How to cure mid-career anxiety in a single step

One of my good friends, the talented Jackie Dent who runs Clear Spot Club has been conducting a study asking people ‘WTF are you doing with your life?’. It’s a great little project and acknowledges the struggle many of us face in answering this vexing question - particularly as the years go by.  

Over the last few years I’ve spent some time on a similarly life altering question:

 I want to do something different in my career but what do, I do and where do I start?’

Eventually I found a way to solve this puzzle, which saw me not only upend my own career, but motivated me to change course and help other people succeed in theirs. 

While it can be a problem that plagues you early in your career, it can be particularly perplexing when you get to 30-something and even more so at 40-something. 

Often at the start of working life, career decisions can be characterised as happy (or not so happy) accidents. As time goes on, your values and priorities shift and your perspective on work changes. You gather new experiences, age weary wisdom and a desire for more meaning. You accumulate partners and babies and debt (amongst other things). You find yourself contending with a crappy boss or crazy politics. You start to find out who you really are and figure out that work as you know it no longer really serves you. 

And so, the problem of ‘I want to do something different but I don’t know what to do or where to start’ goes from being a dull ache that presents as a minor inconvenience, to a head splitting migraine that can’t be ignored. 

So, what do you do? How do you cure the affliction of mid-career anxiety?

Here’s my suggestion. 

DO SOMETHING.

Just. Do. Some. Thing.

One thing. 

And no, I’m not being facetious. The biggest challenge in answering this question lies in the fact you either don't know where to begin or you're completely overwhelmed by it; you’re convinced you need to keep digging for the answer, and then a month goes by, then a year and before you know it it’s been two years and you’re still waking up in the middle of the night thinking about it but no closer to a solution. 

So what can you do in 2020 to take action? 

Here a few ideas:

1. Identify your ONE thing

What’s ONE thing you can do straight away to help you move through this impasse? Something you can do tomorrow. Like enrol in that course you’ve been thinking about, or get clear on your strengths, meet with someone who you admire and seek their advice, or start writing your vision for 2020 (Email me and I’ll share my Year of Possibility exercise with you). 

And then ask what’s the ONE thing about this that’s creating the most anxiety for you (and don’t say your job)? What are some ways you might overcome this? Write down as many options as you can think of. And then when you can’t think of any more, write another one. Pick the one that’s easiest and the one you’re most excited about and decide how to action them both. 

2. Make a habit of it 

Turn your ONE thing into a habit. Goals are helpful for setting directions and intentions, but as author and serial careerist Scott Adams has pointed out, systems thinking is much more effective for making progress. Decide to do something every day or even every week. Action starts with a decision. And a commitment to do a particular behaviour at a specific time and location (James Clear has some great thoughts on this in his book Atomic Habits).

In my previous job-hunting days, I made a simple commitment to do one thing every day: an email to an old colleague, a scour of LinkedIn, a coffee meeting. It’s hard to find an excuse for not doing ‘one thing’ every day, so at the end of your first month you’ll be 30 steps closer to your next thing. Action builds confidence, and confidence builds action.  

3. Figure out your values

This is probably the most important thing you can do (it’s why I keep banging on about it). Along with beliefs, values are the most influential drivers of conscious decision-making. So, when life is out of whack (or in flow) it typically comes down to alignment to your values. Once you are clear on these, you’ll find over time that you’ll make better decisions, become more self-aware and more actively seek out the things that are important to you which adds up to a more satisfying life and career. You can download the my Values exercise here – no email required. 

4. Max your network

Think not just about who’s in your network, but who’s in your network’s network (yes, I did just say that but you know what I mean).

When I was job hunting several years ago I set myself a goal to have 20 coffees in 40 days (if lunch is more your thing, check out Kaley Chu and her ‘Lunch with 100 strangers’). It was a way of reconnecting myself with the market, and figuring out what the right opportunity might be. At the end of every meeting, I’d always ask if there was anyone else my coffee date could connect me with. Nowadays, LinkedIn can provide this same connection shortcut. But remember to think beyond your immediate circle.

The truth is that creating the career you want and getting a job that you’re going to be happy in, is 100% down to taking action. Don’t get hung up on things like finding your passion or needing to find your ‘true self’. Passion often comes through succeeding at something. And there’s no one ‘true career’ for each of us, there are multiple possibilities.  

Action unlocks possibility. 

“Adults are more likely to act their way into a new way of thinking, than think their way into a new way of acting” - Richard Pascale

Interested in working with me to design your version of a happy, successful 21st century career? Apply for my Career 2020 program or email me on [email protected] and let's chat.