How to Get Unstuck with Your Career Pivot

Are You Stuck in a Negative Loop About Making a Career Change?

I talk with many good people motivated to change their career vectors but unsure of what to do or even how to get started. As a result, they do nothing.

They’re stuck.

Maybe you’re stuck as well.

Frequently overheard:

It feels risky and frightening.
You’re unclear about what you might do next, much less how to replace your income.
You have responsibilities and can’t afford a financial interruption.
People close to you might disapprove of what they perceive as your reckless behavior.
You have too many ideas and don’t know how to sort through them and prioritize.
It’s not the right time.

I hear the above many times monthly as I engage with individuals interested in doing something different and seeking help getting unstuck. It’s frustrating for them (you), and frankly, it’s frustrating for me that so many good people end up wasting the time of their careers in roles, professions, and organizations they no longer fit.

Is It Time to Get Out of the Mud and Muck of Your Current Career Stage?

But it doesn’t have to be this way. You don’t have to stay stuck in the soul-sucking mud of your current career, wondering how to climb out and head in a fresh direction. Here are some critical lessons from coaching hundreds of professionals through their career pivots.

Tips to Help You Get Unstuck with Your Career Pivot

1. Give Sunlight to the Negative Voices in Your Head About Career Change

One of my clients silenced the negatives in her mind by taking a sheet of paper, drawing a line down the middle, and jotting down all the reasons and risks why career change was a bad idea in the left column. On the right side, she wrote down all the reasons why it was a great idea. And then, she posted this list on the wall behind her computer screen. “Soon, I no longer saw or thought about the negatives after a while. I focused on how I would feel succeeding with this endeavor, and the right column motivated me when I felt like giving up on this project.”

Give light to your fears and risks, then do the same with the positives. There’s something interesting that happens when you enumerate the risks. They lose their power over you. They become items to mitigate, not blockers to keep you trapped.

2. Stop the “Cart Before Horse” Thinking

I get the impression from many of the individuals I speak with about career change that the lack of clarity on what they should do “next” is the biggest blocker. It’s as if they expect they can only start on this project once they identify the absolute right new role, business, or vocation.

This is “cart before horse” thinking.

In reality, finding the right “next” is an outcome of hard work looking, involving taking stock of yourself, your superpowers, interests, and your life priorities right now and assessing the risks and opportunities of meeting your financial needs.

So, newsflash, you don’t need to start with the perfect idea to make a career pivot. Instead, start by working on a process that helps you uncover many possibilities and then guides you through selecting the right one for this stage of your life. (The method I’ve defined and employed with hundreds of professionals helps you do just this. See: The Career Reinvent Framework.)

3. No One Says You Have to Leap, So Don’t!

One of the myths of shifting careers is the need to make a sudden leap into the unknown. Once again, this is wrong-headed thinking.

The gross majority of my clients work on defining and refining their plans while they work their day jobs. Whether it’s a side hustle to prove further your idea’s viability or the time needed to advance your education, obtain certification, or complete training, you define your timeline. Manage your career pivot project to fit your life and schedule.

Two add-on comments:

Many individuals report that the work of designing their “next” makes the day job feel more palatable because they know it’s no longer forever.
There may be extenuating circumstances, such as a job loss, that challenge you to move faster on your career pivot. If this happens, assess whether it makes the best sense to leap or whether covering your financial needs while you work on your “next” via another job makes the most sense for you in your situation.

4. Accept that Some Career Pivot Projects Move in a Hop, Skip, and Jump

We put too much pressure on ourselves to find our perfect “forever” step.

Give yourself a break and accept that you might not define the end destination at this phase. You might need time, experience, and exposure to new roles, industries, or clients to assess what’s right for you.

I lived the “Hop, Skip, and Jump” approach to changing careers and loved it. Each move added knowledge, context, and contacts; I was richer for the experiences. Ultimately, it was a valued colleague in one of those settings who helped me tune in to my true sense of purpose in my life and then supported me as I shifted to where I now expect to spend the next 15 years of my career.

Sidebar: I made one bad “hop” earlier in my career and ended up in a place I truly disliked doing work that was a waste of my time. However, the contacts I made in that environment and the fact that it led to the skip to the best corporate role of my career proved priceless.

Getting Unstuck with Your Career Pivot Project–The Shortlist

Stop daydreaming and start working.
Expose the fears and risks running around your head to the light. They’re less frightening when they’re visible.
Don’t let the lack of a good idea stop you. Instead, use a process to find a lot of potentially great ideas.
Ultimately, you are in charge of deciding what’s important to you now. Identify these life-stage filters and use those to shrink your big list of ideas to a manageable few.
Explore and experiment with those ideas.
Don’t expect to find the perfect answer right away. You might have to hop, skip, and jump a bit.

There’s more to the process and project, but focusing on the above will help you start moving forward!

The Bottom Line for Now:

Getting unstuck for a career pivot takes work, but it’s easier than you might think. Most of the barriers and obstacles that keep you anchored in daydreams and inactivity for your career change are easily defeated with reframing. Don’t let the lack of an answer keep you from getting started. Work at this as I suggest, and you’ll find the answers.

Want some help jump-starting your next or to get unstuck with your career pivot? Join us for an upcoming session for the Six-Hour Career Energize Program, where I’ll help you stop the flailing and embrace a process that gets you unstuck and moving forward.