Five Provocative Impulses for a Fresh Start in Your Career

You know a lot about the world of work.

You have spent years getting to know its intricacies: climbing the career ladder, applying for jobs, winning clients, developing your resume, going to interviews… and all the rest.

As stuck and confused as you may feel in your career change, we can say with certainty that it is not because you are not skilled at steering a career.

So what is the problem?

How is it possible that an intelligent, ambitious, capable person like you, with a good understanding of the work world, feels so completely paralyzed when it comes to finding and entering a career that doesn’t make you want to gouge your eyes out?

Perhaps it is because traditional career advice is designed to help you move up, not sideways. Perhaps it is because your career advisor in school (and your parents and most people who feel qualified to guide you in your first steps on the career ladder) trained you more thoroughly in concepts like security and speed than in heartfelt work and dealing with failure.

But it is not time for blame when there is work to be done.

So if the people, institutions, and systems that are supposed to help you are not able to, it may be time to seek inspiration elsewhere: in places that are completely detached from the work world as we know it.

In the thoughts of a dog psychologist, for example, a radio host, and a painter who is paralyzed from the neck down…

1. “We are not blind, but we wear blinders”

In 2013, she published On Looking, Eleven Walks With Expert Eyes, the story of her investigation into what opens up when you bring fresh perspectives to a familiar walk around the block.

Horowitz was astonished at how much her everyday world had become hidden under a creeping blanket of familiarity. The daily reality of her life had made the world and all its possibilities increasingly invisible to her:

“I find myself simultaneously alarmed, delighted, and humbled by the limits of my ordinary seeing. My comfort is that this lack is quite human. We see, but we do not really see: We use our eyes, yet our gaze is fleeting, superficially considering its object. We see the signs, but not their meanings. We are not blind, but we wear blinders.”

There is no escaping it: Your world (and your ideas, your perspectives, your opportunities, your skills, and even your imagination) is only as big as your experience. Even the things you can imagine are always just combinations and variations of things you already know.

And there may be opportunities for your future career right in front of you that you are overlooking.

So if you are struggling to develop ideas, techniques, possibilities, and options, it is worth considering: What are you unable to see?

And if there are options, ideas, and possibilities out there, and the only problem is that they are hidden from your view, what could you do to shed light on them?

For Horowitz, a new companion for her walk around the block was enough. She took eleven walks, each time with a new expert from a different field: an artist, an architect, a doctor… and with each fresh perspective, she discovered a whole new range of conversations and opportunities:

“The rhythm with which a man chopped onions sounded as if it could be a table tennis game, and Kalman’s face lit up at this possibility. A connection between table tennis and onion chopping was forged in my brain.”

Well, table tennis and onion chopping are probably not going to be the key to your career change. But I bet you have never thought about those two things in connection.

And I wonder what might open up in your search for fulfilling work if you would just start systematically discovering new ideas and new connections in your everyday life?

Jamie participated in our Career Change Launch Pad and discovered that even a single new experience could have a huge impact on how the work world looked to him:

“What made a huge impression was putting myself in proximity to opportunities and placing myself in different environments.

“For example, I attended an evening where a well-known adventurer was a guest speaker. He spoke about how even the smallest breaks can refresh our minds.

“Listening to this talk was my first step away from my normal life. That was huge for me. It was the first time I felt I could actually do something different, and it led me to think long and hard about the idea of using adventure as a tool for personal development.”

This led Jamie to start the process of building a business that combines short adventure breaks with coaching and personal development – something he probably would not have come up with if he had stayed in his usual rhythms as an accountant.

What could you do to see the world with fresh eyes?

Where could you go to gain a new perspective on what is available to you?

Break out of your routine. Connect onions with table tennis. Shake off your blinders.

2. “It is not your job to determine how good it is”

In 1943, dancer and choreographer Agnes de Mille choreographed the musical Oklahoma!

In the years prior, she had created a number of works that she considered all better than the choreography in Oklahoma!, but none of them had achieved the success of this award-winning musical.

She was confused. How was it possible that the world saw so much greatness in a work that she herself considered only mediocre?

She brought her confusion and frustration to Martha Graham, perhaps the most influential dance choreographer of the 20th century.

Here is what Graham had to say:

“It is not your job to determine how good it is, nor how valuable, nor how it compares to other forms of expression. It is your job to keep it clear and direct with yourself, to keep the channel open. You don’t even have to believe in yourself or your work. You just have to keep yourself open and receptive to the impulses that motivate you. Keep the channel open… no artist is satisfied.”

When I changed my career, I encountered smaller versions of de Mille’s frustrations myself.

I was convinced that it made no sense to want to become a coach. I was only 25 years old – who would take me and my work seriously?

Every time I picked up the pen to draft an article for Careershifters, I was convinced I was exposing myself to a great public humiliation. I didn’t have the experience. I wasn’t a good enough writer.

Mike, a participant in our Career Change Launch Pad, experienced something similar when he followed an inspiration and designed a short course on entrepreneurship.

“I constantly asked myself: What is good about me? What do I know that is unique and what would people want? I know nothing unique – at least that’s what I tell myself. But giving up the search for uniqueness and just starting to do something is the only way anything will happen at all. I constantly struggle with myself, but when I give up the fight and just go with what I have, it feels great. And, perhaps more importantly, it works.”

Mike’s course was picked up by a university, and the test runs he conducted with practice groups were a great success.

What Agnes de Mille, Mike, and I have all learned is that we are not very good judges of ourselves, our work, and our contribution to the world.

And as Graham explained to de Mille in the 1940s, it is not your job to judge the quality of your work. It is not your job to decide whether you are good enough to even apply for that job that excites you.

For those of you waiting for confidence and assurance to appear out of nowhere: Stop.

You do not have the right to say whether you are worthy of a career you love – certainly not before you have even tried.

Your job is simply to show up. To do the work. To share what you have to share from your current standpoint.

You will be rejected for some opportunities you apply for. You will be told that you are not experienced enough, that your portfolio does not meet the requirements, or that what you offer is not worth the price you are asking.

And that is okay. You can learn from the experiences, adjust your techniques. And you can be reassured in the knowledge that if they think you are not a good fit at the moment, they are probably right. They are most likely doing you a favor. Move on to the next.

As long as you show up, do the work, and produce what you have to offer, you are fulfilling your task. At some point, it will click.

Also be aware that this tendency to judge yourself, to question your abilities, and to dismiss ideas… it kills every last drop of chance you have. It keeps you exactly where you are.

Do what you love. Show up. Stop wasting time judging yourself and your offering. That is not your job.

It is not your business to determine how good it is.

3. “Nothing that is good is easy”

In 1936, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a letter to his daughter, who had just started high school. She was discouraged by a poor grade on a story she had written, and he responded to her in an attempt to prepare her for “the kind of things that took me years to understand.”

“No one ever became a writer just because they wanted to be… Nothing that is good is easy.”

The corner of the internet, magazines, and media that deals with career changes is full of shining faces of people who have made it to the other side.

It is wrapped in enticing-sounding things like “passionate,” “happy,” and “finally being myself.” Coaches, authors, and career change experts have wonderfully positive “You can do it!” attitudes that are inspiring and uplifting… at least for the duration of a visit to their websites.

But the reality of a career change is not just a big leap into a life full of happy montages. It is more like a series of frustrating Wednesdays, paralyzed Thursdays, and procrastinating Saturdays. It is hours of nervous attempts, weeks of dealing with failures, and, if you are lucky, a glimmer of hope shining through it all.

In ‘The Consolation of Philosophy,’ Alain de Botton speaks about Nietzsche’s consideration of this uncomfortable connection between human struggle and everything valuable:

“The most fulfilling human projects seemed inseparably linked with a certain degree of suffering, the sources of our greatest joys lay uncomfortably close to those of our greatest pains…

“Why? Because no one is able to create a great work of art without experience, nor to achieve a worldly position immediately, nor to be a great lover on the first attempt; and in the time between initial failure and subsequent success, in the gap between who we might one day want to be and who we currently are, pain, fear, envy, and humiliation must come.

“We suffer because we cannot spontaneously master the ingredients of fulfillment.”

Your career change will take time. It will require some hesitant, hopeful attempts to solidify ideas, and the realization that they are not right. It will require asking for help and getting nothing in return. It will confront you directly, face to face, with your own fears of not being good enough, not being smart enough, or not being rich enough, over and over again.

And if you want to make it to the other side and join the ranks of the happy faces, you must embrace this hard reality.

Not just accept it, but embrace it.

About three weeks after participating in our Career Change Launch Pad, Kelly sent me an email:

“I can’t believe what’s happening in my life right now! I spent last week thinking about dropping the course – it was so hard for me to try the things you asked of us. But I thought, that’s probably why I haven’t made any progress in my career change over the last few years, because I’ve been so put off by what feels too challenging.

“So I pushed through and did what you said, and I just came back from coffee with a woman who is EXACTLY doing what I want to do… and she mentioned that she wants to stay in touch because she will be hiring next month! I guess if I want things to change, I just have to accept that part of it will sometimes be uncomfortable… Doing something different will always feel uncomfortable at first, right?”

Kelly was so good at avoiding the difficult parts of a career change that she had simultaneously managed to avoid any progress. But once she gathered her courage and broke through the resistance, even in small ways, she began to see results.

At what points are you avoiding challenges and thus missing out on rewards?

Where do you encounter the “pain, fear, and humiliation” mentioned by de Botton and give up immediately?

Where could you embrace the pain, knowing that struggle is often a sign of progress?

Nothing that is good is easy.

4. “Inspiration is for amateurs”

On December 7, 1988, painter and photographer Chuck Close suffered a spinal artery collapse and a seizure that left him paralyzed from the neck down. After months of physical therapy, he regained slight movement in his arms and began painting again, with a brush strapped to his wrist.

In 2003, he gave artist Joe Fig an open interview in which he spoke about the value of work ethic and process over inspiration:

“The advice I like to give young artists or really anyone who is listening to me is not to wait for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work.

“All the best ideas come from the process; they come from the work itself. Things occur to you. If you sit around trying to come up with a great idea, you can sit there for a long time before anything happens.

“But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and then something else, and something else that you discard will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somewhat deceptive. You have the feeling you need that great idea before you can get to work, and I find that is almost never the case.”

Most people love the idea of being a rockstar. But they don’t love the idea of playing guitar for four hours a day to get there. Multi-millionaire? Yes! But building a business from the ground up and risking everything for six years to learn how to run a business? Not so much. Mindful, meditative yoga guru? They would love to be one! But sitting still every day? Cultivating a daily yoga practice? That doesn’t appeal to them.

And that’s why not more people are rockstars. That’s why not everyone is a spiritual leader.

It’s one thing to want the outcome – it’s a whole other thing to want the process.

And in a career change, you often struggle with the challenge of not really knowing what your outcome is supposed to be.

You want to work in a career you love. But you don’t really know what that career would be, and the path to it (wherever ‘there’ is) seems boring and uncomfortable.

How can you take action in your career change when you don’t really know what you want?

How can you start when you don’t know which direction to go?

Start by doing things that bring you joy. Start spending time with people who excite and inspire you. Dive into all the things that spark your interest – and if you are already doing them, look for ways to take them to a new level.

These small, individual, seemingly unrelated actions will become your process.

One action will spark an idea for another action.

You go to a course and meet someone with great advice. Or you attend a talk and see a flyer for another talk where you strike up a conversation with someone who tells you about something you never knew people got paid for. You try something else and realize it is the exact opposite of what you thought, and you sigh with relief that you will never fall into the trap of applying in that area.

Louise participated in our Career Change Launch Pad. A few months ago, we talked about taking action and how even small forays into vague possibilities opened doors she didn’t know existed.

In her words: “I found that small ideas I pursued became larger ideas.”

Louise had the feeling that mentoring and supporting people was an area worth exploring. So she took a few small steps to enter the exploration process. She spoke with a few people she knew who had coaching experience. She researched at home. And then, in the safe knowledge that she was still interested, she took a slightly larger step:

“I found a short coaching course over a long weekend that offered the opportunity to practice coaching and be among other like-minded people who turned out to be (and did) part of my ‘tribe.’ The course was exciting, a lot of fun, and I got the practical experience I wanted.

“It was surprisingly easy to make the decision to continue my training – so easy that it didn’t even feel like a decision – and I have been doing more and more coaching-related things, like writing my first marketing copy. From that small inkling of an idea, I now have my first clients!”

It is a shift in perspective – from chasing an outcome to immersing yourself in a process.

It is not about making a giant leap from one thing to another.

It is an unfolding, a revealing, a persistent working, an opening.

It is about relaxing into rhythms that nourish and inspire you, and trusting – yes, there is a bit of blind faith involved here – that these rhythms will carry you to their inevitable destination.

Follow the process.

Inspiration is for amateurs.

5. “Imagine the Unimaginable”

Debbie Millman is an author, educator, artist, and host of the podcast ‘Design Matters.’

In 2009, she published her book ‘Look Both Ways,’ which included an essay titled ‘Fail Safe.’ In it, she writes:

“Do what you love. And don’t stop until you get what you love. Work as hard as you can. Imagine the unimaginable. Don’t compromise and don’t waste time. To strive for a remarkable life, you must decide that you want one. Start now. Not in twenty years. Not in thirty years. Not in two weeks. Now.”

Life owes you nothing.

It will not rearrange itself for you.

It will not adjust your circumstances in the foreseeable future and suddenly make your career change clear, open, and timely.

You must demand what you want from it.

A career change is inherently a significant disruption. It is a reordering, a realignment, a greater adjustment.

And when your life is running smoothly along its tracks, gliding along seamlessly, and you decide to switch the tracks…

You are calling for a derailment.

And a derailment requires upheaval.

It is initially uncomfortable. That’s why there seem to be so many reasons why you can’t make a change.

A change might mean going to a talk, a course, or a networking event, and that might require a change in your schedule. It might require asking people for things you wouldn’t normally do. It might mean spending money on a coach or a course. It might require difficult conversations with your family. It might mean showing yourself to the world in a way you have never done before. It might require vulnerability or an extra dose of strength.

Those are all excellent reasons to stay exactly where you are, reading articles like this, doing what you do, and behaving as you always have. It would be very sensible to simply choose to stay on the tracks.

But if you hear the call for something more, reason will not help you respond.

If you are one of those ambitious, committed people for whom a life of mediocrity and second-best is not enough, reason will not fulfill your dreams.

Reason settles. Reason gives in.

If you are determined to make this year the year you finally feel motivated, inspired, and fulfilled by what you do, it is time to get a little unreasonable.

Yes, you may need to change your schedule. Yes, you may need to spend some money. Yes, you may need to find new friends, have tricky conversations with your family, and push the boundaries of your comfort zone.

And in the context of a life you love, that is probably not too much to ask.

Which of these pieces of advice resonates with you the most? And what could you do this week to put it into practice? Let me know in the comments below!