By Nicola Pease
Are you feeling stuck in your career? In your job? Or in your profession? This happens so frequently that there’s even a maths equation to show your degree of stuckness! Who’d have thought it! Nicola helps to show that just one step in the right direction can help you get that momentum back.
Being unhappy in your career can show up in so many ways – it could make you anxious, stressed, detached, lethargic, emotional, sad, snappy. And it can affect your confidence. You start to question yourself – is this it? Is there more to life than this? What if I can’t get another job? I can’t leave this company they’ve treated me well or the benefits are good.
Making that change happen can feel impossible – the effort of changing your job, your company or your career can feel so huge that it creates a level of resistance to that change – is it really worth it?
So, you just keep on going. You keep on doing a good job, showing up for your team and making it work as best you can.
It’s so frustrating isn’t it? You know that you aren’t happy. You know that something needs to change.
But making that change happen can feel impossible – the effort of changing your job, your company or your career can feel so huge that it creates a level of resistance to that change – is it really worth it? Maybe you should just stick it out a bit longer? You find yourself stuck in this cycle of wanting to change but not changing anything.
Here’s the maths part…!
There’s even an equation that helps to explain it:
(D + V + F) >R
To lay that out for you in more detail that is:
The sum of Dissatisfaction with the status quo + Vision of a positive future state + First Steps in the Direction of that vision must be greater than the Resistance to Change.
It makes sense, right? If you haven’t got a clear vision of what that future can look like or you don’t know what the first step is towards that future, then all you really have is that feeling of being unhappy with where you are now. With no clear way out of that, your resistance to change is going to be pretty high.
And that’s why you are feeling stuck.
You need a plan!
To get yourself out of this cycle, what you need is a plan. You need a clear vision of what you want your future career, job, and company to be like:
- How will it feel?
- What will you enjoy?
- Where will it take you?
- What’s the ripple effect of your dream job or career on the rest of your life?
Once you have that vision of what the future could look like you then need a clear set of actions that will take you towards that goal. You don’t need to know all the steps right now. You just need the first steps – what’s the next thing you need to do to take you closer to that overall goal?
What you need is a plan to take you from where you are now to where you want to be. That will allow you to re-balance the equation and get out of the career stalemate you find yourself in.
Nicola Pease is an ICF accredited Coach, helping women in Leadership positions to achieve their career ambitions without giving up the life that they want. Learn more about her on our Team Page.