Managing The Career Doldrums 

In identifying a really satisfying and purposeful career path, there has to be a little patience. We are taught, and we might actually prefer, to be active and goal orientated. It might serve us to be achievement driven because it is a satisfying and fulfilling way to exist. We get to prove our own potency over and over, we get to complete tasks, we get to visibly succeed….. Why would we not want to be engaged in this cycle? Usually we wouldn’t.
There are times however, when to disengage is the right thing to do. I know, that might feel counterintuitive, but when your actions are getting less results than they used to, even when we are working harder, then something needs to change or we will burn out. There is a phrase “doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different outcome is insanity’. This phrase can apply to me…. When I sense some kind of resistance in a project I am doing, my first response is to push a bit harder….. And then some more….. When I review this in hindsight (what a wonderful thing that is!), usually I can identify that if I could have taken a step back, earlier, to reevaluate, I would have gone forward, further and faster in the long run.
Reevaluation time is essential for all of us. As time passes, things change, and if we don’t take the time to accommodate this then our ability to effect change and continue to enjoy our work will decline.
 It might be that your work environment is in transition. There are plenty of ‘reorganisations’ and changes in legislation happening right now. Change can lead to a fear culture or job loss or imposed extra-responsibility. 
Equally the change might be taking place within ourselves. As individuals, as we grow and refine what we believe, so our needs in our professional capacity shift too. We might be simply bored of our work as we outgrow it. We may begin to feel the pull of an ethical conflict when we identify that out personal values do not line up with those of our organisation. We might have had a life changing event, death, divorce, new parenthood, that induces a real shift in our priorities. Continuing to do the same old thing in the same old way will no longer be fruitful.
So when you notice that work is ‘harder’ than it was in the past, or when you notice that the day drags and things that once felt like real achievements are now mundane, when you find you only go to work for the money, perhaps instead of ploughing on, as we ‘should’, this is the time to investigate and identify what bit of our work is no longer lining up. Once we know what’s changed we can choose what to do with it in a way that suits us. When you career lines up from roots to crown then work will become a pleasure once again. 

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