If you want to stay exactly where you are, this is your playbook.
My business coach Tim Brownson recently wrote a blog about all the marketing mistakes he makes as an established coach. Things he knows he should do, but doesn’t. Things he can get away with because he’s been doing this for 20 years.
It made me laugh because it was so honest.
And it got me thinking about the career version.
Because I talk to people every single week who know something isn’t working. They’ve felt it for a while and know they should do something about it, but they’re really, REALLY good at convincing themselves to stay put.
So here are 10 things you should absolutely keep doing if you never want to feel excited about your career again.
I’m being sarcastic, obviously. But only slightly!
1. Keep telling yourself “it’s just a phase“
You’ve been saying this for two years now. Maybe three.
“It’ll pass. I just need a holiday. Things will pick up after this project. I’m probably just tired.”
And sure, sometimes you ARE just tired, but if the feeling comes back every single time the holiday buzz wears off, that’s not a phase. That’s information.
2. Don’t talk to anyone about how you’re feeling
Especially not your partner, your friends, or anyone who might actually say “yeah, you’ve been saying this for a while now.”
Keep it inside. Overthink it alone at 10pm on a Sunday. Google “career change at 38” at midnight and then close the tab before anyone sees.
That’s a totally sustainable strategy.
3. Keep comparing yourself to your colleagues who seem “fine”
They seem to enjoy the meetings. They seem energised by the strategy days. They laugh at the team drinks and talk about their projects with genuine enthusiasm.
So clearly the problem is you, right?
Except you don’t actually know what’s going on for them. You’re comparing your inside to their outside and the people who seem most fine are sometimes the ones furthest from asking themselves what they actually want.
4. Wait for the perfect job to magically appear
Don’t do any work to figure out what you want. Don’t reflect on what’s changed. Don’t explore what kind of role would actually fit who you are now.
Just wait. Keep scrolling LinkedIn, hoping that one day a job ad will pop up and you’ll feel a bolt of lightning that says “THAT. That’s the one.”
It doesn’t work like that, by the way. But waiting is very comfortable, so I get the appeal.
5. Stay because the salary is good
This is probably the most common one I hear.
“I can’t leave, I earn too much.” Or the slightly more honest version: “I’m scared I won’t earn this anywhere else.”
The salary becomes a golden cage and the longer you stay, the harder it feels to leave, because your lifestyle adjusts and the gap between what you earn and what you think you’d earn somewhere else gets wider in your head.
Here’s the thing though. Most people I work with don’t end up earning less, they end up earning the same or more, because they’re finally in a role where their energy and their strengths are actually aligned.
6. Assume every job will feel like this one
“It’s just work and work isn’t supposed to be fun.”
I hear this a lot. And honestly, there is some truth to this. Work isn’t supposed to be a party every day.
But there’s a massive difference between “work is hard” and “I dread Monday morning.” There’s a difference between being stretched and being drained.
If you assume every job will feel the same, you’ll never test that assumption. And you might be wrong. You might be very wrong.
7. Keep doing what you’re good at, even though you’ve stopped caring about it
This is a sneaky one.
You’re good at it. People praise you for it. You’ve built your whole reputation around it.
But somewhere along the way, the thing you were good at stopped being the thing you cared about. You’re performing, delivering results, hitting targets, getting promoted, yet none of it feels like it belongs to you anymore.
Being good at something is not the same as being in the right role. Those are two very different things.
8. Don’t ask yourself what you actually want
This is the big one everyone avoids.
Because the honest answer might mean you have to do something about it. And doing something about it is terrifying.
So instead, you focus on what you don’t want. “I don’t want to be stressed. I don’t want to dread Sundays. I don’t want to feel this flat.”
But “away from” thinking only gets you out of a bad situation. It doesn’t get you into a good one. You need to know what you’re moving towards, not just what you’re running from.
9. Keep saying “at least I have a good job”
Gratitude is great. I’m a fan.
But using gratitude as a reason not to want more? That’s not gratitude, that’s guilt.
You can be thankful for what you have AND want something different. Those two things are allowed to exist at the same time.
The people who say “at least I have a good job” are usually the ones who feel most guilty about wanting something else. As if wanting more makes them ungrateful. It doesn’t, it makes them human!
10. Wait until your body makes the decision for you
This is the one that worries me.
Because I’ve seen what happens when people wait too long. The anxiety gets worse, the sleep gets worse, the Sunday dread turns into something heavier.
Until one day, their body or their mental health makes the decision they wouldn’t make for themselves.
You don’t have to wait for that. You’re allowed to make a change before you hit a wall.
In all seriousness
If you’ve read this far and recognised yourself in more than a couple of these, that’s not a coincidence. That’s a signal.
You don’t need to quit your job tomorrow and you definitely don’t need to have it all figured out. But you do need to start being honest with yourself about what’s actually going on.
The first step isn’t a dramatic career pivot, it’s usually much smaller than that. It’s sitting down and asking yourself: “What would I want if I wasn’t scared?”
And then actually listening to the answer.
If you’d like help figuring out your next step click here to book a call with me and let’s discuss where you feel stuck and what you can do about that. Or feel free to check out my Career Clarity Intensive. It’s designed for exactly this: people who know something needs to change but aren’t sure what, or how.