Why not now?

I’ve been musing on how we think about ourselves in the context of work. What makes us feel fulfilled? What's meaningful? What do we really care about?

Mostly we do this when we’re dissatisfied. We might be starting to feel it’s time for a new role, a bigger challenge, or perhaps less of a challenge. We might not like the culture of our organisation or team. We might be struggling to build a productive relationship with our boss.

There is a tendency to push these complex, challenging thoughts to one side and hope they will resolve themselves. The boss will get less prickly, or you’ll learn to deal with them better, or a headhunter will call with the perfect job. Or if you just knuckle down and work harder, it will all get better. Won’t it?

Eventually you will be propelled into action because your wait-and-see strategy won’t actually change much and you will reach the point where you can’t ignore your unhappiness any longer. At that point, any passing job starts to look appealing, simply for the escape hatch it might offer. Any port in a storm, right?

Except that means grasping at the nearest available thing, not the right thing. You are so desperate to stop feeling like this that you are prepared to make significant compromises just to get yourself into a new environment and away from this pain.

But what if you spent the time now, before it gets that bad, working out what you really want? Giving yourself the space to investigate, explore, talk to people (headhunters, former colleagues, your professional network) about what’s out there and what might be possible? Going to job interviews with an inquiring mindset, not a get-me-out-of-here attitude. It changes the way you come across during the interview and it means you have the possibility to say no to things that aren’t right, because you know what you’re looking for, things are still bearable, and you’re prepared to wait.

In the meantime, you can attempt to change the dynamics of the situation you’re in. If you know you're ready to leave, then a conversation with your boss about your poor working relationship or how bored/stressed/unsatisfied you are becomes much less scary. What have you got to lose by asking for what you really want?

It might feel luxurious, investing time and, perhaps, money in yourself when things are sort of not that bad. But making it a priority now, before it gets to crisis point, significantly increases your chances of a better outcome and is likely to produce a positive conclusion much earlier than if you try to pretend it’s not happening. Why get to breaking point before taking action? Why waste those precious days, months, years of your life waiting for divine intervention?

If you think I can help you clarify your priorities, values, what fulfils you, what you really want in your working life, do please drop me a message and let’s talk.