Midlife Career Change: When Your Career No Longer Feels Right

You worked hard to get here.

You built your career, gained experience, earned respect, navigated changes, raised families, met deadlines, solved problems, and probably handled more than anyone will ever know.

So why does the career you worked so hard for sometimes leave you wondering:

Is this really what I want for the next five or ten years?

It can be a confusing question, especially when nothing is terribly wrong.

Maybe you have a good job. You’re good at what you do. You appreciate the income and security you’ve created.

And yet, something feels different.

When Success Starts to Change

For years, success may have meant getting the promotion, earning more money, leading the team, building expertise, or simply proving to yourself that you could do it.

But somewhere along the way, the definition can begin to shift. You may find yourself wanting more flexibility and less responsibility. More meaning and fewer meetings. More time for family, travel, creativity, health, or the things you’ve continually pushed to “someday.”

Maybe you still want to work – but differently.

That doesn’t mean your career was wrong or that everything you’ve accomplished suddenly matters less.

It may simply mean you are changing.

Pay Attention to the Questions

Sometimes the first sign isn’t a grand revelation.

It’s a question.

• What would I do if I didn’t have to do this?
• Do I really want another promotion?
• Why am I working this hard?
• What would I love to have more time for?
• What am I waiting for?

Or maybe it’s simply:

What’s next for me?

We tend to push these questions aside because we don’t have an immediate answer.

But perhaps we don’t need one.

You Don’t Need to Make a Leap

There’s a tendency to think career change has to begin with a decision.

Quit the job. Start the business. Go back to school. Move somewhere new.

I think there’s a step before all of that.

Curiosity.

What if, instead of immediately trying to decide what you should do next, you simply started paying attention to what you’re wanting more of?

Notice what gives you energy.

Notice what you envy – in a good way – when you see someone else doing something interesting.

Notice the conversations that make you light up.

Notice what you keep saying you’ll do “when you have more time.”

And notice what you’re increasingly unwilling to tolerate.

There are clues there.

Maybe You Don’t Need the Answer Yet

One of the things I love about this stage of life is that we have something our younger selves didn’t have.

Experience.

We know ourselves better. We know what we’re good at. We’ve survived things that once seemed impossible. And hopefully, we’re becoming a little less interested in living according to someone else’s definition of success.

Maybe the question isn’t:

What should I do with the rest of my career?

Maybe it’s:

What do I want the next chapter of my life to look and feel like?

That’s a much bigger question. And it’s one I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I’ll be exploring it more in my next article.

For Now, I’d Love for You to Sit with This:

If you didn’t have to know how you would make it happen, what would you want more of in your next chapter? I’d love to hear your answer.