this dream of becoming an entrepreneur after football. Most of my role models – the people I admired the most in business – were entrepreneurs in a commercial sense. So for a long time, I thought that's what I should aspire to be, even though it really wasn't suited to my skill set. Honestly, if I’d started a business, it would have been a total disaster. The realities of such a job – things like managing others, dealing with human resources and facing a never-ending surge of emails every day – just wouldn’t suit me at all.

What I am better suited to is investing. I first got into in it as a 20-year-old, but it still took time for me to realise that it was what I should do for work after I retired from the field. Sometimes the only way your career question is going to be answered is if you give it time to reveal itself.

Anyone making any kind of huge career change shouldn’t expect to find their perfect path within a month. It took me two years to work out that investing was the right work for me. In hindsight, that choice should've been really obvious, but at the time it just wasn't. After footy, I worked as an analyst for a venture capital fund, and it was through doing that work that my next steps became clear.

Some people really attach their identity to a particular job, and that’s understandable if you’re doing something you love. I missed footy a lot when I retired, especially competing and the camaraderie with my teammates. So it was important that I gave myself time to process once that part of my career was done, so I could focus when it was time to move on to the next thing. Now, more than ever, I feel like people’s careers are all over the place – changing industries, changing areas of interest. There’s more freedom to try more things, so if you find something you like, and you’re good at it – great! Give it a go. You might just surprise – and delight – yourself.

Former Australian Rules footballer Chris Judd is familiar with how to get your heart rate up and push yourself physically. Twice winner of the prestigious Brownlow Medal, Chris is an honoured sportsman and father to four children, Oscar, Billie, Tom and Darcy. The information in this article is general information only and is not intended as medical, health, nutritional or other advice. You should obtain professional advice from a medical or health practitioner in relation to your own personal circumstances.