Are You Experiencing A Mid-Career Crisis?

Have you ever woken up one morning and dreaded getting out of bed?

Not the usual pull of wanting to stay warm, snuggled up under the covers but something deep within yourself.

Perhaps you feel like you’re behind in life, or that you’re not optimising your potential.

Perhaps you miss the days when opportunities seemed to be abundant, and progression was easy and organic.

Maybe you feel sick of the office politics and the inauthenticity of being told to help your team manage their work-life balance when you haven’t taken a day off in the last 6 or 12 months.?

And if you are anything like me when I felt these things in my first career, you probably want to throw in the towel and go in an entirely different direction! Perhaps you have been dreaming of leaving the industry all together and open a small coffee shop or work in a florist because surely that would be easier, and you-just-need-to-close-down-the-tabs-in-your-brain-NOW!?

Welcome to the mid-career crisis??

Much like a mid-life crisis it’s where we yearn for new and exciting things again because we feel like we’ve lost our magic, our spark.

We want a change of scenery, a change in routine, a change in income anything to get a little fresh energy back!

Full disclosure, I’ve been there, and my mid-career crisis saw me take off around Europe writing a food blog with visions of creating a book and some kind of wellbeing-food type business...

A wonderful experience that brought fresh energy for a while but there were 2 key issues. It didn’t solve the real issue. Me. And it abandoned the years of work and effort that it took to reach my current level of success and leadership... and, take it from someone that did make the leap eventually beyond the mid-career crisis, it can take just as long to reach a similar point in the new industry or career.

Don’t’ leap from a place of fear?

What we must think about during this mid-career crisis is that we are probably exhausted, frustrated, over-it, (insert your word here), and that isn’t always the best place to be making decisions from. There’s a real watch out if we ‘just-want-to-get-out’ and we jump into a new role / industry / career…then we are trying to prove and create a name for ourselves all over again which can take years AND lots of energy that you may not have.?

But for many of you who just panicked at the thought of starting over then I want to reassure you that change doesn’t have to be an all or nothing affair. It doesn’t need to be a dive into the deep unknown, but rather a smart sidestep in a new direction.

It’s possible to thrive right where you are?

Because the truth of the situation is that many of us can thrive exactly where we are, but right now we’re just too stuck in the weeds to see the way out.

A sidestep could be transferring to a new department, it could be working more closely with your team to re-delegate tasks based on Strengths so everyone’s day is a little more energised, or it could be as simple as shifting your mindset.?

3-steps on the pathway to thrive?

1. Stop and look within?- A lot of the fear and panic that we experience comes from comparing our path to others, feeling left behind or stuck. Changing your mindset is key to overcoming this feeling. Rather than looking at external factors or others, we need to look within. At the factors that are within our control to regain our sense of purpose and direction. To identify our strengths and get back to the elements we love.?

2. Re-build your boundaries to re-energise?- Additionally, this panic and sense of crisis can come when we are feeling burnt-out and simply can’t imagine moving at this same pace for another 5 years. The way to regain your energy and your spark is to create clear boundaries that help you create a sense of space between your work and your personal life.

3. Create real clarity?- The final step is you need to get laser focused on where you DO want to be in 5 years’ time. The mid-career crisis offer happens when we get excited by shiny things or promises that are too good to be true (trust me as the partner of a chef who opened a café & coffee shop it is a lot of hard work and may even be more stressful than your current job if you don’t fix the first two things I mentioned above). So, creating a clear plan of growth and development for yourself both in a professional and personal capacity is vital for breaking out of crisis mode and back into a more conscious and measured approach to evolving your career path.

And if you need help overcoming this crisis, reinstating boundaries, finding clarity, and building your confidence that you can make the right transition then I can help.

I’ve worked these steps successfully myself and I have now worked with 100s of leaders on these 3-steps to help them make sustainable transitions and step ups and I’m about to work with 10 more on my upcoming Luminous Leader? program.

We already have some amazing managers and leaders joining us with only 3 spots left in this group coaching program starting in April. If this story of the mid-career crisis has resonated with you or, there’s a flight-risk in your team that you sense is making decisions from a place of fear and not purpose then?reach out to me via email?and we can provide more information and chat.?